Get Ready Bush Fire Videos

The bush fire danger period is right here, right now, so it’s time to improve your existing plan, or make a plan that will give your family, your property and yourself the best chance of survival should you be threatened by bushfires this summer season.

That’s the message a series of new Get Ready for Bush Fire videos wants everybody to remember in the aftermath of last year’s Black Summer bushfire season, which destroyed 2,476 homes across New South Wales.

Bellingen Shire Mayor, Cr Dominic King said the new Get Ready for Bush Fire videos featured local Rural Fire Service volunteers who battled the bushfires that recently burnt in and around our Shire.

“Our homegrown heroes feature in the new Get Ready for Bushfire videos, and you cannot put a price on the lessons they have learnt from fighting fires for years in our region, so I think it’s really important that as a community we all take five minutes to watch these videos”.

Cr King said that what he had learnt from last year’s bushfire season was that most people in our community have a bush fire plan, but that they found it difficult to understand how to improve their plans and prepare their homes for a bushfire.

“These videos will help you to draw up your own bush fire survival plans and give you the confidence to know that you are well prepared to make decisions that could ultimately protect your property and save your life”.

Cr King said Council had supported the Rural Fire Service and Resilience NSW efforts to prepare the videos to ensure that as a community we remained alert and aware of the need to have a current bush fire survival plan in place.

“We’ve also been working as a member council of the Mid North Coast Joint Organisation with Resilience NSW to develop a new on-line Disaster Dashboard that will provide real-time information to help our community be aware of, prepare for and respond to local emergencies.

“Our Shire’s Disaster Dashboard is an online information warehouse where you access real-time information related to live emergencies, information to help you prepare for an emergency and advice on the types of assistance you can access to recover from an emergency”.

Cr King said our community had become acutely aware of the impact emergencies can have given the current COVID-19 Pandemic and the recent drought, bush fires and floods.

“We are a resilient and prepared community that can deal with the challenges that past, current and future disasters will present us, and our Get Ready for Bushfire videos and online Disaster Dashboard will help us stay informed and aware of how to respond to local emergencies”.

To access our Shire’s Disaster Dashboard, simply go to Bellingen Shire Council’s website at www.bellingen.nsw.gov.au and click on the links prominently located on the website’s Home Page.