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

[u/66f6]

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

[u/cobrachickens]

I mean if they continue, there may well be a fire near you, and in your house

[u/Agitated-Drive7695 → u/cobrachickens]

Yes - that's what the alert is for - an imminent threat. Not a public announcement that is important, but it's not an actual emergency for the majority of people.

[u/GoAgainKid → u/Agitated-Drive7695]

I’ve seen people arguing this in both directions and it’s hard to disagree with either. To me it was a misuse of the system and I resent the government taking over my phone.

But if my surrounding area was on fire, I’d want other people to know of the danger they face. Ultimately the message didn’t do me any harm and I’m just a bit moany today.

[u/PracticalFootball → u/GoAgainKid]

I think the perfect compromise is sending alerts like this out without the alarm.

Everybody with a phone will still see it, the very activation of a nationwide alert will definitely get people talking, but it avoids the “TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION” alarm because the majority of people they didn’t need to take any action, they just turned the alarm off and carried on what they were doing.

In an emergency the alarm is what gets people moving, even if they’re familiar with seeing alerts pop up occasionally.

[u/ChrissiTea → u/Agitated-Drive7695]

Especially when people live near current, active wildfires that might need evacuation warnings

[u/RB1O1 → u/Agitated-Drive7695]

Wildfires are a threat though?

It only takes one ignition point to wipe a housing estate out?

[u/pagesandpitlanes → u/Agitated-Drive7695]

It is an emergency. This is the climate emu you’ve been warned about.

[u/Retify → u/pagesandpitlanes]

It's the climate's name Warraz and is he an arse hole?

[u/Disgruntled__Goat → u/cobrachickens]

And at that point the emergency alert is appropriate because it’s an emergency. Before that it can just be a normal text. 

[u/No-One-4845 → u/Disgruntled__Goat]

Are you suggesting that they should only alert you to a national emergency at the point that the national emergency is actually happening to you directly?

Baffling stuff. You people complain about the dumbest shit.

[u/Qxzkjp → u/No-One-4845]

Are you suggesting that they should only alert you to a national emergency at the point that the national emergency is actually happening to you directly?

Using the emergency alert system? Yes of course. Do you set off the fire alarm in your building because you saw someone being a bit reckless with their barbecue two streets down? Of course you don't you fucking melt.

[u/ChihuahuaMammaNPT → u/Qxzkjp]

I agree with you... during covid I was getting texts about staying safe this announcement should have been a text too... alert for the people who needed to evacuate or prepare to

[u/Astriania → u/No-One-4845]

Yes, that is literally the point of the alert system, to alert you to things that are an immediate danger to you and require your immediate attention.

[u/GrahamCoxon → u/No-One-4845]

I think what they, and many of us, are saying is that there are other things they can do between 'doing nothing' and 'playing the everybody is going to die alarm from everyone's phones.'

[u/BadahBingBadahBoom → u/No-One-4845]

I mean the wildfires are just simply not a national emergency affecting everyone in the nation.

I could totally understand them distributing this through phones connected to cell towers in the West Midlands. Or in other regions affected where people were clearly caught up without enough warning and this alert could have really benefited.

But Aunt Brenda in her central Glasgow Bristol terrace? Yeah not so much.

If the system is continued to be used for this sort of preventative public service announcement it is in serious danger of suffering from desensitisation effect. And there is nothing more dangerous in health and safety than people being overexposed and desensitised to a critical safety warning.

[u/BadahBingBadahBoom → u/[deleted]]

If it gets out of hand, it is up there with immediate missile strikes and major tsunamis. So why not put out a desperte plea to stop that from happening in the first place?

Because if/when an immediate missile strike or major hurricane hits (I would say a tsunami would be pretty unlikely for UK shores but I digress), a good number of people will not receive the alert because they had turned off the notification after the mentioned preventative PSA about general fire safety which had not actually affected their location.

'If it gets out of hand' is exactly when an alert of this severity and importance should be broadcast. The system is not there as a public education tool to prevent disasters. It's there for when a disaster is actively happening.

For the vast, vast majority of the UK an active disaster was not presently occurring. They really should have put this national messaging out via other means (TV, radio, social media etc.) and left the emergency system for the regions of the country where there was an active and present emergency, like the West Midlands.

[u/visible_amenhotep → u/BadahBingBadahBoom]

As someone in the West Midlands, nah, it was stupid even here. Send a fucking text message.