Page 2022 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 4 June 2019
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volunteers and staff directly engaged with the residents of Canberra’s high-risk properties through the “Canberra be ready” doorknock campaign.
The ESA reached out to over 5,000 Canberra homes in our areas of greatest risk to discuss the importance of preparing a bushfire survival plan and undertaking some simple steps to reduce the risk of fire and storm damage and to withstand a severe heatwave. The campaign continued to raise the community’s awareness of bushfire risk and encouraged them to plan and prepare for bushfire.
The ESA also partnered with and supported farmers in the bushfire abatement zone, the BAZ, to ensure fuel management and access to firefighters improved. The ESA also reviewed the role of community fire units and continues to recognise volunteers in the community as a significant resource.
Further engagement was undertaken at the annual ESA open day on 28 October 2018 and the Royal Canberra Show from 22 to 24 February 2019. These events provide an opportunity for the community to meet the people who keep our community safe and to learn about how they can take care of what matters during an emergency. This included speaking directly to emergency services members about knowing their risk during bushfire season and what to do about it.
Part of the ESA’s community engagement includes educating the community on the bushfire warning messages used by the ESA. This included launching the new social media awareness campaign “complacency can kill” on 18 January. The campaign’s Facebook video which included footage of the 2003 bushfires is ESA’s highest performing social media video, reaching more than 64,000 people and receiving nearly 12,000 positive engagements. The ESA also worked with ABC Radio Canberra to deliver one whole day of broadcasting dedicated to all aspects of bushfire preparedness and actively communicated important information such as total fire bans, active bush and grass fires and preparedness reminders.
The ACT government maintains well-practiced arrangements for ensuring the timely and accurate dissemination of information to the community about emergencies. Due to the prevalence of social media and often misreporting of facts or key information it is vitally important that key public safety messages and public safety information are being provided via a single source of truth.
Information is made available from the following sources: a single point of truth application on the ESA’s website, that is, www.esa.act.gov.au; the ESA Twitter account, @ACT_ESA; the ESA Facebook account @ACT Emergency Services Agency; the fires near me mobile app on Apple or Android; and the Access Canberra contact centre on telephone 13 22 81.
The ACT government also maintains memoranda of understanding with television and radio media outlets for the transmission of public information. This ensures that information and alerts issued about emergencies in the ACT are broadcast in a timely and accurate manner. In special circumstances the ACT government may also use the emergency alert capability to broadcast warning messages directly to mobile telephones and landlines in any area of the ACT.
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