In order to get that accreditation card, we have to attend a training course and having just completed it, I can assure you it is an eye-opening exercise.

Everything you think you know about bushfires before you start the training is going to be challenged, and the pants are likely to be scared right off you in the process.

Why is it so damned scary? After all we Aussies are no strangers to bushfires and journalists cover a lot of bushfire issues.

It’s because that two-hour training program rams home just how underprepared most people really are when it comes to the massive threat posed by fire.

Perhaps part of the problem is that while we have “seen” bushfires in the newspaper or on television, we don’t really understand just how truly dangerous it is until actually confronting one.

What those media images cannot fully convey is the heat, the speed and the noise of that approaching wall of flames.

There is a reason some bushfires have been likened to hell on Earth.

Showers of embers, thick smoke and unpredictable winds only add to the horror.

Firefighters go into these situations fully trained and kitted out in in protective gear, and even then acknowledge that there may be situations that prove simply too dangerous.

Sometimes human life cannot be put at risk to save property, and firefighters are trained to recognise this.

But those of us who are not firefighters don’t have that extensive training, so it is even more important that we use our common sense.

That common sense would surely dictate that we need to be aware of the risks – and they're pretty much the same every year – and do something about it.

The Rural Fire Service advocates making a bushfire survival guide for good reason: It could save lives.

It’s too late to be making a plan when the emergency text message has arrived and you’re being told to get out now.

A quick Google search will find you a list of major Australian bushfires, and it makes for heartbreaking reading.

The Tathra fires back in March, for example, destroyed about 70 homes and about 30 cabins and caravans, and burned out about 1200 hectares of land.

That’s a clinical list that cannot begin to convey the fear, devastation and wretchedness of a community struggling to cope.

All of those families who had been left with pretty much nothing were faced with the decision of whether to try to rebuild or move away and start again.

The impact on those small communities would be enormous, and this time there was no loss of human life.

In the Black Saturday bushfires of 2009, 173 people were killed and more than 2000 homes destroyed, with the extent of the burned out land coming close to half a million hectares.

The RSPCA estimates that one million animals, both domestic and native, were also killed.

Perhaps it is the sheer scale of the horror that makes it so hard to comprehend, but that many lives and that much property damage is utterly devastating.

In the aftermath of those fires, the experts have looked at what happened, asked whether anything could have been done differently and tried to learn from the tragedy.

Few communities in Australia could every be truly confident of not being at risk of a massive bushfire, so we really do need to listen to the experts when they offer advice.

We need to make the plans, prepare our homes and leave or stay as directed.

At our media training, we were given some honest assessments of an exposed human being’s chances of surviving a bushfire.

Let’s just say, it’s not something I’m keen to try out for myself.

With drought affecting all of NSW to varying degrees, we could see an earlier-than-normal start to the bushfire danger period, particularly in northern NSW.

So, with winter in its final weeks, it’s probably time to start thinking about about what needs to be done around the home to reduce the fire risk.

And if we’re lucky, we will have created a survival plan that will never need to be put into action.

jody.lindbeck@fairfaxmedia.com.au