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AIBU?

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Original poster

When the alert went off, be honest, did you think the Russia had launched one?

217 replies

Tping · 14/08/2026 23:47

When the alert went off did you, for a fraction of a second, think Vlad had finally snapped and pressed the button?

Disappointing if he had because I if I’d known, I’d have added more loo roll to the Tesco delivery.

OP posts:
RaininSummer · 15/08/2026 09:18

I expected it to be a storm alert or for flash floods not that it has actually rained. Would 'they' alert us about a missile? I suspect not because of the panic which would ensue and the fact that we can't do anything about it.

hahabahbag · 15/08/2026 09:20

No because I can smell the fires in my house!

Gcn · 15/08/2026 09:20

What alert??

Dymaxion · 15/08/2026 09:35

No, I thought it was my car complaining about some new aspect of neglect !

Monty36 · 15/08/2026 09:43

No.

Whynottryagain · 15/08/2026 09:52

No, but I assumed there was a terrorist attack or an actual wildfire nearby.

Oldraver · 15/08/2026 09:53

Gitsandshiggles123 · 15/08/2026 00:01

I never got it.....

Me neither, as I turned it off years ago

I heard OH's going off in the distance

MarilynMerlot · 15/08/2026 09:56

I was on a jammed and boiling rush hour bus, so not only was it incredibly loud, we had a bit of a Moment I think it was obvious people were thinking terrorist attack, then some lady yelled ‘it’s about the fires’ and everyone just went oh ok 😂

Katemax82 · 15/08/2026 10:04

Yes I did. All my 4 kids were sat in the front room and called me in cos my phone was going off. My heart stopped for a second because I did think it was the 3 minute warning

Maray1967 · 15/08/2026 10:10

No, I was waiting in my car for someone, read it, and carried on waiting.

Houses have burned due to fires. This is serious and people need to think about what they’re doing.

wreckingmybread · 15/08/2026 10:25

NuffSaidSam · 14/08/2026 23:51

No, didn't cross my mind.

I did for a second think there might have been a terrorist attack as I was on the tube when it off and everyone was a bit panicked!

I was at the airport and exact same reaction there

julie81 · 15/08/2026 10:27

No, we got ours in Welsh first but I pressed something and message disappeared, I said straight away but half joking, that will be telling us not to buy disposable barbecues
edited due to typo

WyrdHag · 15/08/2026 10:27

I just thought 'WTF is the awful noise'? I have two mobiles so got it in stereo.

Like a PP said I was more in a fluster to make the bloody thing stop than thinking about what the message might be.

Loulou4022 · 15/08/2026 10:28

I thought I’d set off the emergency alert on my phone (where you press the side button so many times and it calls the police) as I’d just shoved it in washing basket to take upstairs and as you can guess it had fallen to the bottom of all the clothes so I had to empty it while swearing thinking the police would be on their way!! 🤣

MyOliveStork · 15/08/2026 10:28

No was worried about their being a local wildfire

TorroFerney · 15/08/2026 10:30

On my phone it's a bit like the sound we get when we leave the house phone out of the holster for a bit and it shouts to let us know. It's loud but a kind of muted loud so even though my phone was near me it took me a while to realise it was my phone, I couldn't work out where it was coming from initially.

BobBobBobbing · 15/08/2026 10:31

Was in a pub in the city centre and first thought was terrorist attack, then when I saw the word fire thought there was one in the nearby moor.

Then read the whole thing and went back to drinking.

TorroFerney · 15/08/2026 10:39

daisychain01 · 15/08/2026 06:47

The government has run many trial alerts over the past 2 years. Unless you've been living under a rock, you'd be familiar with the sound, and it's widely known at the moment that there are fire risks across the UK,

stop creating attention seeking threads with titles that are click bait and not useful or funny,

If there are no threads allowed that are attention seeking, and threads have to be useful or funny then this place won't last very long! As an aside I have no memory of many alerts on my phone in fact I think this is the first one where all three of us in the house have had it. I also think people would assume the alert goes off when something has happened, so as others have said, they thought there was a fire near them, this is a slightly different kind of message. It says there's a risk of wildfires - that's not quite right, there are wildfires, maybe they should have stressed that ?

The title of this thread isn't click bait though I don't think, it is asking a question.

BendoftheBeginning · 15/08/2026 10:59

I wondered if there had been a fire evacuation alert, like the emergencies in Canada right now.

Can’t quite believe how much people are complaining about this. The whole point is that the next huge out of control fire could be in your city/town/village/neighbouring field. It only takes a spark, and it’s pretty clear loads of people just aren’t paying attention and think it couldn’t happen near them.

Alwayswonderedwhy · 15/08/2026 11:01

No, my first thought was it one of the kids setting of an SOS on life 360.

hobbledyhoy · 15/08/2026 11:29

In Scotland, never got anything?

UrOutdoors · 15/08/2026 11:33

My first thought was nuclear bomb, but I didn’t think about who might have launched it.

I saw Threads in the 80s when it was shown on TV ( I was 17) and since then, I’ve been waiting to die in a nuclear apocalypse.

AutumnCrowsMusings · 15/08/2026 11:33

hobbledyhoy · 15/08/2026 11:29

In Scotland, never got anything?

You got rain instead.

catlovingfeministgirl · 15/08/2026 11:36

Yes! It made me think of a book I read. Actually, 2 books. One is 59 minutes by Holly Seddon. A nuclear alert is sent. Immediately thought of that. The other book is Refugee by Stella Beake. About an actual nuclear attack on the UK. Very glad this alert was just about potential wildfires!

Ironfloor269 · 15/08/2026 11:37

My first thought was I’d left the fridge door open or that the air fryer was creating too much smoke.