Millions sent wildfire emergency phone alert

bbc.co.uk

8 points·basisword··5 comments

Have to be honest, I wondered if there was a fire alarm going off nearby when it popped up. The fact my phone was sorta near the smoke detector probably didn't help much there.

But it's perhaps not the best use of the system. Feels like this should be for emergencies that pose an immediate threat, especially those in your local area. I don't plan to disable it myself, but I'm definitely less likely to take alerts like this seriously now.

Other than test alerts I think this is the first time this has been used in the UK. It's a great example of how not to use systems like these. Nuclear attack? Earthquake? Floods? Nope - don't use disposable BBQ's as they could lead to wildfires. I'd be interested to see the number of people that decide to disable these now that the government has shown they're irresponsible.

100% agreed - This is a huge overreach of this system and will only do more harm than good.

Saw the first few words and thought there was immediate danger of getting caught in a local wildfire.

Why this alert now, and not a heat warning yesterday, or the last 4 heatwaves that have occurred this year so far? Do we need an alert for pre-emptively avoiding rail travel after the last two derailments?

Sadly the government lost my trust to use the capability responsibly, I've opted out of future messages. https://www.gov.uk/alerts/opting-out

Just did the same for the 'severe' alerts (you can do it in the iPhone notification settings). I thought I might be overreacting but after reading a few threads 90% of people's first thought was "nuclear attack". Using serious tools in stupid ways is only going to cause more problems.

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