AnyAnyone else just had the wildfire alert on their phone?

[OonaStubbs]

Anyone else just had the wildfire alert on their phone? It scared me to death. There are no wildfires round here that I know of.

No idea but no one in my family got it in Central Scotland. Don't think we are in a drought area but obviously we have been told to conserve water. There have been wildfires in Cairngorms a fair distance away and also much nearer here on Arthur's seat.

I'm also in Scotland and don't know anyone here that had it. We've had rain today and yesterday here (Edinburgh).

People in DV situations with spare phones if known to a service will have been advised to turn them off to avoid being outed.

The noise scared the life out of me (phone on silent) I then had to google as I didn’t read it from getting it to stop beeping 🙈

Cornwall so not a million miles away 🤞

I don't think any servuce had pre warning though?

I did think bout all the parents trying to settle children for bed at 7pm too 😣

Indeed, and it's great to educate people- maybe via normal text messages. An emergency alert should be kept for just that- an immediate, serious emergency.

It strikes me that only those of us that live in the South West of the UK have heard this alert in earnest before, so most PPs won't understand its efficacy when used sparingly.

Storm Goretti was intense, and it came on terrifyingly fast. Half an hour before we got 100mph winds, it was still a moderately windy night, and my idiot teen was going "Why do I need to come home? It's not even that windy!" I was able to say "Come home NOW", they've sounded the emergency alert, THIS IS FUCKING SERIOUS!". Two hours after that our village was completely cut off by falling trees, as was the next village, tens of thousands were without power for about 3 days, thousands without water for longer, everywhere you went there were twisted masses of trees and power cables. Yet only one person was killed (and he was at home in his caravan), because everyone had got the alert and hardly anyone was out on the roads.

If we ever find ourselves in the same situation again, Idiot Teen will be all "Oh they just sound these alerts for anything, they're just overreacting, I'm staying out riding my bike" or similar 🙄

Well I’m glad they have sent it out. We had moorland fires for over a month. Still dealing with some of the hotspots. And still last weekend fire officers had to go out and deal with at least fifteen bunches of tit ends having campfires and barbecues out on the hills. Absolute idiots.

Where in Cornwall is it raining?!

Just been speaking to the parents of a child with autism who I support. I've worked with their family for years and we are close. The alarm triggered a huge meltdown, they are in for a rough night 😟

I do think the alarm was necessary though.

Exactly. I thought it was pretty spot on in terms of message and timing.

The govt are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. So what if people didn’t like being disturbed? Any numpty who thinks that having a BBQ, bonfire or a basket fire to toast effing marshmallows this weekend needs a good bloody shake.

I was driving! Every car around me braked hard. So dangerous.

DH got it first, in Welsh. We are not in Wales and he doesn’t speak Welsh. Luckily I got the English version so we quickly realised we didn’t need to panic.

Yes, most of us live in areas which haven’t had a fire … so there’s lots of dry grass, wood etc still around.

"we live near a camp site
what will the campers do?"

Surely no responsible campsite is going to allow barbecues etc. It could only take a couple of sparks to start a fire which could be disastrous and as someone said, overstretched Fire Services may not be able to quickly come and deal with it. It's just not worth the risk. Anyway it's too hot!

Will it stop dickheads or will they just carry on anyway? Some knobhead let off a few fireworks only a few days ago near us. Not enough to be a display but half a dozen randomly. Can't see a message stopping that mentality.

Areas where there been wildfire already know the risks only too well.

How much water? Small rivers won't prevent it crossing over unfortunately.

I don't understand why drivers were affected by it? Your phone should be no where near you.

IMO it was a complete waste of time. Sensible people know to take care without being told, but the idiots will just carry on doing what they're doing.

I think it was a good idea to send it as everyone will have seen it. There are many many people who don’t keep up with news and don’t use their common sense. At least this way everyone is at least told. You can’t fix stupid though.

I wouldn't use them at this moment in time. But if you want to keep them and are likely to use them I'd put them in a shed if possible rather than adding to potentially flammable stuff in the house

Because it made a loud noise???!

Water ; if we had a better water supply and people would still water then we wouldn't be in quite such a massive shit hole.

Burnham needs to move on the water companies yesterday and sort it out.

I've been vwrr seen so many burst pipes.

It's ok . They are in the bath now for peace of mind. Thank you

I use my phone hands free as a sat nav.
The alarm sound was very loud and completely unexpected. I didn't have a clue what it was.
If I had be driving, not only would it have immediately startled me, but I would have assumed something wrong with the car.

And clearly something that has been sitting unused for years is not going to suddenly spontaneously combust!!

I came on here expecting some drama, and while this isnt exactly drama it was worth coming on just for that!!

It made me panic thinking the nearby moors had gone up! It seems a bit late as a general warning. Poor Stourbridge people.