Plan to survive
Growers and winery owners who have experienced a fire on their properties have told us that they wished they had been better prepared before fire season.
“Just be prepared, and I’m not talking about being prepared the night before. I’m talking about planning at the beginning of the fire season and having things in place and tested.” Mark Kozned, Nova Vita Wines
When fire hits, everyone needs to know what their role is and have the skills and equipment to perform it safely and competently.
A well thought out plan will ensure you get the tasks completed that are most likely to save your business. It will also guide your (potentially lifesaving) actions should a fire start in your area and there may be little time to act.
How to write your Fire Plan
There are multiple fire plan templates available on the internet that you can use as a starting point, but your property, priorities and capabilities will be very different from others, and you will have to take this into account. A few considerations are listed below.
People first
Some businesses have a policy that none of their staff will be in the vineyard on a catastrophic fire day. However, experience shows that sometimes loyal staff will turn up anyway. You need to decide if you’ll send them home or accept their help and take responsibility for their safety by handing them a hose. Make your intentions clear and stand by them.
If your staff are absent, handling matters on your own can be dangerous. Follow the plan you decided on when you had a clear head and stick to it.
If you or any of your team live on site, make sure you include where and when families and pets will evacuate in your plan. This will avoid worrying about the safety of those closest to you while you’re responding to an emergency.
Identify a ‘safe space’
Regardless of any best-laid plans, fires don’t always follow the rules. If you find yourself on the property when you weren’t planning on it, you and your team will need a safe space to shelter as the fire front goes through. Identify the best place in advance and ensure it contains everything you need to defend it and keep everyone safe.
Involve your whole team
It’s vital that everyone knows what to expect and what they should do. If the unexpected happens and you and your team have no choice but to stay and defend, you should all be appropriately trained, practised and equipped.
More heads are often better than one when trying to decide how best to protect the fruits of your combined labour when creating the property’s fire plan. Your team may think of things you haven’t considered and some may even have the perspective as a volunteer fire-fighter.
Walk the property
Grab your map and walk. You’ll spot risks and opportunities you won’t consider if you’re relying on memory alone. On the day of a fire you don’t want to find your speedy escape is blocked by a drain or broken gate.
Checklists
Regardless of the length of your fire plan, it’s a good idea to summarise what you need to do and when in simple checklists that can be stuck on the lunchroom wall (or in a team-based app) and ticked off as preparation activities are completed. It’s useful to have separate lists for pre-season, in the days before a high, extreme or catastrophic fire day is forecasted, and on the day.
Equipment, PPE and training needs
As you prepare your fire plan, identify new equipment and PPE that is required (or needs replacing), as well as any training the team needs to use it correctly and to keep themselves safe. Include this in your plan.
Legal responsibilities
Workplace Health and Safety laws require all workplaces to have emergency plans and procedures, including for possible natural disasters. While jurisdictions may differ in their specific requirements, it is good to familiarise yourself with your specific responsibilities as an employer, supervisor or employee. Safe Work Australia provide overviews, including fact sheets and templates for emergency plans (- Emergency plans and procedures | Safe Work Australia), as do individual jurisdictions listed on the left.
Add to side bar:
OHS resources
SA: Emergency response | SafeWork SA
NSW: SafeWork WHS Toolkit | SafeWork WHS Toolkit
VIC: Bushfires | WorkSafe Victoria
QLD: Bushfire smoke | WorkSafe.qld.gov.au
WA: Emergency management - WorkSafe – DEMIRS
ACT: Storms, floods and bushfires - WorkSafe ACT
TAS: Bushfires
Learn from others
Talk to your neighbours and colleagues. Anyone who has experienced a fire first-hand will be useful.
View the industry case studies below with a pen and paper at hand. Make a note of points that resonate and include them in your plan. Participate in local information sessions hosted by your volunteer fire service or local council.
Visit your local volunteer fire service — many will have a dedicated fire prevention officer who will be willing and trained to work with you on your plan to prepare your property and team. Well-prepared property owners make things easier and safer for volunteer fire-fighting services.
Communication is critical
Download and familiarise yourself with the local fire warning Apps and systems in your area.
ABC Radio bushfire alerts via a battery-powered (or your vehicle’s) radio is a fail-safe option, when phones and internet are down.
Check your insurance
As obvious as it may sound, things change during the year and replacement costs increase. A common realisation for growers and property owners after a fire is that they are significantly under-insured.
Take the time pre-season to review your insurance cover (including all the small print) to confirm you will have the cover you need to get your business back on track as soon as possible. Talk to others who have submitted claims in the past to find out how easy the insurer was to deal with and how adequate their cover turned out to be.
Talk to your insurer ahead of time to find out what evidence they will need to support a claim, should you need to lodge one. Sometimes insurers need evidence that what you are claiming for, actually existed. Consider adding a video and photos of your vineyard, buildings, equipment and other assets before every fire season. Scan and file purchase agreements and receipts as further evidence.
Fire agency and other resources
After the fire
Your team
People react to stress and trauma in different ways. Regardless of whether your team had first-hand involvement during the fire, or simply showed up for work to be met with a pile of smouldering ashes, it is important to provide access to support.
After a fire, there is usually plenty of mental health support available through volunteer services and local government — encourage your team to use it and, preferably, lead by example. Even the most seasoned fire-fighting volunteers have a debrief and continued mental health ‘check-ins’ and support following an incident such as this. No matter what you’re feeling it’s important to get help to work through it.
Your property
Once the spot fires are out, it is time to start thinking about what to do next.
Read our resources and advice to help manage your vineyard after a fire (coming soon).
When a community is hit by fire, local governments, councils and charities are often at hand with help and information. Take advantage of anything and everything available.
Learn from experience
There’s nothing like a real fire event to highlight assumptions and shortfalls in even the most professional fire plans! In the days after the fire, while it’s still fresh in your minds, sit down with your team and go through the events of the previous days. What worked well? What needs improving? Amend your plan and equipment accordingly.
A wine sector resource
After the 2019 South Australian fires, the SA Wine Industry Association consulted with affected growers and businesses, as well as relevant experts, to develop a wine-industry specific resource with practical advice on what to do before, during and after a bushfire event.
It includes worker and public safety, asset management and insurance, marketing and communications, human resources, and operations. It provides food for thought, checklists and templates.
The resource is highly relevant across all states and territories.
Take care of yourself
Walking into a vineyard after a fire has been through can be confronting. Physical and emotional exhaustion from fighting the fire will make matters worse.
A calmer, clearer head will help you see a way forward. Talk to your friends and colleagues, and if you’re not sure where to turn next please reach out for professional support.
- Lifeline 13 11 14
- Beyond Blue 1300 224 636
- SANE Australia 1800 187 263
