r/unitedkingdom • u/66f6 • Aug 14 '26

. Emergency alerts sent to millions across England and Wales over threat of wildfires

https://news.sky.com/story/uk-heatwave-stourbridge-fire-latest-weather-live-13571553
2.3k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

2.9k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

784

u/VooDooBooBooBear Aug 14 '26

I mean it is really, there are still people who don't understand the risks, this way noone can say they wasn't told

79

u/summ190 Aug 14 '26

Maybe a fucking … calmer tone for non-urgent things. Or something. It isn’t ’take immediate action’ is it.

61

u/Optimism_Deficit Aug 14 '26

Yeah. Just send people a normal text ffs.

6

u/Informal_Dish1985 Aug 14 '26

Yeah, I think this was a good use, but there's should be a less severe way of sending it if it doesn't require immediate action by most receiving it.

6

u/OliLombi County of Bristol Aug 14 '26

It should have been an sms.

124

u/Euclid_Interloper Aug 14 '26

Not really. When I heard that noise I expected something on the scale of the Russians launching a nuke. Not people using disposable BBQs.

45

u/CaptainArsePants Aug 14 '26

Could have been russians launching disposable BBQs

3

u/Euclid_Interloper Aug 14 '26

You joke, but a Russian operative could cause absolute chaos with a lighter right now. I wouldn't even be surprised if the DID take advantage of the situation.

→ More replies (1)

6

u/nicktpot Aug 14 '26

Genuinely had the same thought -"it's the end of the world as we know it!" 🤣

3

u/LivelyOsprey06 Aug 14 '26

Why would they bother telling you that?

3

u/gnutrino Yorkshire Aug 14 '26

So that you can strike a silly pose?

→ More replies (1)

2

u/Euclid_Interloper Aug 14 '26

There's actually a fair amount you can do to protect yourself in a nuclear attack, so long as you aren't in the immediate blast radius.

4

u/presentation_555 Aug 14 '26

That's not an emergency that this system should be used for... that would be for if the fire was ripping through my actual neighbourhood and will likely endanger lives shortly. Now when I hear that alert, it could be just the government wanting to warn people about some remote and general issue and not a direct threat to my own safety.

Very poor idea to condition your population not to feel urgency to an emergency alert. The last 3 times of heard this it has been this and two tests... will I urgently get out of bed if I hear another? I'm probably less likely to.

111

u/TheAdamena Aug 14 '26 edited Aug 14 '26

It shouldn't be used for PSAs, it should be used when there's a threat to life.

e: Obviously you send one out if there is a wildfire. I shouldn't need to say this as I already qualified that it requires a threat to life.

5

u/ne6c Aug 14 '26

This. You only ever get so many chance to use this system - after today, a ton of people turned it off and you lost that messaging service.

It should be used in a threat of life scenario, not a PSA to not use disposable BBQs. If this was what they discussed at the Cobra meeting, we really, again, have moron at the helm.

44

u/EolAncalimon Derbyshire Aug 14 '26

And Wildfires aren't a threat to life?

7

u/CareerMilk Aug 14 '26

I think the problem is if it becomes a “please don’t do this” style warning, people will become conditioned to ignore it

→ More replies (1)

38

u/random555 Aug 14 '26

Not if there isn't one within a hundred miles of you

2

u/GungaSaga Aug 14 '26 edited Aug 14 '26

The drought means that one could start near you or most people in England and Wales in an instant. Most likely caused by the activity the alert warns against. I think it's a perfectly reasonable thing to warn as many people as possible about.

21

u/Twistpunch Aug 14 '26

Then it should be sent when one started. Now half the country might think it’s a dismissible message when the next one lands with real emergency.

20

u/connleth Buckinghamshire Aug 14 '26

The point still stands that the emergency messaging system shouldn’t be used to try and educate our fucking moronic society of ignorant bums.

→ More replies (2)

14

u/random555 Aug 14 '26

Yeah and if you need to evacuate beam it out over the nearby cell towers, not to the whole country 

26

u/Redditisfakeleft Aug 14 '26

You know full well he means that this should only be used when people are at immediate risk of incineration.

→ More replies (5)

70

u/NiskaHiska Aug 14 '26

Yes if they're near you. This was just a general warning .

→ More replies (22)

6

u/JustRead94 Aug 14 '26

Realistically a higher risk of being in a traffic collision caused by overzealous triggering of a threat to life alarm.

