When a strata building faces a serious emergency like a fire, explosion, power outage, structural failure, etc, it creates extraordinary challenges that almost no strata stakeholders expect or are ready for. And, always at inconvenient times.
And, there are enough recent Australian examples to suggest emergencies happen more frequently than you’d expect; like the old hat factory fire in Surry Hills, Mascot Towers structural failures, the Opal Towers Christmas Eve defects evacuation, and, the planter boxes falling off One Central Park.
Usually, there’s not much you can do to help. But, right now there’s an opportunity to do something.
Until 14 December 2023, you can complete the strata building survey on baseline emergency preparedness for the project conducted by @MeganChatterton for OCN and FMA to follow the Strata Disaster! Stakeholder Roundtable and develop a report on emergency preparedness and disaster resilience in Australian strata buildings and the development of free template resources to support resident-led emergency planning in 2024.
An example question is about whether strata buildings have things like emergency communication channels, specialist trade contacts, pre-approved crisis funding, resident contact details, trained fire wardens, etc [as in the image below].
It’s worthwhile research and thinking that will benefit all strata citizens.
So, I urge you to complete the building survey over the next 10 days.