Bushfire preparation checklist for business: what to do at each fire danger rating

Most bushfire plans for a business fail for a simple reason: they’re written for the day the fire arrives, and by then there’s no time to follow them. The better approach is to split the work. Do the slow jobs now (insurance, clearing, records, staff briefing). Then let each day’s fire danger rating tell you which fast jobs to do.

This guide gives you both lists. Keep a copy on the wall and one with whoever minds the place when you’re away.

Is this bushfire season higher risk than usual?

For much of the country, yes. The AFAC Seasonal Bushfire Outlook for spring 2026 flagged above-average risk for northern and south-eastern NSW, south-east Queensland, north-eastern Tasmania, parts of Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria, and large parts of the Northern Territory. AFAC pointed to dry conditions in the east and heavier fuel loads across central and northern Australia. The Bureau of Meteorology contributes the climate and fire-weather analysis, and an El Niño was declared in June 2026.

Two cautions. The outlook is not a prediction of where a fire will start, and AFAC says fires can happen in areas with a normal outlook. And it’s a spring outlook: check your state fire service for what’s expected over summer.

What are the fire danger ratings, and what should a business do at each?

Since 2022 Australia has used one national system with four levels. The wording below follows the Tasmania Fire Service’s explainer. The business actions are ours, so adjust them to your site.

Rating	What it means	What the business does
Moderate (plan and prepare)	Most fires can be controlled	Trade normally. Check the rating each morning, keep the plan and contacts current, finish outstanding preparation jobs
High (be ready to act)	Fires can be dangerous	Check the warning app, fuel vehicles and generator, confirm who’s on shift, move valuable records and stock into the “ready” position
Extreme (take action now)	Fires will spread quickly and be extremely dangerous	Activate the plan: brief staff, check the plan’s triggers, finish clearing, pack the emergency bag, consider closing early or not opening
Catastrophic (leave bushfire risk areas)	If a fire starts and takes hold, lives are likely to be lost	Close. Staff stay away. Remove anything irreplaceable, and go to a safer place early or the night before

Notice what’s missing: waiting for a fire to appear. At Extreme and Catastrophic the decision has already been made by the weather. The point of a written plan is that no one has to make it under pressure.

What should you finish before summer?

These are the slow jobs. Aim to finish them in the next three weeks.

Premises and surroundings

1. Clear around the building. Remove dry grass, leaf litter, stacked pallets, timber and bark mulch from against walls. Check what your state fire service recommends for a cleared zone around buildings.
2. Clean gutters and check roof sheeting and vents. Embers collect in gutters and get into gaps.
3. Move fuel, gas bottles and chemicals away from the building and from each other, in line with your site’s safety rules.
4. Check hoses, pumps and water supply. If you’re on tank water, know what you have and that the pump works without mains power.
5. Mark access. Make sure fire trucks can get in, and that gates aren’t locked with no one nearby holding a key.

Power, data and records

6. Back up to the cloud and to a drive you can carry. Test the restore.
7. Plan for a power cut. Bushfires and the shutdowns around them can take out supply for days. Our page on power and access outages covers the trading side.
8. Photograph premises, equipment and stock. Before photos make an after-the-fire claim much easier.
9. Pack an emergency bag with insurance schedules, ABN and bank details, key contacts, a torch, battery radio, power banks, masks and a first-aid kit. The business emergency grab bag guide has the full list.

People

10. Brief everyone, in writing. Who closes, who contacts staff, where people go, and which rating triggers which action. Business Victoria’s six steps to prepare for a bushfire is a useful cross-check, and note its message that preparing for business disruption matters as much as preparing the household.
11. Agree a stay-or-go rule for yourself. The plan should say the business closes on a Catastrophic day. Your own household’s plan comes first.
12. Put it on one page. Our one-page business continuity plan is a template.

Why must insurance be sorted before a fire is nearby?

This is the step that can’t be redone later. Insurers use temporary embargoes to stop people buying or increasing cover when a fire is already close. In January 2020 Suncorp and IAG paused policy sales in some fire-affected areas of Victoria and NSW, and embargo periods are commonly described as anywhere from about 72 hours up to a week. Your existing policy keeps running, but a new policy or an increase may not respond to that fire.

So if you’ve bought new equipment, taken on stock for summer or fitted out a new site, update cover now. Ask your broker:

• Do the sums insured for building, contents and stock reflect what it would cost to replace them today?
• Does the policy cover bushfire, smoke and ember damage?
• Does business interruption cover loss of access and utilities, not only physical damage? What’s the indemnity period?
• Is there temporary relocation or increased cost of working cover?
• What does the insurer do about embargoes, and when do they start?

