Identification of Stakeholders

This analysis paper is a comprehensive disaster management plan for a bushfire in the Cataract Scout Park between Campbell town and Wollongong where the Scout Movement is holding their Annual Jamboree and offers a critical analysis of the bushfire disaster event that will ensure that the vulnerable groups which majorly involve a total of 10,000 scouts, animal welfare, and environmental factors are not adversely affected by the bushfire and those who are affected provided with the psychological stressors management program (Adams, Hensch & Rollison, 2015). The following steps show the response plan that I will take as a Chief of the Appin Rural Fire Service: 

The major stakeholders that will be involved in this operation include the emergency planning committee, security personnel, and leaders of the Scout Movement, ambulance services, and Cataract Scout Park workers. The emergency planning committee should be composed of the representation of those who are working the Appin Rural Fire Service as members of staff, senior management, and chief wardens. The role of this committee is to participate actively in the planning process and identify the procedures that would be taken so as to rescue the 10,000 scouts as well as other environmental factors (Bachmann, Jamison, Martin, Delgado, & Kman, 2015, p.488).

The leaders of the Scout Movement will be involved in the identification of the special members of the group that requires special attention. It would be necessary to evacuate this category of people during the first trip of transportation, majorly the permanent or temporary impaired, auditory, visual, intellectual, or physical disability. All the family members of the 10,000 scout members will also be contacted by the leaders of the Scout Movement so that they can be notified of the situation of bushfire and also the off-site facility where their children will be transported to. The leaders will also be involved in accounting for all the scout members during the emergency (Edrissi, Nourinejad & Roorda, 2015). This should be done after the scot members have been evacuated to an off-site facility to know if there is any missing member.

Cataract Scout Park workers will assist in the provision and explanation of the site layout. The site layout is a diagram of the site that denotes the surroundings of the Cataract Scout Park, firefighting equipment, and refuge location. Some of the information is the site layout should be fire services, the location of on-site refuge emergency exits and entrances, buildings, internal roads, and site boundaries (Haddow, Bullock & Coppola, 2017). The workers will also direct the scout members to the emergency assembly area scout members should converge in before any instruction is issued. There is a need for analyzing the characteristics of the site in which bushfire is engulfing which is the Cataract Scout Park. The analysis of the site will be done by the park workers and should involve assessing the distance of the site from the station, how dense the bush is the location of the outbreak, and the wind speed.

Evacuation and Sheltering

The security personnel such as the park security and local police should also be contacted to assist in restoring order during the evacuation. There will be a need for security personnel in the park to protect the personal belongings of the scout members left behind during the evacuation procedure (Wang, Wu, Liang & Huang, 2016). The local police officers can be consulted to provide security for the property left behind. There will also be need of consulting with physiologist either working for the government or in hospitals so that they can visit the scout members in their off-site refuge. There are some chances that some scout members will be stressed after such an encounter.

Presence of animals in the park: There will be need of assessing the exact number of animals living in the park and coming up with strategies of removing them from the park without being injured or attacking the scout members (Wang, 2017, p. 100). There will be need of contacting the wildlife service within the region to reach the area and assist in the evacuation of the animals since there will be need of inducing injection on some animals to make them docile for easy transportation to a safe park.  

Lack of proper access roads: This may make it difficult for the Appin Rural Fire Service personnel to access the scot members if there are no proper routes to access the site. This will also affect the evacuation procedure since the scout members will have to move from their present location to an on-site which can be accessible.

The vulnerable groups will also affect the disaster management plan since there will be need of providing them with special means of transport. There will be need of consulting the Ambulance NSW to avail their ambulances to transport those scout members with special needs. It would be necessary to evacuate this category of people during the first trip of transportation, majorly the permanent or temporary impaired, auditory, visual, intellectual, or physical disability (Waugh, 2015).

The following are some of the strategies that should be followed during the process of effective evacuation:

Analyzing the site characteristics: This involves assessing the distance of the site from the station, how dense the bush is the location of the outbreak, and the wind speed. It is as well important to establish the exact number of the scout members in the area and those with special needs. These assessments can only be made possible if the Appin Rural Fire Service consult with the NSW and RFS to attain all the required information (Zhou, Wu, Xu, & Fujita, 2017). All these information are significant in understanding how the bushfire may affect the site and the consequences of the bushfire to the occupants.

