Helping fire-impacted families in rebuilding: toward enhanced community resilience outcomes
This paper describes field experiences where independent building professionals have contributed to the recovery phase of South Australian emergency events: the Sampson Flat bushfires in January 2015 and the Pinery crop fires in November 2015. Lessons were learned about the needs of people experiencing such events with respect to their re-establishing of homes and built environment, navigating building regulations, and planning applications and approvals. The recovery phase following an emergency event provides an opportunity for post-traumatic growth in affected communities. This endeavour to build and embed resilience among communities gives impetus to successfully negotiate current and future natural hazard events. The study finds that an important component of the resilience-building process is providing effective external support, which assists the physical rebuilding of assets and underpins emotional wellbeing.
Australian Journal of Emergency Management, Volume 31 Issue 4, August 2016, pp. 56-61. This document is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.