Know Your Risk

Within the Hornsby Shire Council Local Government Area (HSC LGA), 34.4% of properties (being 19940 properties) are currently identified as bush fire prone land. However, bush fire prone land maps, as presented by Council and RFS, are designed to identify areas that are considered to be assessable for bush fire risk for development control purposes (typically 100m buffer from the edge of the bush that acts as a trigger for consideration of building standards for bush fire protection). However, research into fire behaviour and property loss by Chen & McAneney (2004) and Chen (2015) identifies that significant property loss as a result of historical bush fire events has occurred within (up to) 350 m of bushland edge. If we apply this research to HSC LGA, then percentage of at-risk properties would increase to 67.2% (being 38988 properties).

Not being designated bush fire prone is not a guarantee that losses from bush fires will not occur, in fact, if you answer yes to any of the questions below you are at a heightened risk of bush fire.

Do you live within a few kilometers of bush land?
Does your local area have a history of bush fire?
Do you have trees and shrubs within 20 meters of your home?
Do you live on a farm or near paddocks?
Does your neighbourhood have limited access and egress for emergency evacuation (one way access)?

Everyone within Hornsby Shire needs to consider their bush fire risk.

Remember: planning to make a plan is not a plan!

Even if you don’t live in the area identified as bush fire prone, you still need to understand your risk, plan accordingly and be reasonably self-sufficient. Officers from Hornsby Ku-ring-gai RFS District Office have provided a snapshot for our district, which clearly shows how finite the firefighting resources are and re-affirms the need for a whole of community approach and the notion of personal responsibility when it comes to being bush fire ready.

Four Simple Steps

You can use the NSW Rural Fire Service’s Four Simple Steps to guide the way your household will get ready for a bush fire.

Download the guides and start your discussion or click through to the planning section of the website to go through your bush fire survival options in more detail.