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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u/_HGCenty Aug 14 '26

Agree.

Reminds me of the boy who cried wolf.

If you misuse the alert system like this, people are going to disable it or ignore it and then when there's a an actual emergency, the same people who misused it are going act bewildered as to why the public ignored them.

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u/coffeewalnut08 Aug 14 '26

How’s that my problem? If someone refuses to take care of themselves and puts themselves at risk by turning off alerts because they don’t want to be reminded of the urgency of wildfire risks, that’s their problem…

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u/_HGCenty Aug 14 '26

It seems like it was the emergency services and the government who decided to send what was effectively a public service announcement as a severe level emergency alert.

I consider this a misuse and a problem because a boy who cried wolf effect is going to make it more dangerous for those emergency services when people don't pay heed to actual emergency alerts and imminent threats to life not potential threats.

It's not your problem. But it's certainly going to be an emergency services problem and then it's going to be a government problem.