If you live in or near the bush, you need to make a bushfire survival plan. Your plan needs to include places you can shelter at, in case you cannot carry out your preferred plan. ‘Nearby safer places’ are places you can shelter at during bushfires.

 

Tasmania Fire Service identifies some nearby safer places and lists these in Community Bushfire Protection Plans.
Even if there are nearby safer places listed in your community protection plan, you should identify others in your survival plan in case you can’t get to the ones identified by Tasmania Fire Service.

The identification and assessment of nearby safer places involves:

• Consulting the local community to identify where they are likely to go to seek shelter in a bushfire
• Using desktop geographic information systems and site visits to evaluate shelter options
• Undertaking field surveys to accurately measure and asses sites
• Analysing bushfire attack level and radiant heat flux using computer modelling

The nearby safer place assessment process allows planners to predict how a site will be affected by bushfire, and determine if a site will provide adequate protection or separation from radiant heat so that people may survive a bushfire.

Nearby Safer Place assessment draws from the assessment methodology detailed in the Australian Standard AS3959 - 2009: Construction of Buildings in Bushfire Prone Areas.

In some communities Tasmania Fire Service may not identify any nearby safer places, as there may not be any suitable sites that provide adequate separation from flammable vegetation in order to protect people from radiant heat.

 

Nearby Safer Places Map