LESSONS LEARNT FROM THE ACT FIRES:
AN ISSUES PAPER
SEPTEMBER 2003
CONTENTS
OVERVIEW .......................................................................................... 3
INTRODUCTION................................................................................... 4
EVACUATION AND SHORT TERM ISSUES ............................................. 5
Media and communication ..................................................................... 5
Emergency Services ............................................................................. 6
Evacuation centres ............................................................................... 8
Difficulties for vulnerable groups ............................................................ 9
Volunteer management ....................................................................... 11
Donated Goods ................................................................................... 12
RECOVERY AND LONGER TERM ISSUES ............................................. 13
Staffing issues/Community Sector issues ............................................... 13
The Recovery Centre ........................................................................... 14
Housing issues ................................................................................... 15
CONCLUSION ..................................................................................... 16
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OVERVIEW
The ACT Council of Social Service Inc. (ACTCOSS) is the peak representative
body for not-for-profit community organisations and disadvantaged and lowincome citizens of the Australian Capital Territory. ACTCOSS is a member of
the nationwide COSS network, made up of each of the State Councils and the
national body, the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS).
ACTCOSS has the twin roles of representation and advocacy. The Council's
objectives are the representation of people living with disadvantage, the
promotion of equitable social policy and the development of a professional,
cohesive and effective community sector.
The membership of the Council includes the majority of community based
service providers in the social welfare area, a range of community associations
and networks, self-help and consumer groups and interested individuals.
Contact Details
Phone:
Fax:
Mail:
E-mail:
WWW:
Location:
02 6248-7566
02 6247-7175
PO Box 195 Civic Square ACT 2608
actcoss@actcoss.org.au
http://www.actcoss.org.au
Jamieson House
43 Constitution Avenue
Reid ACT 2612
Director:
Mr Daniel Stubbs
September 2003
© Copyright ACT Council of Social Service Incorporated
This publication is copyright, apart from use by those agencies
for which it has been produced. Non-profit associations and groups
have permission to reproduce parts of this publication as long as the
original meaning is retained and proper credit is given to the ACT
Council of Social Service Inc (ACTCOSS). All other individuals and
agencies seeking to reproduce material from this publication should
obtain the permission of the Director of ACTCOSS.
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INTRODUCTION
On January 18, 2003, Canberra was devastated by a firestorm that had
developed over ten days from three small, distant bushfires, generated by
lightning strikes. Four lives were lost and over 500 residential properties
were destroyed and many more damaged, while a number of businesses,
community facilities, rural properties, and nature reserves were also
destroyed or badly damaged. Much of the western and southern regions
surrounding the ACT were also destroyed in the weeks that the fires burned
out of control.
Since January 18 ACTCOSS has carried out a number of community meetings
and has been talking to the community sector about the issues and concerns
that arose from the direct response to the emergency, as well as those that
arose in responding to longer term recovery needs for individuals and the
wider community. This issues paper draws on those meetings and
discussions and aims to highlight some of these concerns.
ACTCOSS puts forward the following issues and recommendations as a
constructive critique. It is not aimed at any individuals or groups specifically.
ACTCOSS is grateful to the extremely hard work and dedication of all those
involved. This paper is designed to contribute to planning for how the
Territory might face a disaster better next time.
EVACUATION AND SHORT TERM ISSUES
A number of concerns and issues arose in the days immediately following
the fires. These have been grouped under the headings Media and
Communication; Emergency Services; Evacuation Centres; and Difficulties
for Vulnerable Groups;
Media and communication
Information provided by the broadcast media was considered by many to be
broad and inaccurate. It has been reported that commercial radio and TV
were alarmist in their approach to disseminating information about the fires.
This caused confusion amongst the elderly, people from non-English speaking
backgrounds and the hearing impaired. Comments were not forthcoming
about print media.
Shoppers and cinema goers at Woden Plaza reported that on the day of the
fires, they were unaware of the severity of the situation. Information and
updates broadcast through the shopping centre would have been
appreciated. This raises the issue of emergency alerts being too narrowly
broadcast.
There was an identified lack of clear information about the location of
evacuees. This caused distress and family separation. This was particularly
pronounced when some evacuation centres came under threat and were
closed.
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Recommendations:

Evaluate the communication strategy and work in collaboration with
the local and national media on improvements. An official media
person (e.g. media representative – nominated by the local media)
could be written into disaster response plans and participate in all
coordination meetings.

Develop communications and emergency alert strategies that include
major gathering points, such as shopping centres, clubs and sporting
venues.

