Introduction:
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Additional stories in this series: |
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As part of CFA’s Community Safety Preparedness program 2009-10, CFA expanded the range of programs directed at children to educate them about bushfires. CFA commissioned the development of 10 x 30 second “safety stories” about being prepared for bushfire, using the Li’l Larikkins characters, which are owned by Ettamogah and have been licensed to AFAC under a four year licensing arrangement.
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Objectives
- The objectives of this project are to:
- Help children better understand bushfires through developmentally appropriate, entertaining stories
- Provide children with age appropriate actions that they can do or discuss with parents/adults
- Provide a vehicle that will stimulate discussions between children and parents/adults about bushfire behaviour
Background
Evidence in relation to preparing residents for house fires demonstrates that strategies involving educating children have been successful. Fire services have been educating children about appropriate actions to take in the event of a house fire, such as “stop, drop and roll”, “crawl low under smoke”, and “all meet at the letterbox”, and these have been shown to be effective on many occasions. Additionally, the influence of children encouraging parents to fit smoke alarms and change batteries is well known.
The same attention has not been previously given to educating children about bushfire and there is evidence gained through research in the Bushfire CRC that the lack of differentiation between emergency response for bushfire and house fire is pervasive among primary school aged children (Briony Towers – Children’s Perception of Bushfire Risk: Implications for Education).
Inquiries into bushfire disasters repeatedly acknowledge the need to increase levels of knowledge and preparedness across the broader community. Educating children has been identified as a promising avenue to pursue this objective.
