BSAFE: Blue Mountains Sustainable Approaches to Fire and Emergencies: A community Action Model to build resilience, improve preparedness and enhance self-responsibility

The aim of BSAFE (Blue Mountains Sustainable Approaches to Fire and Emergencies) was to:
•review existing preparedness programs in the Blue Mountains LGA,
•gather and analyse participants and partner agency responses to, and evaluations of, each fire preparedness program,
•synthesize the best approaches from the identified successful components of each program and the resonant household narratives,
•build an exemplar model based on adaptability and transferability to other localities, and thus enhance community sustainability, and
•develop tools for and indicators of improved community resilience, capacity and engagement, risk mitigation and household preparedness in the context of natural disaster and emergency.
Preparedness programs evaluated under the BSAFE project have directly reached almost 700 households within the Blue Mountains, NSW. Although there were three different programs, all were aimed at enabling people to think about and commit to household preparedness measures. The three programs were: Meet Your Street, More Than a Fire Plan and Heads Up for Fire. The BSAFE research involved program coordinators and participants from all three programs. Data collection activities were designed to measure changes in household engagement with preparedness activities as a result of attending one of the three preparedness programs.
The findings of BSAFE demonstrate that more household preparedness events have been held in 2014-2015 and more households have been reached on the issue of bushfire preparedness, than in previous years. After the 2013 bushfires in the Blue Mountains a unique partnership was formed between community organisations and emergency services and this has contributed to a greater and more successful outreach than previously possible.