How much does it cost residents to prepare their property for wildfire? T.D. Penman a,b,n , C.E. Eriksen b,c , B. Horsey b , R.A. Bradstock b a School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, University of Melbourne, Vic 3363, Australia b Centre for Environmental Risk Management of Bushfires, Institute of Conservation Biology and Environmental Management, University of Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia c Australian Centre for Cultural Environmental Research, University of Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia article info Article history: Received 30 September 2015 Received in revised form 31 January 2016 Accepted 31 January 2016 Available online 5 February 2016 Keywords: Wildfire Preparedness Resilience Community engagement Risk abstract Wildfire has resulted in significant loss of property and lives. Residents can improve the probability of survival of structures and themselves by undertaking suitable preparation. Only a small proportion of residents adequately prepare for wildfire with monetary and time costs cited as significant impediments. Few studies have quantified the monetary and time costs for residents to prepare. Here we use an online survey to estimate the extent to which cost drives the probability of a resident undertaking preparatory actions. Cost was found to be a significant driver if preparatory actions were being undertaken primarily for wildfire, but not if the preparatory actions were partially or primarily for other purposes, e.g. land- scape maintenance. Approximate average costs for a resident to prepare for wildfire was $AUD 10,000, with a subsequent annual maintenance cost of $AUD 1000. Largest costs were related to altering land- scaping features, e.g. fencing, positioning of garden beds. The paper argues that risks from landscape features could be reduced through further development of guidelines or standards for building in fire prone landscapes. Overall, two primary factors were found to predict the extent of preparation of a resident – planned future actions and their risk perception. Residents who intend to evacuate in the event of a wildfire are less likely to prepare than those that plan to stay and defend, which points to a problematic gap between official advice to prepare regardless of intended actions and public tendencies to only prepare if they intend to stay and defend. & 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Wildfire (or ‘unplanned fire’) has resulted in significant loss of property and lives in most fire prone regions of the globe [21,25]. In 2007, wildfire resulted in the loss of over 2200 houses in Ca- lifornia, USA [31] and approximately 850 buildings in Greece [4]. The Black Saturday fires in Victoria, Australia in 2009, resulted in the loss of more than 2000 houses [1,27]. In 2010, a series of wildfires across Russia destroyed more than 2000 houses [49]. Fire management agencies attempt to protect property and lives with fire suppression resources, but there are simply insufficient funds and resources to protect every house from destructive wildfires [23,24]. Residents can improve the probability of survival of structures and themselves by undertaking suitable preparation [54,61,63,7]. Adequate preparation involves preparing and maintaining the house and grounds, purchase and maintenance of equipment and the development of an appropriate survival plan [38,47]. Preparing the house and grounds reduces the fuels on and around the structure(s) to decrease the probability of the structure igniting from embers and to reduce the severity of fire behaviour on or around the structure [21,22,33,7]. Equipment may primarily be required by those residents that intend to actively defend their property from fire. However, it is desirable for all residents in fire- prone lands to have safety equipment in case they are unable to leave early and are required to shelter in place [20]. A survival plan guides decision making processes on the day(s) of a fire [42,9] by pre-identified actions and assigned roles for all individuals in the household based on triggers. Survival plans that have been written down, discussed and practiced with all household members are recommended for all households regardless of whether the in- tention is to leave early or stay and defend their structure [18,2]. Adequate planning to account for multiple contingencies may be required due to the highly variable nature of wildfire [11,42,62]. This may include identification of a place of last resort [58] that residents can safely access. Studies have found that only a small proportion of residents adequately prepare for wildfire [37,44]. One of the key factors that Contents lists available at ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijdrr International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2016.01.012 2212-4209/& 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. n Corresponding author at: School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, University of Melbourne, Vic 3363, Australia. E-mail address: trent.penman@unimelb.edu.au (T.D. Penman). International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 16 (2016) 88–98