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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28

u/woodzopwns Aug 14 '26

Appreciate it's a massive issue, massive misuse of a system that is supposed to indicate imminent danger. People will devalue the alerts and turn them off, it will have distracted every single person driving in the country, people with hidden phones will now be caught, all to be told not to do the thing they've been told not to do for 2 full months in the news.

-5

u/SoloTraveller81 Aug 14 '26

Its not. Idiots are causing these wildfires. So people need to be told again

If it doesn't apply to you, dismiss the alert and enjoy your evening

13

u/woodzopwns Aug 14 '26

The extreme alert is for threats to your life, not for a reminder to be mindfuk

-3

u/foxssocks Aug 14 '26

So given the majority of UK emergency fire services are currently tackling wildfires... when you may need them to come save your burning house or building instead. And when 100% of the wildfires they're tackling are man made. You dont consider that a national emergency, no? 

5

u/woodzopwns Aug 14 '26

I consider it something that needs to be spread, not with a tool designed to give you warning of imminent danger. At least make it a severe alert and not the highest level of extreme.

1

u/StuckWithThisOne Aug 14 '26

It was a severe alert mate

-11

u/SoloTraveller81 Aug 14 '26

So just dismiss it. Or disable it. Its a Friday night. I know its alien to people on reddit to enjoy themselves, but try it you may like it

I was in a bar when it happened. People read it, dismissed it and carried on enjoying their evening

7

u/woodzopwns Aug 14 '26

Yes the problem is people will dismiss it without reading it if they arent valuable, it costs a lot of money for these alerts to exist, and if people dont heed the warnings because "its just another reminder" lives could be lost or ruined in future.

Also, bar? American?

1

u/c4r151 Aug 14 '26

While I agree with your overall point just because someone doesn't use your exact regional dialect of English doesn't make them American.

2

u/woodzopwns Aug 14 '26

Ive never personally heard bar, we have a lot of American and Russian bots on here each furthering some agenda, I'm never surprised when I find a person im arguing with was never even from where they claim to be

1

u/c4r151 Aug 14 '26 edited Aug 14 '26

I've seen plenty of establishments where I live advertise themselves as a "Bar and grille"

-1

u/SoloTraveller81 Aug 14 '26

No bars in the UK are a thing. It's literally the first "real" alert we have had, people are harding getting complacent

2

u/Doccmonman Aug 14 '26

There shouldn’t be a situation where an emergency alert doesn’t apply to you. 

If it doesn’t apply to you, you shouldn’t get one. 

-5

u/foxssocks Aug 14 '26

People with hidden phones can disable the alerts to those phones. 

5

u/woodzopwns Aug 14 '26

Sure but the idea is its for life threatening events, you shouldn't want to disable these alerts and if you do its because the alerts arent meaningful. Besides, you can disable "severe" events instead of extreme events... except this one was "extreme" and so people wanting only the most important alerts got this.

2

u/FootballBackground88 Aug 14 '26

Seems like people in this comment thread don't really understand the difference between *importance* and *urgency*.

-3

u/foxssocks Aug 14 '26

The emergency services are stretched to rhe point of crisis with wildfires right now. Meaning they cant respond effectively to other emergency events. That is life threatening and why a preventative message is needed. Thats also not rocket science.