Residential facilities for people who are ill, frail aged or disabled need
to be assisted with emergency plans to ensure that communication
with relatives and support networks is as accurate as can be under
emergency circumstances.
Emergency Services
Ambulance services were fully deployed to fire affected areas. Consequently,
individuals requiring ambulances for non-fire related issues were unable to
access the ambulance service or reach emergency departments of local
hospitals.
The Red Cross Personal Alarm Service experienced problems due to the
extended power cuts in Weston Creek area. The battery back up for these
personal alarm units was only available for 24 hours. Consequently, a Red
Cross worker was required to personally visit clients to charge individual
units. This situation raises concerns around staff resources and personal
safety issues for clients.
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The existing disaster management plan was not able to respond to a disaster
of this magnitude.
Although most organisations coped well under the circumstances, it was
apparent that there was a need to develop more comprehensive
disaster/emergency management plans in collaboration with building owners.
ACTCOSS understands that the ACT Government is rewriting the ACT
Emergency Management Plan. It is also understood that this plan will require
a greater involvement by non-government community service organisations.
This is a necessary development that the community sector is willing to
support. Nevertheless, because of the diverse nature of the community
sector there needs to be an underpinning plan to support, coordinate and
enable appropriate involvement by community organisations.
The development of a community services plan will need thorough resourcing
and support by government to ensure that it is integrated with the
government's Emergency Management Plan. There may also need to be
support provided to organisations to put together their own emergency
operations plans and these will need to mesh with the sector wide plans.
Recommendations:

Sector wide disaster management plans will need to mesh with
government and individual organisation plans. To enable emergency
management plans at all three levels to mesh for the community
sector ACTCOSS calls on the government to resource a process of
development of these plans.
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
The next disaster management plan for the ACT needs to develop
strategies to augment emergency transport options during crises. This
may include calling in assistance from interstate, in a similar way as
bushfire brigades come to assist in fighting fires, or developing local
transport networks that can be called upon in an emergency.

The new emergency plan also needs to factor in assistance for
community groups and building owners to develop their own
emergency plans and crisis communication plans.
Evacuation centres
There were concerns raised about the processes in place at a number of
Evacuation Centres at the time of the fires. These included:

Difficulty in ascertaining the chain of command at the centre on the
night;

Poor coordination of evacuation processes;

Lack of traffic wardens to direct vehicles who were dropping people off
at the centre; and

A lack of understanding of the requirements of older persons and
people with a disability - e.g. appropriate bedding was not acquired,
toilet facilities were minimal and accessibility of the buildings was
inadequate.
The problem was compounded as emergency services were fully occupied
with the immediate threat so could not take a role in coordinating the
activities of the evacuation centres.
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Furthermore, a high turnover of staff during the early stages of the
emergency meant that there was a lack of continuity in staff - evacuee
relationships with staff were fractured and this caused some distress among
the more vulnerable groups.
Recommendations

In planning for future emergencies, it is important to identify and
designate buildings of a certain standard as evacuation centres and
make the public aware of their location.

There is also a need to develop protocols for evacuation centres to
ensure that people with special needs (e.g. frail aged, people with
disabilities) can be appropriately catered for.

Some people would need to be sent to places other than the
evacuation centres provided due to their special needs.

The emergency plan needs to address the turnover of volunteers to
ensure maximum support for evacuees with particular needs.

Measures need to be in place to prevent ignition of evacuation centres.
Difficulties for vulnerable groups
There was concern that people from non-English speaking backgrounds,
those with cognitive impairment or disabilities and the elderly may have had
difficulty in understanding the messages that were coming through radio
broadcasts. Furthermore, people on alert may have been isolated, bed bound
or without transport and thus could not act on messages. As an example, a
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number of elderly people who were unable to clear rubbish from their
properties received abusive messages from their neighbours.
A lack of building accessibility also meant that many people with disabilities
were further isolated during the emergency period.
Many people with disabilities living within the community (rather than group
homes), also reported that they did not receive information on where to
access assistance.
Recommendations

Prepare a bulletin advising people about assistance available

Set up voluntary register for people who will be contacted and offered
appropriate support in case of disaster including people with
disabilities, the frail aged, those from a non-English speaking
background.

Develop principles/protocols for making decisions for vulnerable
groups in disaster situations such as people with disabilities, the frail
aged, those from a non-English speaking background.

Look at other supports people need when they leave their house

Provide guidance and education around what to do in an emergency
e.g ensuring respirators are taken to recovery centres, turning off
wheelchair chargers. This information could also be made available to
Canberra Connect telephone operators.

Advertise the TTY number for people to ring in emergencies.
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
Create separate emergency contact numbers for major languages with
information about this service available through Canberra Connect.

Consider the needs of people from non-English speaking backgrounds
and if necessary develop a separate strategy.

