Junk the Jargon survey results

The results will be used in the development of a more community-friendly Warnings and Incidents page on the CFA, DSE and MFB websites.

The aim is to use clear and simple language on the web page instead of operational terminology, which can be unfamiliar to members of the public.  

Here are the results:

1.    Which label most simply describes a road crash or an incident where firefighters have to rescue someone from a car, cliff, tree etc.?

• Road Accident / Rescue - 27.0%    
•  Motor Vehicle Accident / Rescue - 26.1%
• Accident / Rescue - 25.3%
• Vehicle Accident / Rescue – 10.5%
• Road Traffic Accident / Rescue - 5.4%

2.    Which label most simply describes a house, office, factory or shed fire?

• Building fire – 50.6%
• Structure fire – 45.7%

3.    Which label most simply describes a fire outside a building, including storage yards, vehicles, trains, rubbish fires?

• Non-structure fire - 44.4%    
• Non-building fire - 26.1%    
• Outside fire - 13.8%    
• Other fire - 6.3%

4.    Which label most simply describes an uncontrolled fire in grass, scrub or forest?

• Bushfire - 58.3%
• Wildfire - 30.7%
• Open-air fire - 2.9%

5.    Our new web page will display information about all Victorian fire services incidents, warnings, and planned burns. What should we call it?

• Warnings, Incidents and Planned Burns - 52.9%
• Warnings, Incidents and Events - 14.5%    
• Warnings and Emergency Events - 11.0%
• Warnings and Incidents - 8.1%
• Warnings and Events - 4.9%

6.    Information about emergency incidents and planned burns will be displayed in a list on the web page. What should this list be called?

Incidents and Planned Burns - 60.1%
Fires and Incident - 14.3%
All Activity -10.5%    
All Incidents - 5.8%    

7.    Which label best describes the status of an incident in the period between firefighters being called and arriving on scene?

• Responding - 77.8%
• Going - 10.8%
• Initiated - 4.1%    

Lots of people also suggested other words and terms they thought worked. We’ll be taking these into account as well.

Updates on the development of the new Warnings and Incidents web page will continue, with a working test version available in a couple of months.