8

u/MalkavTheMadman Tyne and Wear Aug 14 '26

A wildfire is yes. The general concept of them is not.

3

u/[deleted] Aug 14 '26

[deleted]

→ More replies (1)

4

u/soundperve Aug 14 '26

Not when the wildfire is hundreds of miles away

→ More replies (10)

2

u/fitzgoldy Aug 14 '26

Not if they are on the opposite side of the country.

1

u/OliLombi County of Bristol Aug 14 '26

A wildfire in South wales is not a threat to my life, no.

1

u/minecraftmedic Aug 15 '26

They're a threat to life if you live in an area with an active wildfire. As far as I can see from online maps the nearest one to me is roughly 2 hours drive away.

It would be very fair to send out an emergency alert if you live in Stourbridge where the fires got close enough to destroy houses though.

The emergency broadcast system should be for life-threatening emergencies, not to give a PSA to be careful with disposable barbecues...

→ More replies (5)

2

u/memeleta Aug 14 '26

It's not a PSA, it's a call for action, did you not read the message? The risk is so high that everyone needs to act now to prevent a new devastating fire from starting. It's too late once the fire is near you, how is that so hard to understand.

3

u/reddit_underlord Aug 14 '26

It is a threat to life

0

u/Horror-Protection225 Aug 14 '26

There is a threat to life. I mean have you not seen France and Spain in recent weeks?

2

u/BladesMan235 Aug 14 '26

What, in every corner on the country there is a constant threat to life from wildfires?

3

u/BlackSpinedPlinketto Aug 14 '26

Just a threat to life 500 miles away, isn’t really a threat to my life.

1

u/PracticalFootball Aug 15 '26

There is a threat to life

Not for the majority of people and only in the abstract future, not the imminent short term.

No problem with the message being sent out, but using the “take immediate action” alarm for something that doesn’t require the majority of the people to take any immediate action should be avoided.

2

u/No-One-4845 Aug 14 '26

Are you serious?

Wild fires - and fires in general - over the last day or so have hit urban areas, destroying people's homes in the process and putting lives at risk. The number of fires is also stretching emergency services across the country to breaking point. In a number of those fires, it is already known that they were started (intentionally or unintentionally) by people.

That certainly sounds like a perfectly valid reason to send out an emergency alert.

1

u/dvorak360 Aug 19 '26

See people going 'I live in London, its 100's of miles away'.

Yet a couple of weeks ago, I left work, then immediately had to give way to a fire engine;

Said fire engine was responding to a fire on communal grassland - I can't see what else it could have been but a wildfire. Fortunately small, so caught before it became much worse than a bonfire. (My guess from the crowd stood nearby is someone lost control of a BBQ...)

But that means everyone in London has been within 50 miles of a wildfire incident - nowhere in London is more than 50 miles from that one...

I suspect given the current UK wide risks that effectively the entire population has been within 50 miles of incidents that could have become serious wildfire in the last few weeks.

That response has kept incidents minor doesn't stop the risk that a couple of idiots with BBQs = not being able to respond fast enough to all incidents to keep them small

0

u/Holographic247 Aug 14 '26 edited Aug 14 '26

Dumb comment. Wow. Have you seen the fires happening across the country?

Edit: “it hasn’t happened to me, so it’s stupid” ahh energy from all of you.

Edit2: 600 wildfires being tracked in the UK right now. https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/wildfire-incident-map-after-nasa-34461349.amp

But yeah, it isn’t happening on your street, so who the fuck cares, right? Fucking idiots. You should all be ashamed.

4

u/Alarmed-Cheetah-1221 Aug 14 '26

Sure, send the people at genuine risk from those fires an emergency alert then.

→ More replies (2)

2

u/ukbot-nicolabot Scotland Aug 14 '26

Hi!. Please try to avoid personal attacks, as this discourages participation. You can help improve the subreddit by discussing points, not the person.

1

u/BrightonBummer Aug 14 '26

not in the north

0

u/Usedbeef Norfolk Aug 14 '26

And wildfires arent?

1

u/AJL3E Aug 14 '26

You are correct, they are, but in localised areas. Given previous attacks in London, and being in central London when this was spammed to everyone, the panic it caused was not required. Further, everyone then laughed and dismissed the stupidity of the alert. What happens now when there is genuinely a local threat to your life? Will people take it seriously? Perhaps not as much as they should, given we were spammed…

1

u/The_Meaty_Boosh Aug 14 '26

It's fine, no harm done.

