Bush fire season has started. Is your workplace ready for the long game?
A bush fire is not a fire alarm. The threat is outside, it moves, and the safest decisions are made hours before any flames are visible. Our Bush Fire Season Readiness Program gives your business a plan for the whole season: when to close, who decides, whether people stay or go, and how you meet your duty of care.
A different approach
Bush fire is the long game
Most workplace emergency plans are built for one scenario: the alarm sounds, everyone walks outside, the building is checked. That works for a kitchen fire. Bush fire needs a different approach, planned across the whole season.
A season, not a single event
The Bush Fire Danger Period runs from 1 October to 31 March for most of NSW. That is six months of high-risk days, not one alarm and a walk to the car park.
Fires that burn for days or weeks
A large fire can threaten an area for days, with conditions changing hour by hour. Your plan has to work on day one and still work on day ten.
Smoke, closures and disruption
Heavy smoke, road closures, power outages and staff who cannot get to work all hit well beyond the fire front. Continuity is part of the plan.
Before, during and after
Preparation before the season, decisions on each high-risk day, and a review after every event. That cycle is what keeps the plan current.
The urban interface
Bush fire is now a city problem too
Sydney is built into the bush. The Northern Beaches, Ku-ring-gai, Hornsby, the Hills, the Sutherland Shire, the Blue Mountains foothills and the western growth areas all share a long edge with bushland, reserves and national parks. Many offices, warehouses, schools and care facilities sit right on that edge.
As development pushes further into bushland, and fire seasons grow longer, the urban interface matters more than ever. Embers can start spot fires well ahead of the main fire front. Smoke can shut down sites that never see a flame, as it did across Sydney for weeks during the 2019–20 season.
If your business sits anywhere near that edge, your people need this information and this training. Bush fire is not only a country problem.
Signs your site is exposed
- Your site backs onto a reserve, creek line or national park
- Your land is mapped as bush fire prone
- There is only one road in and out
- Staff commute through bushland suburbs
- You care for children, older people or patients
Your duty of care
The liability sits with the employer
Under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011, a person conducting a business or undertaking must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers and other people at the workplace. Officers, such as directors, must exercise due diligence to make sure the business meets that duty.
The WHS Regulation requires an emergency plan that covers emergency procedures, including evacuation, how those procedures are tested, and the information, training and instruction workers receive. Where bush fire is a foreseeable risk for your site, it belongs in those arrangements.
On a high-risk day, the decisions you make, or fail to make, are part of that duty: whether to open, when to close, whether people stay or go, and what guidance you give them. “We followed the news” is not a plan, and it is not evidence of due diligence.
The hardest call
Stay and shelter, or go home?
Both options can be right. Both can go badly wrong. What makes the difference is deciding in advance which option applies, at which decision point, for which people. Leaving early is usually the safest choice. Sheltering on site is a planned last resort, never an improvised one.
Sending people home or relocating
Done right
- Decided early, at a trigger point set in advance
- Routes checked, with a second route if one closes
- Staff who live in fire-risk areas considered separately
- Everyone accounted for once they leave
Where it goes wrong
- Leaving late, on roads with smoke and fire nearby
- Releasing staff with no guidance on where to go
- Assuming the duty ends at the front gate
Staying and sheltering on site
Done right
- Only where the building and its asset protection zone have been assessed as suitable
- Water, first aid, communications and supplies for an extended stay
- Trained wardens, a head count and a clear shelter area
- Planned for people with medical or mobility needs
Where it goes wrong
- Sheltering in a building nobody has assessed
- An overgrown asset protection zone
- Improvising the decision on the day
The program
Bush Fire Season Readiness Program
Built and delivered by a team led by Jamie Illistom, who spent 19 years with NSW Emergency Services, including deployment to Black Saturday. Everything is specific to your site, your people and your roads.
Site bush fire exposure assessment
We assess your site’s distance from bushland, likely fire direction, access and egress roads, the condition of your asset protection zone, and whether any part of the building is suitable as a last-resort shelter.
Bush fire emergency plan
A site-specific addition to your emergency plan: trigger points linked to Fire Danger Ratings and warning levels, decision points worked back from your relocation time, and a clear stay-or-go strategy for each group of people.
Leadership decision briefing
A briefing for owners, directors and managers on their WHS duties, who makes the closure call, and what information they use to make it.
Warden and staff bush fire training
Practical, site-specific training so wardens and staff know the triggers, the routes, the shelter area and how everyone is accounted for.
Communication plan
Who contacts staff, clients, families and contractors, how, and when. Includes closure messages ready to send.
Season-long support
A pre-season check, a mid-season review and an end-of-season debrief, so the plan keeps pace with the season. The long game, not a document on a shelf.
Who it is for
- Offices, warehouses and industrial sites near bushland or reserves
- Childcare centres, schools and aged care facilities
- Healthcare and NDIS providers
- Strata schemes and building managers on the bushland edge
- Businesses whose staff commute through fire-prone areas
Want the detail first?
Read our guide to trigger points, decision points and asset protection zones for NSW workplaces, including a pre-season checklist.
Bush fire planning guide Free bush fire readiness checklist (PDF)Bush fire readiness questions
Is my Sydney business really at risk from bush fire?+
Many are. Sydney has a long urban–bushland interface, from the Northern Beaches, Ku-ring-gai and Hornsby to the Hills, the Sutherland Shire, the Blue Mountains foothills and the western growth areas. Embers can start spot fires well ahead of the main fire front, and smoke can affect sites far from any flames. If your site backs onto a reserve or national park, bush fire belongs in your emergency plan.
Should we send staff home or shelter in place during a bush fire?+
It depends on your site, your people and the timing. Leaving early is usually the safest option. Sheltering on site should only be a planned last resort in a building that has been assessed as suitable. The worst outcome is making the call late, on the day, without a plan. Your emergency plan should decide in advance which option applies, at which decision point, for which people.
What does the WHS Act require of employers for bush fire?+
A person conducting a business or undertaking must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers and others at the workplace. The WHS Regulation also requires an emergency plan that covers emergency procedures, including evacuation, and the testing of those procedures and training for workers. Where bush fire is a foreseeable risk for your site, it should be covered by those arrangements.
What is an asset protection zone?+
An asset protection zone is the managed area between bushland and a building, kept low in fuel to reduce radiant heat, flame contact and ember attack. On bush fire prone land it is often a condition of development consent, and it only works if someone keeps maintaining it.
What is the difference between a trigger point and a decision point?+
A trigger point is a condition that automatically starts an action, such as an Extreme Fire Danger Rating. A decision point is the latest moment a decision can still be made safely, such as the time needed to relocate everyone before an access road could be cut. A good plan uses both.
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