Natural Disaster: Bushfire
The issue: Age targeted community engagement, education and participation in bushfire preparation.
The Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements Report (2020, p55) predicts more extreme fire seasons, referencing the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation’s (CSIRO), Forest Fire Danger Index (FFDI), indicating increased length and severity of the annual fire season; with less opportunity to implement seasonal preventative prescribed burning.
The Overview Of Prescribed Burning In Australasia (AFAC, 2015, p4), explains Australia’s fire adapted ecology that has beneficial outcomes from the reduction of fire load which restores and conserves biodiversity. However, prescribed burning can also be a contentious issue in communities with varying degrees of public support fluctuating with factors such as proximity to bushland, rural versus urban viewpoints, and conflicting beliefs on science (Overview of Prescribed Burning in Australasia, 2015, pp5, 11).
Engagement in fire risk messaging also has a measured trajectory, with social media showing an increase in engagement during a fire event and a sharp decrease after the event, with politicians, broadcast media and public commentators rather than bushfire experts dominating the narrative (Gardiner, et al 2023) With an Ageing population in Australia, volunteer rural bushfire organisations are not insulated from the demographic age change. (Recruiting Younger Fire Service Volunteers, Bushfire CRC, 2007). The Age newspaper also reported that the nation’s volunteer firefighting force has been reduced by about 18,000 members over the past decade. (Bullying culture’ blamed as volunteer firefighter numbers drop across Australia, 2019).
There is an arguable statistical trend that Australia will be experiencing more bushfires, of more severity, in more regions, with fewer volunteers, who through age and/or deployment intensity are less physically, mentally and financially able to endure protracted deployments in extreme conditions.
We need to make knowledge about Bushfires and participation in volunteer bushfire combat agencies attractive to younger people as an investment in every Australians future.
Many Australian rural fire services Rural Fire Service (RFS), Country Fire Service (CFS), Country Fire authority (CFA) offer a cadet program for 12 to 18 year old’s depending on state and availability,
By focussing on a 5 year plan of targeted social media engagement of school age and recent school-leaving participants to encourage them to gain knowledge, confidence and training to be involved in volunteer bushfire combat agencies.
Using existing cadets and selected external social media influencers to post interview and opinion pieces on popular social media platforms that the target areas the demographic statistically use: YouTube 95%, TikTok 67%, Instagram 62%, Snapchat 59%, Facebook 32% (Majority of teens use YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat; share of teens who use Facebook dropped sharply from 2014-15 to now, Pew Research, 2022).
Combined with expanding the in-school cadet education campaign focussing on science, indigenous traditional knowledge and advances in technology. (Penketh, H, 2020)
Integrating the ubiquitous yellow uniform in social media messages with (certified and insured) indigenous fire prevention experts with a message of:
Bushfires – Ancient Knowledge, Modern Technology, Australia’s Youth, Australian Solutions.
Emphasise young people learning old and new wisdom and leading the charge for knowledge and solutions. If kids know more than their parents, then there is the added benefit that they will let their parents know about it.
As the Emergency Services Workforce 2030 review (Mclennan, B. Chong, J. Dunlop, P. 2022. p6) very mildly states: the sustainability of the volunteer workforce would benefit substantially from a greater focus on measuring, communicating, and promoting the value of volunteering to the wider public and to governments.
REFERENCES
Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council (AFAC) and Forest Fire Management Group (FFMG). (2015, March) National Burning Project, Overview of Prescribed Burning in Australasia, Report for National Burning Project: Sub-Project 1. AFAC Limited (2015)
Bushfire Cooperative Research Council, Recruiting Younger Fire Service Volunteers
Fire Note, Issue 11 January 2007 Bushfire Cooperative Research Council (BCRC)
Gardiner, S. Chen, J. Novais, M. Dupre, K. Castley, G. (2023) Analyzing and Leveraging Social Media Disaster Communication of Natural Hazards: Community Sentiment and Messaging Regarding the Australian 2019/20 Bushfires. Societies 2023, 13(6), 138; https://doi.org/10.3390/soc13060138
McLennan, B.J., Chong, J.X.Y, Dunlop, P. D. (2022, July). Emergency services workforce 2030. RMIT University, Curtin University, Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre.
Penketh, H. The importance of cultural burning to CFA (2020, April 29)
Pew Research Center. (August 3, 2022) Majority of teens use YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat; share of teens who use Facebook dropped sharply from 2014-15 to now
2022. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/08/10/teens-social-media-and-technology-2022/pj_2022-08-10_teens-and-tech_0-08/
Sakkal, P. (2019, December 29) Bullying culture’ blamed as volunteer firefighter numbers drop across Australia. The Age. https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/bullying-culture-blamed-as-volunteer-firefighter-numbers-drop-across-australia-20191229-p53nfo.html