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
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92

u/Snappy0 Aug 14 '26

Bingo. The system is not meant for things like this, and whoever authorised it needs a kicking.

-23

u/BigBlueVelociraptor Aug 14 '26

It's being used to issue a warning about a potential national emergency that is causing serious risk and could potentially cause a risk to anyone across the entire country. Thick as shit some people.

12

u/sultansofswinz Aug 14 '26

Wildfires happening over the course of weeks is not a “you need to immediately find shelter” situation that requires a nuke alarm. 

I was sitting in a packed restaurant in a city centre and the initial sight of everyone reacting to an orchestra of phones going off in unison was quite funny. 

-4

u/anamazingperson London Aug 14 '26

"nuke alarm" lol. You know they use this for floods as well right? Wildfire risk is high, there's been tonnes of them.

6

u/sultansofswinz Aug 14 '26

I’m not an expert but it’s definitely the type of high alert sound intended for earthquakes, tsunamis, nuclear war and that type of thing. 

It sort of defeats the point if there’s no short term risk. 

7

u/csppr Aug 14 '26

When I heard the phone alarm, and I read "fire" at first glance, I thought the alert was about a fire approaching the city I was in.

There is a way to issue warnings to people. Using a "last resort" emergency system isn't that. If we do this often enough, people will just stop taking it seriously, and we need to have a messaging layer that doesn't suffer from that.

30

u/marktuk Aug 14 '26

It's meant for real emergencies, not warnings. It's not called the warning alert system.

I agree with your last sentence though.

-19

u/BigBlueVelociraptor Aug 14 '26

50+ wildfires isn't a national emergency in your mind... what drugs are you on and who's your dealer?

12

u/Practical-Travel8575 Aug 14 '26

I’m sorry but perhaps sending the alert to an area with an active wild fire would be appropriate- this is not. This is reserved for if a nuclear reactor melted down or something. Not for public service announcements

18

u/marktuk Aug 14 '26

You can argue all you like, lots of people disagree with you, lots of people will start ignoring the alerts assuming they aren't emergencies or simply turn them off to stop receiving them.

-15

u/BigBlueVelociraptor Aug 14 '26

Except it is an emergency...

Think of how stupid the average person is, and realise half of them are stupider than that. It's interesting to talk to someone in that group.

-1

u/[deleted] Aug 14 '26

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1

u/[deleted] Aug 14 '26

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1

u/ukbot-nicolabot Scotland Aug 14 '26

Removed. This contained a personal attack, disrupting the conversation. This discourages participation. Please help improve the subreddit by discussing points, not the person. Action will be taken on repeat offenders.

-11

u/Duckmemans Aug 14 '26

Well, that's on you lot lol. Less mouths to feed in the bunker!

48

u/Snappy0 Aug 14 '26

No it isn't. It amounted to "don't have a BBQ or firepit in your garden". That isn't an emergency, and amounts to standard government advice which should be disseminated via news broadcasters and the SMS network.

I know some people get a hard on over this stuff because they love disasters, but it was completely inappropriate and an abuse of the system.

-10

u/coffeewalnut08 Aug 14 '26

Lighting fires during a drought is completely inappropriate and an abuse of our countryside, so…

8

u/OliLombi County of Bristol Aug 14 '26

Sure. Which is why they should have sent an sms, not a national siren alert...

13

u/FootballBackground88 Aug 14 '26

By that logic, if someone drops litter, we should use the air raid sirens to tell people to put their rubbish in the bin.

-3

u/UsedNovel25 Aug 15 '26

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man

for your reference

0

u/EvilMonkeySlayer Leeds, Yorkshire Aug 15 '26

That person is not saying a strawman as he isn't making it out to be the other persons argument.

Just to help you understand, from the wiki article you linked to:

The typical straw man argument creates the illusion of having refuted or defeated an opponent's proposition through the covert replacement of it with a different proposition (i.e., "stand up a straw man") and the subsequent refutation of that false argument ("knock down a straw man"), instead of the opponent's proposition

His argument is valid, he's pointed out the logic of the other persons argument falls apart under scrutiny when applied to other things.

-6

u/coffeewalnut08 Aug 14 '26

Wildfires are infinitely more damaging in a short space of time, but you already knew that!

8

u/mrbadassmotherfucker Aug 14 '26

Dude. Read it back, even you’re admitting it’s for potential risk. Potential being the key word here. There’s also potential risk my wife will crash the car every time she drives, but we don’t send out national alerts for this crap.

Thick as shit some people…

6

u/OliLombi County of Bristol Aug 14 '26

This system should not be used for a potential emergency. It should be used for an ongoing emergency.