Government alert?!?!

We have had two bad fires, at least one of which could have been avoided by banning disposable barbecues at the start of summer.

We are definitely not as tinderbox-like as England, but we still have people going about saying “Lovely weather we’re having” when actually no, 27C may feel nice and warm but is actually a massive alarm bell! When I was a kid in 00s, 18C was considered unseasonably warm!

I think emergency vehicles get our attention and make us on high alert, but the gov alert noise is one most of us are not at all used to. It's not strange for it to have alarmed people.

For most of us in Wales the actual message is less of a discussion point than the fact we all had to wait a few minutes to read it in English!

A prolonged alert on your phone is not an everyday thing like sirens.
And if you are driving, you are not allowed to turn it off if it means touching your phone.

They must regard the whole of the UK to be under immediate threat.
I don't think that's unreasonable for large parts of the UK which are in drought conditions and wild fires a high risk.

Because it was an alert. What would you like to happen? Interviews on all the news channels saying, "We'll send you an important message about fire safety/flood/armed men in your town in 2 hours; make sure you read it"

I had one in Spain a few months ago. We were on a fast motorway near the sea and got the alert to move inland due to big waves and wind.. Nearly careened into the bloody sea.

Yeah, you could probably say the same about ambulance and fire engine sirens...

Yes that's what I thought.

It was introduced in March 2023 (according to Google). Nothing to do with Covid.

I agree. Can't they send a normal warning message without the scary noise? It should be for things that are imminent threats, otherwise people will start to ignore them in future.

Boy who cries wolf springs to mind. Now everyone's turning off their alerts 😕

Well looks like the local yobs have taken the message as a challenge.

One of the fields behind me is now on fire. It's private agricultural land with no public access so the only way it will be alight is by deliberate arson.

Luckily it was spotted early ( no need for a national emergency alert, we could all see and smell it) and is now pretty much out.

One reason is for people who do not want those around them to know they have a phone (victims of domestic abuse for example).
It's recommended to only turn it off if you have to, it could potentially be life saving.

Yes Dd came out her room and translated from the top of the stairs for me. Dh said handy we'll be ready ahead of None Welsh speakers if we're under attack.
I thought it might be weather related as it had gone so cloudy and dark. We've had weather alerts before for high winds, all we got was a piece of someone's shed roof from the wind god, I was hoping for something more interesting.

Absolutely stupid! If it’s used for ridiculous things like that then people will turn it off or won’t pay attention when it’s really needed. The boy who cried wolf..

It would be incredibly dangerous for some people if they couldn’t be turned off.

For example someone with a second phone making plans to flee an abusive relationship could be put in serious danger if suddenly a hidden phone went off.

Women’s aid did a big thing about how to turn them off when the first test one was going to happen.

Scotland and N Ireland are often blue on the weather map!
Don’t think you’re as tinder dry as we are further south - our grass is yellow/brown and we’re classed as north.

I don't think there were Covid ones were there? We had the test ones (well dh got them, I didn't) and then locally one for a storm warning. When at home I often get two as the signal is up and down and it can sometimes pick different masts up (so I'm told).

My phone used have the option to turn them off greyed out, so it was not possible to disable them.
Now there it not even a setting for alerts, and my phone has not gone off during the tests last year or today.

no they weren’t?

well we’ve managed without them until now, so I’ll be just fine thanks.

It didn't particularly alarm me personally, but why didn't they advertise it on the news a few hours in advance so that most people would know it was coming?

Absolute misuse of the system. Abroad I’ve had wildfire alerts along the lines of there is a fire in this area if you are located between towns A, B and C please evacuate along this highway to this region. Sensible and appropriate. Asking people not to start fires is not an appropriate use for the system which is meant to notify you of an immediate and ongoing threat to life and if it is abused in this way will end up not being fit for purpose.

Yesterday's news mentioned that you can report any fires in the open such as bbqs, camp fires, etc. to the Police via 101.

Sadly we do live in a society when some people have to have the blindingly obvious pointed out to them. Public toilets have signs up telling us to wash our hands, signs are on the roadside telling us that drinking and driving kills and so on

The alert was meant to get our attention, this is a critical incident and the threat to life is high In addition to all the reported pressures on frontline emergency services there will be knock on effects in terms of response to all emergencies. I can guarantee that there are people who do not realise that 999 calls for all the services are answered by BT before being passed to the relevant service. One of the greatest risks an emergency service can face (the greatest risk in my humble opinion) is the emergency they don’t yet know about Once the relevant call taker starts the conversation the risk is starting to be managed.

If BT are struggling with a high volume of calls, even a few seconds could be life or death for a DA victim or an RTC scenario.

Like many people I am politically disillusioned at the moment (not just the current govt) but I do think they’re damned if they do and damned if they don’t