WE DESPERATELY need the CFA or Government to survey householders' bushfire preparedness, says PETER HUNT

There's a big question that still hasn't been answered this fire season.

How many households in the state's 52 high-risk towns have written down their fire plan, or better still, rehearsed it?

Nobody knows.

The Victorian Government and CFA have put enormous effort into community meetings, advertising campaigns and mailing tens of thousands of FireReady Kits to households in these towns.

Yet I suspect fewer than half these households have used the templates provided in these kits to write down their plan, with fewer still rehearsing them.

The extent of many people's plans seems to be: "I'll leave early".

That's it. No need to do any more.

No need to determine and discuss what triggers your evacuation, what route to take or where to go locally if your main escape route is blocked.

No need to write down who to contact on leaving, how to monitor the fire and what to put in your relocation pack.

Don't worry about ensuring everyone in your house is aware of the plan. Have they read it, agreed to it and rehearsed it?

And you don't need to think about where you'll stay if fires persist for several days.

We desperately need the CFA or Government to conduct a simple survey sampling households in the high-risk towns, asking at least four basic questions:

• Do you have a fire plan?
• What is it?
• Have you written down your plan?
• Have you rehearsed your plan?

Such a survey would give a clear indication of how well prepared Victorians are for another Black Saturday.

The sad fact is, any decision to conduct such a survey and publish the results is likely to set government spin doctors howling.

I can just hear them: "No way - the media will crucify us. Can't you see the headline - CFA FireReady plans a flop"?

Sure, there may be some in the media and politics who run that line. Sadly, such arguments simply reinforce community apathy. "It's not your fault. The Government and CFA bureaucrats are to blame for the poor uptake."

Some Victorians already argue the FireReady kit information is too complex, is too hard to find, or is time-consuming to complete.

The Herald and Weekly Times had one urban reader ring in recently, arguing the CFA FireReady material was far too complex, with 107 pages of material on the website.

But the fact is, the CFA's Leaving Early brochure covers 12 pages and the template for the written plan is covered in eight pages. Hardly overwhelming.

As for the wealth of other material on defending your home - every word is worth reading.

Defending a home in the face of Black Saturday's inferno requires enormous physical and mental preparation, planning and rehearsal.

We can't afford to keep on blaming others when we fail to take responsibility for our own futures.

The facts are the CFA and Government failed abysmally in their primary role, which was to warn communities they were in the path of a catastrophic wildfire.

But what matters now is not just how the Government lifts its game, but how Victorian households respond to the lessons of February 7, this fire season.

As the 2009 Victorian Bushfire Royal Commission stated in its interim report: "The effectiveness of any campaign depends on the quality of information, the modes of dissemination and the willingness and capacity of people to hear, understand and act on the message.

"This is a shared responsibility between government and the people."

So what action do we take if it's shown the majority of households have failed to write down and ideally, rehearse the basics of a decent fire plan?

Prior to the start of this fire season, The Weekly Times advocated high-risk communities undertake a pre-season fire drill.

While this may sound antiquated, it's what every office worker in Melbourne must do at least once a year.

The probability of an office tower burning to the ground is extremely remote, but the loss of life would be horrendous.

It may be the next step is to have community fire drills in the 52 towns the CFA has identified as "high-risk".

The reality is the loss of 173 lives, a royal commission and the FireReady campaign may not be enough to spur some households into action.

Sometimes you have to put words into action.

• Peter Hunt is a senior Weekly Times reporter.