SA Firefighter

Quote from: pipster on November 05, 2006, 06:07:39 PM
But do you have a UHF radio?    If not, it is not something you would / should be necessarily aware of.....

Some time ago, I was doing some updates on brigade contacts, and found that the alarm number for a number of brigades was actually the Captain's home phone number.   I thought that was a bit sad, for one person to be the emergency phone contact point for the brigade, so I spoke to a Captain, and asked how it worked.

Everyone in the district (CFS members, plus everyone else!) all had UHF radios - in their tractors / farm equipment, in their private vehicles, in their houses.   If a fire started anywhere within the district, the first person who spotted a fire called it in on UHF, and the whole district knew immediately......

Obviously, this sort of system won't work everywhere, but in the more rural / primary producer area, can work quite well.....

Pip

Dear Pip

We resolved a method of including BFA alert broadcasts over UHF some time back however at that time we understood such automated transmissions would not be legal to do so.

We agree that UHF is popular however our research showed that most people in bushfire prone areas in Australia do not have access to UHF radio, or if they do then not all the time, the mobile phone was by far the device most widely available, plus the mobile has the advantage of being able to pro-actively start ringing to alert people regardless of time of day or where people are at the time. For example, most people living in the Adelaide Hills do not have UHF radio. Because no one method can be guaranteed of reaching everybody everytime, we send alerts via home phone, work phone, mobile phone, SMS, email simultaneously, giving people the best possible chance of receiving alerts.

Regards Bill
Bushfire Alert.

Dear Andrew

Thank you for your comments.

Bushfire Alert system complements the information provided on the CFS website and ABC radio.

People are well aware that the CFS and the ABC provide valuable information in severe fire situations. Our literature also emphasises this message such as 'once alerted and in a severe fire situation please tune into the ABC radio for further updates'.

Bushfire Alert is used to provide the initial alert plus key updates, however as mentioned we recommend to tune into the ABC radio in a severe fire situation.

It is important to note that many bushfires are not reported on the CFS website or on the ABC radio, however these fires are important to people in the area of the fire. The CFS media message says "it is up to you", and the Bushfire Alert system enables people to do just that - it empowers communities to take control of their own situation just as the CFS media messages recommends to do.

The Bushfire Alert system enables communities to send and receive information on ALL fires in their area hence addresses a need that is not fulfilled by any other means, thereby complementing the other sources of information.

We have ofered the primary combatant authority the use of our services to get information out to the public for some years now, however this has not been taken up.

We share your responsible concern with the lack of battery powered radios, our market research supports this concern. Perhaps there is more that could be done to get this message across to the public, I am happy to discuss these themes further if you wish to contact me direct.

Regards Bill
Bushfire Alert.

Dear Robert34

You are correct, I have found your enquiry record on our system, although this was only earlier this year. Time flies!

The BFA system plays the message left by the caller, not a pre-recorded or 'canned' message. In this way people are alerted plus they gain information about the fire.

Robert we would be delighted to help you activate BFA for your local community. Your area requires additional properties to sign up to activate BFA for that area, this is a practical requirement, not financial. Would you like some information packs for you and your neighbours? Due to privacy legislation and other factors, to receive fire alerts people and communities need to pro-actively take this on and opt-in, nothing will come to those who wait. Please don't hesitate to contact me direct if we can help you in any way.

Regards Bill

Dear CFS_Firey

For a fire authority to initiate an alert, yes it would require special cooperation.

Good point on the Privacy issues, this is one of the main reasons why the BFA service is offered as an 'opt in' service to initiate and receive alerts.

Being community and opt-in based, any BFA community member can initiate an alert regardless of their occupation or membership with any other service or system.

Regards Bill

Dear CFS_FIREY

The fire authorities that have contacted us have been positive and supportive and some have helped to form BFA communities. This has progressed such that we have now also added a feature to enable command group leaders to receive the alerts - they receive additional information about which community the alert is from, as well as the standard information about the fire.

We would be happy to cooperate with fire authorities and for them to initiate the alerts. This was our original proposition some years back and remains open.

It is important to note the the BFA system is designed to complement existing fire authority communications and in no way interfere or replace them. Our focus is to provide information about fires to communities however there is obvious overlap as volunteer fire fighters also are an integral part of any community. 

Regards Bill

Excellent question of BAJDAS on hoax calls.

Bushfire Alert allocates a dedicated fire reporting phone number for each community. We currently have about 1,000 numbers pre-allocated across Australia which is increased on demand.

The system accepts fire reporting calls from all registered phone numbers for that community, the system then progresses immediately to begin broadcasting the alert voice calls, SMS and email messages. In the case where the call originates from a non-registered phone number then the call may be intervened.

The system does take hoax calls into account, however we do not publish the exact nature of this process and I trust that you understand the reasoning for this position. 

Feedback from our live communities using the system confirm that they prefer to get messages than have no messages as was their situation before Bushfire Alert.

Regards, Bill
Bushfire Alert.