Section 1 of the Municipal Fire Management Plan.
||Change/reason for change
||Date in Header updated to reflect current life of new plan.
Added paragraph in Introduction, and removed paragraph on purpose of MFMP.
Removed paragraph on VFFR urban environment.
Added sentence on authority of plan re Committee plan.
Other minor changes.
We live in a fire prone natural environment dictated by our climate of wet winters (which creates fuel) and hot dry summers. Fire management needs to be conducted with an understanding of both the role fire plays with the threats it can pose to life and property, in biodiversity maintenance and the management of our parks and forests.
Bushfires are a vital part of our natural environment, driving regeneration and maintaining the health of species and ecosystems. The combination of drought, climate change and unnaturally high fuel loads have created an unprecedented bushfire risk. The last decade has seen a dramatic increase in the number, size and severity of bushfires in Victoria, evidenced by the 2003 Alpine, 2006 Grampians, 2006/07 Great Divide fires, 2009 Black Saturday fires and the 2018 Gippsland fires.
The City of Greater Geelong also has the complexity of a large city and several large townships surrounded by rural land. The greater risk at this time in relation to fire is the built environment where the vast majority of fires occur.
Multi agency Municipal Fire Management Planning Committee (MFMPC) members will co operatively develop collaborative planning including the aggregation of current plans as a basis for integrated Municipal Fire Management Plans (MFMP’s) through:
- the implementation of common planning models and methodologies
- allocation of resources and accountabilities
- participation in common decision making through the committee process
- collaborative delivery of fire management activities
- cooperative engagement.
The MFMP, as a sub plan of the City of Greater Geelong Municipal Emergency Management Plan, is risk based and has been developed using principles outlined in the Integrated Fire Management Planning (IFMP) Framework and Guide, and the Guidelines for Municipal Fire Management Planning part 6A: Emergency Management Manual Victoria.
|Table 3: IFMP Alignment with AS/NZS ISO 31000:2009
|Stage of the IFMP planning cycle
||Relevant aspect of the AS/NZS ISO 31000:2009
Risk Management - Principles and Guidelines
||Communicate and consult
Establish the context
Risk Assesment > Analyse
Identify the risk > Analyse the risk > Evaluate the risk
Decide > Publish
Determine and document treatment
Treat the risk
Monitor and Improve
Monitor and review
This plan seeks to capture the fire risks associated with the built environment that include the residential, retail and industrial precincts that are located throughout the municipality.
Where numbers of people gather or reside there is the increased risk of fire either through accidental or deliberate means.
Currently there are no approved tools available to assist Councils in identifying the areas of greatest risk or the scale of risk for the built environment, however this plan has relied on fire incident data for the municipality supplied by the CFA together with other available relevant data to inform this plan.
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Authority for Plan
This Municipal Fire Management Plan (MFMP) has been produced by and with the authority of the City of Greater Geelong Council pursuant to Section 20 of the Emergency Management Act 1986; and will be deemed to fulfil Section 55A of the CFA Act 1958. The MFMP is a sub plan of the City of Greater Geelong Council Municipal Emergency Management Plan (MEMP). The Municipal Fire Management Planning Committee (MFMPC) is responsible for the preparation of the Municipal Fire Management Plan.
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Period of Plan
MFMPs have a three year planning cycle and this plan has been endorsed for a period of 12 months commencing from the date of Council adoption.
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It is acknowledged that the existing Municipal Fire Prevention Plan (MFPP) and the Municipal Emergency Management Plan (ME