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The purpose of this paper is to introduce and critique frameworks of communication in Australian bushfire management. Achieving bushfire preparedness is a complex process that centres on meaningful communication and relationships between fire emergency agencies and the residents at risk. However, the practice of bushfire communication in Australia might better be described as bricoleur-like, applying and adapting whatever is at hand from the broader media panoply, rather than involving a more deliberative and comprehensively planned approach to preparedness.

This paper builds on different frameworks of communication, beyond the traditional transmission and power models, to establish alternative ways in which communication may take place in bushfire preparedness. It is built from coupling theoretical and social science approaches to communication and through interviews and fieldwork in four states across Australia. The aggregation of these data became the basis to examine how communication was taking place among these constituents.

Communication as transmission still remains dominant from the perspective where expertise is marshaled among fire agency specialists and disseminated to the public. Communication as power highlights that the persistence of the transmission process can reinforce power dynamics, diminishing empowerment, participation and capacity-building for change by the community. Recognising the importance for understanding audiences, communication as marketing pays closer attention to attitudes to influence behaviour. Finally, communication as community elaborates the conversational aspects of knowledge flow, through social networks, bringing a particular focus to bear on the greater need for community agency.

The authors put forward these frameworks as ways to analyse, critique and propose different ways that communication can, and does, occur, resulting in different kinds of interaction and impact. The authors argue that an awareness of such frameworks is significant in assisting the communities and fire authorities in bushfire preparedness.

The purpose of this paper is to explore fire risk and preparedness, with regard to water flow rates and building types in London, focusing on Southall district.

A land use survey was carried out to identify water requirements for firefighting across the study area. Local fire hydrant flow rates were analysed, using measurements taken during 2013 and archive data held by the London Fire Brigade (LFB). QGIS was used to explore relationships between fire hydrant flow rates, urban fire risk and socio-economic vulnerability data held by the LFB.

A new type of map, which includes data on water flow rates and building types, was created using QGIS and applied to Southall district, resulting in a map showing Combined Vulnerability to fires. Inadequate fire hydrant water supply was found across many parts of the borough.

This new approach to the evaluation and mapping of urban fire risk could be applied in other cities, to assess problems with water supply and the firefighting water flow requirements of various building types. The methodology can thus assist with adaptations to urban fire resource allocation, tactics, planning and preparedness.

When socio-economic data are also available, this Geographical Information System-based methodology becomes very useful for assessing fire risk and developing strategies for preparedness and response.

This is the first time that London’s fire hydrant water pressures have been mapped and linked with socio-economic vulnerability maps, to produce a Combined Vulnerability map for assessing fire risk.

Wildfire researchers have typically focused on the formal social relationships and organizational structures of community and community leadership in analyzing fire preparedness and planning. This may be reasonable given the policy positions of natural resource agencies charged with management of wildfires on large public lands, particularly in the American West. When fires are allowed to burn on public lands, there are inherent risks to communities located in the path of the burn. Formal relationships between federal and state agencies and local communities (particularly with local government leaders and other people in positions of authority and power), therefore, are critical in maintaining clear communications, in reducing potential dangers, and in providing appropriate responses when wildfire dangers occur. The scholarly research in this area has a clearly applied focus, and much of it also has a “top-down” orientation that reflects the resource agency funding that underwrites this work. The relevance is clear: resource managers are charged to identify persons and groups “with a stake” in the outcome of resource management policies, and to evaluate the outcomes of agency-designed educational and outreach programs for affected publics.

This paper aims to present on-going research on the role of social networks in community preparedness for bushfire. Social networks are significant in helping communities cope in disasters. Studies of communities hit by a catastrophe such as landslides or heatwaves demonstrate that people with well-connected social networks are more likely to recover than others where their networks are obliterated or non-existent. The value of social networks is also evident in bushfire where information is passed between family, friends and neighbours. Social interactions are important in creating opportunities for residents to exchange information on shared risks and can lead them to take collective actions to address this risk.

This paper presents on-going research on social networks of residents living in fire-prone areas in Australia to investigate how knowledge related to bushfire might flow, either in preparation for, or during a hypothetical emergency. A closer examination of social relations and characteristics within networks is critical in contextualizing this knowledge flow. This understanding will contribute to collected evidence that social networks play a particularly important role in collective action in building adaptive capacity.

The types of networks studied reflects how people’s emergent roles and their inter-relatedness with one another helps to build adaptive capacity and greater awareness of the risks they face from fire. In doing so, the paper questions individualized attributes of “leaders” that disaster literature can over-emphasize, and critiques notions “vulnerability” in a social network context. It demonstrates that social capital can be generated through emergent, contextual, processual factors.

The paper contributes critical knowledge and evidence for fire agencies to engage with community networks and support those people who are playing a vital catalytic, bridging and linking role to strengthen their potential for adaptive capacity in mitigating bushfire risk.