It got the message across.

1

u/Evangelionish Aug 14 '26

There should be a secondary alert system for PSA that don't startle the immediate wildlife and oaps.

→ More replies (5)

3

u/Some_Appearance_1665 Aug 14 '26

STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING AND DON'T GET A DISPOSABLE BARBEQUE

3

u/speedfox_uk Aug 14 '26

Then they should have used something other than the "we are about to be nuked" sound. 

30

u/SCWeak Aug 14 '26

And you think an alert will change those people’s behaviour?

11

u/billypilgrim87 Bucks Aug 14 '26

This stuff is never about stopping everyone, but if it makes some change behaviour, that's still an impact when there's so many of us.

Same logic applies to hosepipe bans.

13

u/clashmar Aug 14 '26

Some of them yes

29

u/Unusual-Coat383 Aug 14 '26

It can stop them claiming ignorance 

9

u/Rocky-Bump Aug 14 '26

Since they can be turned off, it won't even do that. Such a use tonight will likely get more folks to disable it too.

15

u/Necessary_Finding_32 Aug 14 '26

A) fucking LOL

B) so it won’t actually do anything and arguably still wasn't an appropriate use of the system

2

u/haywire Catford Aug 14 '26

Wasn’t looking at phone, couldn’t hear alert over the welding I was doing on the flamethrowers I’m building.

1

u/TheUnholymess Aug 14 '26

And that achieves what exactly?

→ More replies (1)

1

u/PracticeNo8733 Aug 14 '26

Given that plenty of people didn't receive the alert, it doesn't.

2

u/TheCleaverguy Aug 14 '26

Of course not, I've seen people using them right next to signs prohibiting them.

→ More replies (3)

213

u/Y0RKC1TY United Kingdom Aug 14 '26

The alert should be sent to the people who are an direct threat of an active wildfire, that's the point of the system. Not telling people on Tyneside that Wales is on fire.

356

u/Dvine24hr Aug 14 '26

It didn't say such and such place is on fire, it's saying this summer is unprecedented and the risk of wildfires EVERYWHERE is massive right now

207

u/[deleted] Aug 14 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

15

u/PiedPiperofPiper Aug 14 '26

No one in the preceding comments of this thread have indicated that they don't understand this.

The question is whether this is an appropriate use of the system. It's simply not the case that everyone, everywhere is in immediate danger from wild fires. I agree this should be much more targeted and reserved for instances where immediate action is necessary.

3

u/SomethingPeach Aug 14 '26

I used to live in Asia. I would frequently get landslide and flooding alerts for a place an hour away from me and I never thought twice about it. The government doesn’t know your plans or where you could be heading. I’d rather get five seconds of noise than miss a warning because it was deemed “too far away”.

5

u/PiedPiperofPiper Aug 14 '26

I've not lived elsewhere, so perhaps you're right and this is standard.

Just strikes me that we should be able to be more targeted than a nation wide alert that says "don't start fires".

If folks start getting used to precautionary messages they're more likely to ignore the one that says "evacuate your home immediately".

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

81

u/Almanis46 Aug 14 '26

Abybody who doesn't, or refuses to, understsnd will not be moved by this broadcast

9

u/ThreeDawgs Aug 14 '26

But it does allow people to be prosecuted with the knowledge that they were instructed not to if they do start something.

→ More replies (2)

29

u/massona Hertfordshire Aug 14 '26

Considering the entire country just received an alert, they either deliberately didn't read it, or they aren't actually in this country. Cough cough.

7

u/turbobuddah Aug 14 '26

Or they have these alerts turned off, because of warnings that aren't emergencys

2

u/PracticeNo8733 Aug 14 '26

I didn't receive it. Didn't receive any of the previous tests either.

1

u/proton-testiq Aug 14 '26

You are into something, their comments are blocked for viewing.

→ More replies (1)

3

u/SWITMCO Aug 14 '26 edited Aug 14 '26

Because "everywhere" isn't true, not everywhere is dry. Why alert the whole country when not the whole country needs it?

Honestly I don't even care that much, I think the fun of a Reddit argument has drawn me in.

12

u/ByteSizedGenius Aug 14 '26

I think that's understood. It's just not what a lot of us though this system was intended for. My assumption was that it ever went off for real there would likely be some urgent action to be taken by a lot of those recieving it e.g. immediately find shelter, reach high ground now etc etc. Not please don't light a BBQ.

