What is AFDRS (Australian Fire Danger Rating System)
The new Australian Fire Danger Rating System (AFDRS) is consistent across Australia, easier to understand and will provide clearer advice on how to stay safe.
The new system has four rating levels instead of the previous six:
Moderate
High
Extreme
Catastrophic
Clear, easy to follow advice is associated with each level.
As it's a national system it will not matter where you live, travel or are across the country, Fire Danger Rating will be communicated the same. AFDRS was officially launched on 1st September 2022.
Calculating operational readiness triggers and Total Fire Ban declarations under the AFDRS
The AFDRS will be launched in September 2022 and the Bureau of Meteorology fire danger forecasts will be presented in the new format with immediate effect.
Victorian fire agencies will continue to calculate the old Fire Danger Index (FDI) to consider alongside the new AFDRS to determine operational readiness triggers and Total Fire Ban declarations.
This measure will continue to test the accuracy of the AFDRS in its introductory phase against varying fire seasons and conditions.
The CFA Chief Officer will consider both the AFDRS and the old fire danger ratings when making Total Fire Ban declarations.
Fire Danger Signs update
Brigades and community members will soon see some changes occurring to the roadside Fire Danger Signs. Each road sign across the state will be covered with a sticker, stating that “Fire Danger Ratings are changing”. The arrow and padlocks will be removed from the signs when the sticker is installed. New hardware will be issued when the signs are physically replaced.
Replacement of signs will commence in September. Works will commence in areas likely to have fire danger periods declared first, starting in the North West with all signs being replaced by early December.
If your brigade has a query about signage location, please speak to your District staff.
CFA community facing resources updated for AFDRS
The CFA website now shows Fire Danger Ratings information detailing the new rating levels and the publications that have been updated to reflect AFDRS are now all available. Publications that have not been reviewed to date have been removed from the website until they can be updated to avoid any public confusion.
Brigades that wish to order new Publications should contact their District Community Engagement Coordinator, directly.
As we approach summer it is important to ensure that current publications are available to the community. Please ensure that outdated publications are removed from Brigade and community locations. All new publications have a version and date produced clearly visible on the cover of the document.
A CFA AFDRS Stakeholder Kit is now available. In this kit we have outlined all of the AFDRS primary key messages including social media content (sorted by theme) , relevant copy and assets to go with each post. It has been developed to support our stakeholders to promote AFDRS messages through their own channels and networks. Please feel free to share this kit far and wide with your networks.
The Stakeholder Kit is available from here.
More Information
More information, including frequently asked questions is available to CFA members via: https://www.members.cfa.vic.gov.au/programs/afdrs
