To summarise so far all the places Fire In Mind has heard where you can sign up to receive emails and SMS alerts of bushfires and severe weather alerts. Some of them are free and some charge a small fee. Most of them are limited to Victoria.
1.
www.19fire.com.au. On this site you can register to receive email and SMS messages telling you of Total fire ban days and more importantly to receive the same message that the firies receive on their pagers for any brigades you nominate, for the cost of the SMS message (ie 25 cents). (Victoria only)
2.
www.ewn.com.au/ which sends an SMS and email free telling you of any emergenecy alerts including storm, fire etc. (National)
3.
michael.tyson.id.au/2008/11/13/firewatch...fire-warning-system/This site provides an sms and email notification of any CFA incidents within 15 kilometres of your home. You can adjust the size of the incident. (Vic only)
4.
www.hsekhon.com/codered/On this site you put in your address and you are shown a map indicating police and CFA stations within either a 10km, 25 or 45 km radius, as well as any fires and their status. As it is an aerial shot with vegetation it can give a good overview of your risk in terms of forest etc. (Vic only)
5.
www.incidentalert.com.auThis is a system of email and SMS alerts that now covers Victoria and Sth Australia. You can nominate a region and up to five towns. The first 100 are free and then I think you need to pay (Just heard about this one so not exactly sure how it works. surpisingly it has been going for four seasons!). (Vic and Sth Aust)
All of these systems have their limitations and drawbacks, you must always keep aware of your surroundings, but they all add to our capacity to receive more information and put the pieces together to make better decisions.