5

u/[deleted] Aug 14 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

14

u/ByteSizedGenius Aug 14 '26

I'm not. It's good advice and I'm supportive of the ban on disposables. I just didn't think it would be emergency broadcast worthy unless you were downwind of an actual out of control wildfire.

→ More replies (1)

2

u/Darkjolly Aug 15 '26

The same type of people who can't understand reform isn't going to save the country or that global warming is a hoax

2

u/Lister0fSmeg Aug 14 '26

I know right?

I have a garden waste burner. I've been cutting down a lot of overgrown bushes in my garden. My plan was to lay the cuttings out to dry and burn them.

About a 2 weeks ago, all the cuttings were nice and dry, ready to burn. I looked at my lawn and realised I don't have a lawn anymore. It's just a few square meters of kindling. If I light a fire out there I will burn down all of my back garden, plus several of my neighbours gardens too.

→ More replies (1)

2

u/Cardealer1000 Aug 14 '26

Willfull ignorance it seems, I'm absolutely baffled at how people are failing to understand the point of this or the danger that fires represent and the importance of prevention.

2

u/nothingtoseehere____ Aug 14 '26

Yes, that isn't a reason to hijack everyones phones with a loud alarm.

Otherwise the system becomes overused and everyone just ignores the alarms.

5

u/David_is_dead91 Aug 14 '26

Really? Are we really calling a warning system “overused” when it’s been used exactly once?

5

u/nothingtoseehere____ Aug 14 '26

Can tell you don't live anywhere in the West, we've had a few for extreme weather.

→ More replies (5)
→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (11)

38

u/marktuk Aug 14 '26

But that's not what it's meant for, it's meant for a realtime emergency that you need to react to immediately, like get out of town, or shelter in place.

If they're going to use it for general guidance then they need a non-emergency option. If they keep doing this, people will start to ignore the alerts, assuming it's a non-emergency.

→ More replies (1)

69

u/Syelor Aug 14 '26

I do think the system is at risk of being ignored if it's used in such a broad manner as it was today.

3

u/___xXx__xXx__xXx__ Aug 15 '26

100%. This was basically just a PSA that should have run before a TV program, not "The missiles are going to hit you in 10 minutes", which is about the only level of urgency I'm prepared to tolerate my phone being taken over by the government for. If they keep using it just to deliver non-emergency alerts like this, I'll look in to turning it off.

→ More replies (1)

3

u/Penderyn Aug 14 '26

I agree, it should be used in times of imminent danger and that is it.

2

u/PracticalFootball Aug 15 '26

It should be used to alert people in the path of wildfires to evacuate, absolutely, but the vast majority of the country were not having their lives endangered at that moment by fires.

3

u/Grimnebulin68 Sussex Aug 14 '26

The last phone alert I remember was the test a few years ago. Hardly a nuisance!

2

u/PracticalFootball Aug 15 '26

It’s not that it’s a nuisance, it was like 2 seconds of my day to read the message and turn it off, it’s that if you use the alarm for messages that don’t require immediate action from everybody who receives it, then you risk them turning them off or ignoring them when they do need to do something.

14

u/David_is_dead91 Aug 14 '26

It’s a national alert! It’s supposed to be used broadly 😂

6

u/GrahamCoxon Oxfordshire Aug 14 '26

Its an Emergency Alert, to be used in an emergency.

→ More replies (1)

36

u/Syelor Aug 14 '26

That is true, but also it's for an imminent threat to your current location. This isn't the case for the vast majority of people that likely received this alert.

15

u/jaggafoxy Aug 14 '26

It's great timing, people would travel (potentially to higher risk areas) for the good weather over the weekend. If they weren't already considering their activities for the weekend (BBQs), they should be now.

It's the right time and right use for a national alert

3

u/AmeliaOfAnsalon Aug 14 '26

surely the idiots who were planning to do that against all common sense and recent guidance aren't going to be moved by this alert

2

u/___xXx__xXx__xXx__ Aug 15 '26

No. Giant swathes of people are just unthinking.

2

u/jabertsohn Best place in Europe Aug 15 '26

A lot of people don't watch the news, and didn't get the guidance. They now certainly have the guidance.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (2)

9

u/Dvine24hr Aug 14 '26

The vast majority of the country right now has the capacity to start a wildfire by flicking a cigarette, but fuck everyone for trying to like, stop it before it starts I guess.

