Fire Safty - warnings on your mobile phone

[The Silver Snitch]

After having a chat to FireSafe and also, just now, a lengthy chat to CFS hotline people I have some info to share re fires and notifications which are applicable if you are out caching.... Might be of use for some.

CFS Alerts that get sent to mobile phones to warn you of a fire are linked to TOWERS rather than phones. What this means is that ALL phones in the vicinity of a tower, in the radius of the fire threat, will get an alert. But just say you live in the area, but are at the beach, in that case you won't get the alert as your phone is not currently connected to a phone whose radius is in the fire threat.
BUT NOT ALL FIRES ARE SENT AS ALERTS, only if they feel that they will have trouble controlling or containing and it is a threat to home and properties. Therefore if you are caching in scrub well away from homes and property and there is a fire, you MAY NOT get a mobile alert, but that does not mean you are not in danger...just means you don't know!

CFS APP comes into its own here. Most country people have it set around their home area, but did you know that if you go to NOTIFICATIONS on the app, you can customise where you want the push notification radius? So if you are caching in say Para Wirra, you can set the radius for that day to encompass that area and surrounding roads.
These push notifications are sent as soon as there is a fire, they are not the same as the mobile alerts, so you WILL get them when a fire breaks out and is notified. It would make sense for all cachers to use them if you are caching in bush, hills or any country area in summer.
But remember nothing is full proof. A fire has to notified before it can be put on an app.
Hope this is of use to some. The app is easy and it is free.

[WazzaAndWenches]

CFS Alerts that get sent to mobile phones to warn you of a fire are linked to TOWERS rather than phones. What this means is that ALL phones in the vicinity of a tower, in the radius of the fire threat, will get an alert.
....
BUT NOT ALL FIRES ARE SENT AS ALERTS, only if they feel that they will have trouble controlling or containing and it is a threat to home and properties.

Victoria's Country Fire Authority (CFA) Standard Operating Procedure 9.01 details the requirements for sending out alert messages and the procedures to be followed. It basically says that an Incident Controller or above can send out warnings and alerts if they consider it warranted.

CFS APP comes into its own here.

CFA has a new version of its app and it has very similar features. Have a look here

These push notifications are sent as soon as there is a fire

I've noticed my phone can beep anything up to 20 minutes after my brigade pager notifies me of a fire call. Be aware of the time lag and, most of all, be aware of your surroundings.

[Richary]

Here in NSW we have the Fires Near Me app for iPhone, but I don't believe it sends push notifications, though you can check on fires nearby if you are out and smell smoke or whatever.

Another that works Australia Wide is the Emergency Warning Network (EWN) that I have had send me notifications of severe weather (not bushfires, but luckily I haven't been in an area that has needed one so can't comment how well that works). It covers storms, fires, tsunamis etc.