All twelve questions are in our insurance review before disaster season guide.

The money side. Work out how many weeks you could cover wages, rent and suppliers if the doors were shut. The shutdown cash runway tool does it in minutes. If the answer is “not long”, it’s worth knowing what backup funding might look like before you need it. You can check your options here without a credit check.

What do you do when the day is rated Extreme or Catastrophic?

Use this as your morning list. Do it the evening before if the forecast allows.

1. Check the rating and your warning app (your state’s emergency app or fire service site).
2. Decide: open, shorten or close. At Catastrophic, close.
3. Tell staff and customers early. A short text, a website banner and a changed voicemail message.
4. Shut down safely. Turn off gas and non-essential power, close windows and doors, and remove flammable items from around the building.
5. Take the emergency bag, laptops and drives and move vehicles to a safe place.
6. Leave early. The advice from the fire services is to go before a fire starts, not after.

If an emergency warning is issued for your area, follow it. It overrides this list.

Do you pay staff if the business closes?

Decide the answer before you need it, and tell staff. The Fair Work Ombudsman explains that your award, agreement or contract comes first. Where it has nothing on the point, the Fair Work Act’s stand-down provisions can apply when employees can’t be usefully employed because of something outside the employer’s control, such as a natural disaster. The Ombudsman suggests considering alternatives first, such as taking leave or changing working arrangements, and telling staff in writing when a stand-down starts and whether it’s paid. If you’re unsure, call the Fair Work Infoline on 13 13 94 before you act.

Who should be on your bushfire call list?

Who	Number or where	When
Emergency	000	Danger to life
Your state fire service and emergency app	VicEmergency, NSW RFS, QFES, DFES, SA CFS or TFS	Warnings and fire danger ratings
Your insurer or broker	Policy schedule	Embargoes, claims, make-safe approval
ATO Emergency Support Infoline	1800 806 218	Deferrals and payment plans before a due date
business.gov.au	13 28 46	Current disaster assistance
Small Business Debt Helpline	1800 413 828	Free financial counselling
Lifeline	13 11 14	Owner and staff wellbeing

What mistakes cost businesses the most?

• Leaving insurance changes until smoke is visible. The embargo may already apply.
• Treating the seasonal outlook as a forecast. Normal-outlook areas can still burn.
• Having a plan only in your head. On the day, the person who knows it may be away.
• Storing the sole backup on site.
• Waiting until after the fire to photograph stock and equipment.
• Ignoring due dates. A fire doesn’t pause a BAS or payroll run on its own. Call the ATO before the date.

An illustrative example

Illustrative only. A rural nursery and garden centre with five staff has its roof checked, clears a wide strip of dry grass and cuts back overhanging gums in October. The owner raises stock cover with the broker before summer and writes a one-page plan: at High, fuel the ute and move records to the office safe; at Extreme, send non-essential staff home early; at Catastrophic, stay closed.

On a Catastrophic day in January the nursery closes, the owner has already posted the notice and the stock is photographed. A fire doesn’t reach the site, though power is out for two days. The business loses trading time and some chilled products, but has a clear record, a cover that responds and no scramble.

Prepared for the fire, but what about the cash?

Clearing a yard is cheap compared with a closed shop. Even a well-prepared business can face days of lost trade, an insurance excess, replacement stock and repair invoices that arrive before the insurer pays. Check the official help first: concessional loans and grants through your state agency, and ATO relief if you’re in a declared area. Our bushfire recovery page covers what to do afterwards, and the emergency action checklist turns the first week into a list.

When a gap is left, owners often use unsecured working capital (typically $5,000 to $500,000, sized on turnover and bank statements) or, for larger needs, funding secured against property from $20,000 to $5,000,000. Speed depends on the case: $20k to $250k is possible same day for property-secured funding, and same-day funding is possible for smaller unsecured amounts.

Asking what’s possible takes about a minute, and nothing touches your credit file while you do. A credit check only happens if you decide to go ahead. We don’t send your details to a pile of lenders, so there’s no flurry of calls from strangers in the middle of fire season. One person reads your situation and rings you to talk it through.

Do answer the form carefully: where you operate, what’s insured, the amount you might need and what it’s for. Accurate details let us line up the right option on the first attempt.

Check where you stand →