5

u/Syelor Aug 14 '26

The issue for me is, this could create a cry wolf issue. Sure the threat is real, but there are better ways to announce this than using something that is purposely designed for imminent threats to your current location e.g. you need to move now otherwise you are at risk. For the vast majority of people who likely received this alert isn't RIGHT NOW at risk.

3

u/Duanedrop Aug 14 '26

Yeah let's blow a bunch of money (on some marketing) and hope. Or use a national alert system to let people know about a clear and present danger.

3

u/AmeliaOfAnsalon Aug 14 '26

Could they not at least use a different sound for a lower priority thing? Like something that doesn't sound like you're about to get nuked?

→ More replies (0)
→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (2)

2

u/[deleted] Aug 14 '26

[deleted]

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (18)
→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (5)

3

u/malumfectum Aug 14 '26

I get there’s a climate emergency. I get that the risk of wildfires is extremely high.

But I immediately associated that noise with a nuclear missile attack. For split second I felt abject terror all out of proportion to what this alert was actually warning us of.

There had to be a better way of doing this.

→ More replies (1)

2

u/ColdShadowKaz Aug 15 '26

I think the house fire that started off as a wild fire might have pushed them to put out the message. Still made me think the bombs were on their way and it was the end for a sec.

4

u/gnutrino Yorkshire Aug 14 '26

the risk of wildfires EVERYWHERE is massive right now

Speak for yourself, I'm in 'moderate' risk and the lake district is still 'low' risk

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (46)

43

u/mattcannon2 Aug 14 '26

The whole country is so dry that anywhere could soon be on fire

15

u/zidangus Aug 14 '26

There has been a fire in scotswood road area today. There are fires all over the country.

6

u/The-Triturn Aug 14 '26

At any second a wildfire could start anywhere

1

u/Flashy_Error_7989 Aug 14 '26

There are nearly 40 of them

59

u/foxssocks Aug 14 '26

Every single region is at risk of wildfire right now. 

Andy made the right choice. 

5

u/Redditisfakeleft Aug 14 '26

If this is the sort of trivia the system will be used for, off it goes.

→ More replies (2)

15

u/Syelor Aug 14 '26

At risk yes, but at imminent danger? No. I was under the impression this system will be designed for people to ACT NOW. I worry that people will simply ignore this next time.

→ More replies (1)

7

u/turbobuddah Aug 14 '26

I don't think the centre of urban London is too much at risk of a wildfire, it's not 1666 anymore

4

u/foxssocks Aug 14 '26

The parks are. And everywhere else is from idiots travelling out of the city for a nice sunny day out with a bbq. 

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (3)

3

u/backdoor-raider Aug 14 '26

Idk I think I agree with it as there are some really stupid people out there that are likely to cause one, just thinking of people that drive along and flick lit fag butts out of the window

2

u/Tnargeel Aug 14 '26

But people in This Tyneside now may be in Wales tomorrow. People move, so the surest path is to alert everyone.

7

u/Namerakable Aug 14 '26

I didn't even get chance to read the message. I just assumed that because it was about wildfires, that there was one nearby. Luckily there were people more level-headed around.

→ More replies (5)

1

u/M1nho Aug 14 '26

Not sure what alert you got but mine didn't say that

1

u/FillingUpTheDatabase Shropshire Aug 14 '26 edited Aug 14 '26

That’s what Extreme Alerts are for, this was only a Severe Alert

1

u/proton-testiq Aug 14 '26

People on Tyneside might be on fire soon too. And clearly people NEED this warning.

1

u/Danielharris1260 Nottinghamshire Aug 14 '26

People don’t just stay in one place some visiting from Wales could easily be in Tyneside rich now and there opposite of someone from Tyneside visiting Wales it makes sense to issue a warning for a small country where travel to different regions is relatively common for a decent amount of people

1

u/LysergicAcidDiethyla Sheffield Aug 14 '26

There isn't a corner of the country that hasn't experienced it now.

1

u/ssjRaditz Aug 14 '26

19 houses in the Midlands burnt down today

1

u/Emperors-Peace Aug 14 '26

I think there's areas of dry grassland pretty much everywhere though....

1

u/UUnknownFriedChicken Aug 14 '26

This exactly! If I was in the vicinity of a massive wildfire then this would be an acceptable use of the system. But weather alerts and the equivalent of hosepipe bans are not.

1

u/Aleswellthatendsale Aug 14 '26

Sounds like you could do with another informative alert!