Special Considerations

There should be an evaluation of possible access roads which can be used in accessing the dense bush. Analyze the condition of buildings that are adjacent to the Cataract Scout Park between Campbell town and Wollongong in case they may be affected by the bushfire.

Deciding the primary action: The decision by the Emergency Planning Committee to shelter or evacuate under the general conditions of bushfire matters and depends on the effects of the bushfire, occupants, and location of the bush. Sheltering will require an on-site facility within the region that is able to accommodate all the 10,000 scouts adequately from the effect of bushfire while evacuation needs an off-site refuge which is a location or building some distance away from the bushfire and from the effects of a bushfire which is able to accommodate all the occupants being evacuated (Wang et al., 2016). Some of these questions may aid in making the decision:

• Are there people who may be affected by the effects of smoke and should be moved to another location for medical reasons? If yes then evacuation is more suitable
• Are there structures with enough building standards and asset protection zones situated away from a direct threat of bushfire? If yes, the sheltering may be suitable

Analyze the requirements for evacuation and sheltering: The evacuation and sheltering procedures are then to be developed depending on the primary action that has been selected for this particular bushfire. The procedure to evacuate all the 10,000 scout members to a refuge should be developed to ensure that necessary coordination and planning arrangements are put in place. A significant factor to not during planning for the evacuation or sheltering procedure is that the scout members are expected to behave irrationally and this may increase the time taken to relocate them to safety (Manandhar, Varughese, Howitt & Kelly, 2017).

Identify an off-site refuge (Evacuation): Due to a large number of scout members in the Cataract Scout Park between Campbell town and Wollongong, the best primary action is evacuation where an off-site refuge should be identified. During the identification of an off-site refuge, numerous factors need to be considered like the availability of any facility near the Cataract Scout Park away from the bushfire, capacity, and size of the refuge that will comfortably accommodate all the 10,000 scout members, the transportation arrangement, and the location of the refuge. The transportation of the scout members can be done by both the public and private cars that are using the roads between Campbell town and Wollongong (Verma & Gaukler, 2015, p. 205). Some of the questions that should be answered when identifying an off-site refuge during the evacuation procedure include:

• Is the refuge in a region far from the impacts of bushfire? One of the best places that can accommodate all the scout members may be a club or community centers.
• Is the route to the refuge such that it does not needs any transport facility through the areas affected by the bushfire? There may be a need of more than two routes depending on the extent of Cataract Scout Park and the safest route from the park (Verma & Gaukler, 2015, p. 208).

Determine the transportation to the off-site refuge: Part of the evacuation planning will be a determination of how the scout members and any other animals in the Cataract Scout Park are going to be transported to a refuge. The following questions can assist in the planning of the transport facility:

• Is there any transport facility that was used by The Scout Movement still on site? If yes, then these busses that transported the students to the site will be used to transport them to the off-site refuge (Salmon et al., 2014, p. 118).
• Are there any public and private vehicles that use the road between Campbell town and Wollongong that can be used to transport the scout members? If yes, then these private and public vehicles can be consulted so as to assist in the transportation of all the 10,000 scout members.

Logistics

Develop emergency procedures: There is need to be concise and clear procedures which outline duties and actions to be taken at numerous emergency states. The bushfire action statement outlines actions and duties that would be taken in the emergency of bushfire (McEntire, 2014). Some of the questions that may be answered to assist in developing emergency procedures include:

• Are there any emergency assembly area in the park? This area is where the scout members should be before any instruction is issued.
• Is there need of security during the emergency? There will be a need for security personnel in the park to protect the personal belongings of the scout members left behind during the evacuation procedure (McEntire, 2014). The local police officers can be consulted to provide security for the property left behind.

Psychological Stressors: There will also be need of consulting with physiologist either working for the government or in hospitals so that they can visit the scout members in their off-site refuge. There are some chances that some scout members will be stressed after such an encounter.

Conclusion

The bushfire response plan steps that may be adopted in case of bushfire include establishing an emergency planning committee, analyze site characteristics, decide the primary action, analyze requirements for evacuation and sheltering, and develop emergency procedures. An emergency procedure includes bushfire action statement, a list of scout members, and the site layout.

References

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