Did anyone else NOT get the wildfire alert?

[Brownbananaspot]

Just curious as nobody in my house did (we don't live particularly rurally but there is no phone signal here so we rely on WiFi calling). When the system has been tested previously we bavn't had the alerts then either.

It seems a but of a flawed system if it doesn't get through. I can only assume it's due to our poor signal unless there's a different reason.

I found it later in notifications but there was no sound on my phone. I was a few feet away from it at most making dinner. I only knew about it because i read about it on here. My mum was freaked out by it and thought she’d done something wrong with her phone. The moors near us have been on fire for weeks so it’s common sense not to have any fires. In July it was hard to breathe some days and we couldn’t have windows open at night because of the smell of smoke. Awful when it’s a heatwave and the only cool air was at night. Asthmatic too so really unpleasant but some people were still having garden fires 🤬

They weren’t slightly different times. All the neighbours at the party got the alarm at 7 pm.

I was talking to the care home at 8.39 pm, during their third alarm.

Yes, it's up there with the usual mumsnet response to people who don't routinely answer knocks at the front door.

"What if it was the Fire Brigade!!!!???"

In an emergency evacuation situation the Fire Brigade don't just politely knock once then bugger off if nobody responds. Nobody is going to die in a housefire because they don't answer unsolicited knocks on their front door.

I doubt anyone is going to be totally oblivious to all the other signs that there is possibly an emergency at hand just because they don't have emergency alerts active on their phone. I didn't even own a smartphone prior to 2015 and frequently leave mine at home switched off in any case.

At the moment the fire brigade won’t have the manpower to knock on doors

Exactly. It's not like it happens that often. People who turn off their alerts are just being awkward for the sake of it. What if everyone did that. It's the quickest way to communicate an emergency to most people!

I also did not get anything. I am in the South East of England. Did not get them last year either when they did the testing.

I have a smart phone, reasonably recent, so it shows that system needs some serious improvement.

You wouldn’t think it was odd if you had several autistic children like me 🙃

If my 6 year old heard that alarm, she’d spend hours, days, weeks asking me if the world is about to end.

The point is more that if your property is on fire, or at immediate risk from a fire, the attending FB don't just knock normally on your door like a random caller and then assume there is nobody home if you do not respond, hence why not routinely answering knocks at your front door does not expose you to added risk from fire and why that common MN response is ridiculous.

I think this is a good point. There are other ways to tell people to stop being idiots and lighting dangerous fires. Maybe the government thinks people don’t take it seriously enough?

Our DD1 (17) had 2 alerts whereas my DH and I only got one each.

I think it was a good idea, requested by the fire service, but I have doubts that it will stop idiots from lighting fires.

Surely it is also a notification that issues an instruction, therefore can enforce punitive action if not followed

That sounds horrendous. What will she do when she has to face the real world?

Air raid sirens were still used as a flood warning when I lived on an island 20 years ago. They tested them periodically and I found it very frightening. But certainly very effective.

It’s a broadcast system via phone masts so yes you need phone signal for them to work.

The fire service requested them.
how are the fire service misusing an emergency alert geared at asking people not to risk starting fires?

i believe the saddelworth fires were set off by spent fireworks, I live in Chester and could smell the smoke.

even if it helps mitigate risk by a small percentage it is absolutely a valid use of the warning

All irrelevant. It was a misuse of the emergency system.

I did get this one. Actually, dd and I got it twice. But the last alert (I think it was for high winds or something), I never got at all. But everyone else in the house did.

was it? Are there published guidelines on what they are meant for?

We all got one and my daughter got 2!