Among the recommendations made by the Bushfires Royal Commission were:
STAY OR GO
Victorians will be told that leaving early is always the safest way to survive a bushfire and that not all homes are defensible.
Children should not stay behind with other family members if residents choose to stay to try and defend their homes.
If a household decides to stay they should have a back-up plan and be ready to relocate to a fire refuge if necessary.
WARNINGS
Bushfire warnings be designed to save as many lives as possible.
Warnings will be split into two categories - bushfire information and bushfire warnings - to emphasise when a fire has become an imminent danger.
Warnings will provide clear information on the location and expected path of a fire and time-frames for when communities could expect to be affected.
Speeding up the establishment of a national telephone-based warning system.
A new fire severity scale be created to clearly warn communities of the level of danger they are in.
Ensure the Standard Emergency Warning Signal is used to precede the most serious bushfire warnings when broadcast.
Commercial broadcasters, not just the ABC, will be able to broadcast official bushfire warnings.
Guidelines will be developed for the use of fire sirens in communities to warn residents of bushfires.
The Fire Danger Index which rates the intensity of a fire would be included in fire weather warnings issued by the Bureau of Meteorology.
The index was designed to reach 100 but on Black Saturday registered 328.Victims of the fires told the commission they believed they should have told the fire index to give them a clearer idea of the danger they faced.
A single website would combine CFA and DSE warnings and information.
The commission has recommended that the CFA chief be responsible for warning communities of approaching bushfires.
During the hearings, the commission heard evidence that some towns had received little or no warning that they were at immediate risk of fires until after the flames arrived.
REFUGES
Neighbourhood safer places and community refuges will be identified and advertised to residents and visitors in high-risk towns to provide shelter to people unable to flee.
Local Government will be responsible for the designation of emergency relief centres in case relocations are necessary.
The CFA's will prioritise defending community fire refuges when they are in use.
RELOCATIONS
The current stay or go policy would be overhauled to ensure its focus is on protecting lives and the term 'relocation' be used in preference to 'evacuation'.
CFA staff would be able to advise particular households, locations or communities whether they believed it would be safer for them to go than stay.
Incident controllers will be required to asses whether people should relocate and if necessary to recommend residents leave their properties.
It is illegal under Victorian law to force a person who has a pecuniary interest in a land or building under threat to leave the property because of a fire danger.