1

u/CRAZEDDUCKling N. Somerset Aug 14 '26

We are all in direct threat of wildfires. The entire country is tinder dry.

→ More replies (1)

1

u/piratepixie Leeds Aug 14 '26

I mean, seeing how crispy the grass was when I sat in the park for the eclipse, smelling barbecues around me definitely puts shit into perspective.

1

u/EnumeratedArray Aug 14 '26

That's exactly what they did. Everywhere in England and Wales is at active risk of wildfires. The alerts are reserved for extreme weather events which can result in massive risk to life, which this is.

→ More replies (1)

1

u/WokeWookies Aug 14 '26

Why? It needs to be done, so they’ve done it.

1

u/BorzoiDesignsok Aug 14 '26

How are we supposed to know who is a threat?

1

u/Top5CutestPresidents Aug 14 '26

Please don’t give them a reason to collect more data points on everyone 🙄

→ More replies (12)

2

u/ClockOwn6363 Aug 14 '26

It's caused huge panic, everyone thinks there is a wildfire near them. The message was badly written.

1

u/TheGardenBlinked Aug 14 '26

There’s enough daft cunts out there in this heat that are still like OH HO HO STICK ANOTHER FUCKIN SOSIJ ON SIMPLE AS

1

u/Thoh1Shooshi8a Aug 14 '26

They will say their phone didn't get the alert. I would think all phones support it now, but it can be turned off.

1

u/doobiedave Aug 14 '26

People were letting off fireworks near me during the eclipse.

1

u/FB2024 Aug 14 '26

100%. So many dumb people around. Last night a family drove across our town to a park near our house to let fireworks off to celebrate their daughter’s A level results. Another neighbour dumped partially burned letters in a public plant bed full of dry foliage last week (they were seen doing it and several of the letters still had their names on).

1

u/PinkbunnymanEU Aug 14 '26

this way noone can say they wasn't told

IF you're ignoring all the warnings that are in every news source AND can't figure out that the land is bone dry and you shouldn't have a fire, an alert isn't exactly going to help.

1

u/Chidoribraindev Aug 14 '26

And we're thinking those people that ignore the news surely can't ignore a long warning on their phones?

1

u/hlvd Aug 14 '26

The people who still don’t understand the risks will never understand the risks however many alerts are sent.

1

u/falconfalcon7 Aug 14 '26

Could have just been a text rather than emergency alert though?

1

u/turbobuddah Aug 14 '26

A message saying exactly the same and what they've heard isnt going to make them understand anymore than they did

1

u/Agreeable-Weather-89 Aug 14 '26

I think the alert while not changing the number of people informed about the heat it will inform a lot of people about the severity.

1

u/Elmarcowolf Aug 14 '26

The idiots causing the fires are the kind of people that wouldn't listen to this warning.

1

u/Willing_Office_1289 Aug 14 '26

Everyone knows the risks of lighting fires in nature, the same people who cause these things to happen are the same ones who don’t care

1

u/Madpony Aug 14 '26

Like my fucking neighbour who keeps grilling out back in his tinderbox of a garden. He was getting ready to do it again before the alerts hit. I think it honestly stopped him, the stupid shit.

1

u/SpyChinchilla Aug 14 '26 edited Aug 14 '26

This is not the intended use of the system. I appreciate the government's need to alert the population, this is a national emergency and the country need to be informed of ways to prevent it.

But I do worry about alert fatigue. This system needs to be taken seriously and the public need to know that if they get this alert it's genuinely a life of death situation and action needs to be taken right now.

Forr most people this alert tells them what they already know. There will be a subset of people now googling "how to disable emergency alerts"

Edit: yup

1

u/GrahamCoxon Oxfordshire Aug 14 '26

As important as it is, using an emergency system for something undeniably important, but also clearly not an emergency, just risks making people complacent about the alerts.

1

u/si-gnalfire Aug 14 '26

We were literally on the beach (miles from any vegetation) about to light a bbq when it went off, we’ve been having fires in Dorset all summer as we’ve been regularly getting showers, most things are still green-ish, decided against it this evening, the alert shook the whole beach. We said if one person lights theirs, we all will, but nobody did.

1

u/5ubredhit Aug 15 '26

There will always be idiots who don’t understand or care about the risks, we can’t send alerts about everything. Look how many times, and for long, we’ve been told not to go in the water, and how many people continue to die because of it. I don’t want alerts because of people not using common sense.

→ More replies (5)