In the last few years a number of industrial catastrophes in the Cypriot manufacturing sector have taken place, resulting in losses of millions of Euro and disrupting the industrial production for days and, in a few cases, weeks and months. In the absence of official (or unofficial) statistics regarding the fire preparedness of small and medium enterprises in terms of policy, training and equipment, the purpose of this paper is to gather information and opinions about the current safety situation in the Cypriot manufacturing sector.

Results from a nationwide survey in Nicosia are presented in this paper. A closed questionnaire concentrating on industrial (manufacturing) premises affected and non‐affected by a previous fire incident was devised and used in a weighted sample of companies. An open questionnaire was employed for interviewing the managers of fire‐stricken companies. Four industrial areas in Nicosia are under investigation in this study and results are presented.

The findings of this paper suggest that although, in general, the safety situation is at a relatively good level, there is room for improvement.

This paper discusses the beliefs of the safety managers in relation to safety in their premises and attempts to create a comparison between their opinion and the existing safety cultures in the Cypriot manufacturing sector.

There is increasing recognition amongst healthcare providers on the necessity to improve fire safety management in healthcare facilities. This is possibly not yet satisfactory because of recent fire incidents in Asia. This paper set out to analyse the literature because of the paucity of systematic reviews on fire safety management of public healthcare facilities and proffer preventive measures.

Thirty related studies were identified with the support of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses via Scopus and Web of Science databases.

Influencing factors, hindrances to fire safety management and preventive measures for fire-related occurrence in Asian hospital buildings were the three themes that emerged from the reviewed. The factors that influence fire in Asian hospital buildings were categorised into technical, management and legislation factors.

The recommendations of this paper were based on literature that was systematically reviewed but does not compromise the robustness concerning fire safety management in hospital buildings across Asian countries. Much is needed to be known regarding fire safety in healthcare buildings across Asian countries. This paper recommended exploratory sequential mixed-methods approach as part of the implications for further studies. This will allow in-depth face-to-face interviews and increase the generalisability of future findings concerning fire safety management in hospital buildings across Asian countries to a larger population.

As part of the practical implications, this paper recommends fire safety management plan as one of the practical possible measures for addressing technical, management and legislation factors. Also recommended is training and fire safety education of healthcare staff in collaboration with safety firefighters to address major issues that may arise from management factors. The government should upgrade the safety technology equipment in healthcare facilities as part of measures to mitigate issues concerning technical and legislation factors. Also, the identified factors are part of the theoretical contributions to the advancement of knowledge and this brings to the front burners new opening.

This is probably the first systematic review paper on fire safety hospital buildings in Asia.

Fire management professionals are using smartphone applications to communicate information about wildland fires. The purpose of this paper is to examine English language wildland fire apps available to the general public to learn what information these apps contain and whether they match what are considered characteristics of well-designed apps.

Content analysis of global app markets and other directories revealed ten relevant apps. Two coders installed the apps on identical smartphones and proceeded to review the apps’ content, features, and design characteristics.

Results reveal that the ten English language wildland fire apps on the global app markets fall into three groups: apps that show nearby fires, emergency plan creation apps, and apps that inform on preparedness, response, and recovery. Strengths of these apps include that most load quickly on devices, they offer real-time contextual information, they can be used even when a device is offline, are easy to navigate, and do not utilize processor-intensive animation. Weaknesses include the fact that many lack a search engine, they do not explain how they protect sensitive user data, and they fail to reveal who authors of content are as well as when content was created or modified.

Few studies have classified, analyzed content, or assessed the design of wildland fire apps. This study reveals that critical issues app designers should address include ensuring that apps contain privacy policies and disclaimers that app information is not supposed to replace live human advice.

This paper aims to investigate the effectiveness of early warning and community cooperation for evacuation preparedness from mega-risk type coastal hazard in childcare centers, focusing in the evacuation of childcare centers from tsunami at the time of the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred on March 11, 2011.

As the research method, surveys were conducted in public childcare centers affected by tsunami in Kesennuma city in Miyagi Prefecture and Kamaishi city in Iwate Prefecture.

As the main findings, facilities, where teachers and children started evacuation immediately after the earthquake, could have more conditions to get cooperation from the local community to evacuate children in wide-scale urban environment. Children 3-5 years old tended to be instructed to walk two abreast under the lead of teachers, and children 0-2 years old tended to be carried by the piggyback ride and multi-passenger baby strollers. The destination of evacuation needed to be changed several times because of the risks for higher tsunami and fire outbreaks.

As future issues, it is necessary to analyze the walking capability of children and the transportation capability of multi-passenger baby strollers by teachers, to address strategies to quantify the necessary community cooperation based on the severity of early warning.

Most of the past studies regarding disaster preparedness of nursery children are limited within the facility in case of fire. This work has importance as it focused on the emergency responses that require urban-scale evacuation in ascending route that differ from that which are required in the case of fire.

Fire Prevention Week takes place during the week of 9 October, the date of the great Chicago fire. Fire prevention in the narrow sense refers to precautionary measures taken to prevent the outbreak of fires. In books, articles, and other materials on the subject, however, fire prevention often encompasses the broader terms of fire science, fire protection, and fire safety.