Anticipate the support needs of the vulnerable and link these with
existing services. e.g, food requirements can be met by Meals on
Wheels Service.
Volunteer management
Following the fires, there was a huge response from people wanting to
volunteer their services. Unfortunately there was a lack of volunteer
infrastructure, including coordination, insurance coverage, and logistics to
link areas of need with offers of help. It was also recognised that the location
of rallying point(s) for volunteers needs to be away from the affected area.
Recommendations

A strategy should be developed to coordinate and support ad hoc
volunteers who come forward to assist in emergency situations. This
would involve empowering an organisation to run and coordinate
volunteers in conjunction with the evacuation and recovery effort and
would be located appropriately away from the disaster.
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Donated Goods
At the time of the fires, major charities were inundated with generous
donations of goods. However, the task of dealing with the donations was
difficult to coordinate due to the large number of donations, lack of storage,
no immediate demand for many of the donations and the poor quality of
many of the donations. ACTCOSS appreciates that this is a difficult area to
address and that all emergency managers grapple with this issue.
Recommendations

A centralised donation collection point or points (to cover regional
transport issues) needs to be established to coordinate the donation
and distribution of goods. This could be a collaboration of the major
charities.

At the time of emergency, a public announcement needs to be made
stating the need for donations of money rather than of goods.
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RECOVERY AND LONGER TERM ISSUES
Staffing issues/Community Sector issues
Frontline community sector workers reported feeling that they were under
increasing pressure during the fire emergency. They were not only dealing
with existing clients but with new, bushfire affected clients. Many also had to
deal with their own homes being threatened.
At the time there was a concern that there may be overwhelming demand for
services and that the workers did not have clear guidelines to make decisions
about prioritising need - ‘who was more deserving’. Furthermore, agencies
reported that there was a lot of anxiety and stress for clients immediately
following the fires. This meant on top of their normal responsibilities, staff
spent considerable time reassuring clients.
In previous years, January has typically been a slow month - workers are on
holidays or are planning for the year ahead. However, due to the need to
respond to the fires, many staff lost regeneration time through loss of leave
or planning time. Community sector organisations are now reporting a
second wave of exhaustion and burnout among staff.
Organisations providing financial counselling are reporting that many fireaffected individuals are making financial decisions under stress and are
increasing the use of their credit cards. Demands for financial counselling and
debt management are expected to increase in the next 6 months.
The fires have highlighted the value of the community sector, but have also
served to identify long term issues for community sector viability. It is
apparent that there is a lack of adequate funding for the community sector to
respond to need and increased demand created by the fires.
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Recommendations

Community sector workers should be given an opportunity to debrief
and should be encouraged to access counselling.

As recommended in ACTCOSS’ 2003-04 Budget submission, additional
funding should be provided to community services to ensure that staff
are able to access debriefing, and to ensure their experience is not lost
in the development of a new emergency response plan for the
Territory.
The Recovery Centre
The model of individualised support provided at the Recovery Centre has
been well received. This was an excellent example of normal bureaucratic
processes being put to one side in order to get through a crisis. There are
many elements of this to be learned from in terms of assisting individuals in
crisis to ensure that they receive the services and support that they need.
There was, however, a concern about the impact redeploying of Family and
Community Services staff to the Recovery Centre may have on existing
government services and the continuity of quality services. It has also been
suggested that employing community sector staff at the Recovery Centre
may have been as appropriate as co-opting government staff.
A protocol of available services available to Recovery Centre staff was not
comprehensive or up to date.
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Recommendations

Apply the individualised or case management approach used at the
Recovery Centre to other groups who face vulnerability and specific
service needs in an ongoing way in our community.

A database of available services needs to be disclosed for
comment/input

The CIRSACT database could be used more effectively in future.
Training in its use can be provided if necessary.

The use of community sector staff to assist in future recovery centre
operations needs to be explored.
Housing issues
The fires have had a significant impact on the availability of affordable
housing and government housing stock. This in turn has added to the
existing backlog of applications for public housing. It is imperative that the
burnt stock be replaced without delay, and that developments in the design,
safety and layout of social housing be taken into account.
Recommendations

When replacing housing stock careful consideration needs to be given
towards fire safety, accessibility, sustainability, quality, quantity and the
size of blocks. It is also important that building approval processes are
streamlined without compromising quality.
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CONCLUSION
There are many learning opportunities available to the community sector,
NGOs, Government authorities and Territory residents as a result of the fires.
By identifying processes that were effective or ineffective in the evacuation
and recovery process, we hope to inform the strategies that will be
undertaken by Government to improve responses to future emergency
situations.
Overall ACTCOSS believes there is a need to further engage and inform the
community sector in the emergency planning process to take advantage of
the knowledge that has been gained as a result of the community sector
effort in responding to this particular emergency.
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