Capturing community bushfire readiness: Post-bushfire interview studies 2009 - 2014

This Hazard Note provides a summary of seven post-bushfire interview studies conducted in Victoria, Western Australia, Tasmania and New South Wales from 2009-2014.

The studies were conducted at the request of fire agencies in those states, and their purpose was to inform agencies about how residents understood bushfire risk, planned and prepared for a possible bushfire, and responded to a serious bushfire event.

Key findings show that a significant percentage of residents interviewed did not believe that they were at-risk and neither planned nor prepared for a possible bushfire, and that only 5% of the 1760 people interviewed had a written bushfire survival plan.