EMERGENCY ALERT

Bluebell21
Bluebell21 Community Member Posts: 5,946 Championing
in Coffee lounge

An emergency alert was sent to all mobile phones this evening in England & Wales from the Government with wildfire warning after UK blazes.

The siren on my phone was very loud and made me jump.

Anyone else had this?

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Comments

  • Rag_793
    Rag_793 Community Member Posts: 650 Empowering

    I didn’t 🤣 I have it disabled on my phone

    IMG_2944.jpeg

    No Siren for me

  • WhatThe
    WhatThe Community Member, Scope Member Posts: 6,274 Championing
    https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/148294/emergency-alert

    It was a horrible noise and I wasn't expecting it! I will have to disable them.

  • Bluebell21
    Bluebell21 Community Member Posts: 5,946 Championing

    I wasn't expecting it either. It was a bit of a shock.

  • kreacher
    kreacher Community Member Posts: 624 Empowering

    i disabled alerts

  • luvpink
    luvpink Community Member Posts: 5,366 Championing
    https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/1144506#Comment_1144506

    Me too.

  • Amberpearl
    Amberpearl Community Member Posts: 4,199 Championing

    Yes I. Had 4.it scared me half to death

  • OverlyAnxious
    OverlyAnxious Community Member Posts: 6,389 Championing

    Could barely hear mine and it was in my jeans pocket at the time. Must still be linked to volume on each phone unless denim is a better sound insulator than I thought.

    I think it is a good idea if it stops people carelessly lighting fires or dropping cigarette buts. Where I live all the grass has been cut really short because it was all dead and dried out and just waiting for a single spark to set the whole lot ablaze!

  • Rag_793
    Rag_793 Community Member Posts: 650 Empowering
    https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/1144539#Comment_1144539

    when they did the test the other year, I bounced through the roof, had to take diazepam. Since then I’ve just silenced them for the good.

  • rubin16
    rubin16 Scope Member Posts: 1,617 Championing

    I think it was really stupid for the government to issue an alert like that over something that may or may not happen.

    These alerts should only be used if immediate life is at risk in your area. I feel like they have shot themselves in the foot because so many now will turn them off or disable them, while if anything serious does happen in the future most people will be none the wiser.

  • CarNineSix
    CarNineSix Community Member Posts: 59 Contributor

    Just walked into M&S and the phone went off, people looked and the theirs went off.

    The government using an emergency system to point out the obvious, what will they think of next?

  • Amberpearl
    Amberpearl Community Member Posts: 4,199 Championing

    I think most of the fires is arson

  • Mary_Scope
    Mary_Scope Posts: 5,692 Scope Online Community Children and Family Specialists

    Mine come through in Welsh first (I can't speak Welsh) and I didn't get the English version until about 25 minutes later!! Good job it wasn't an immediate threat 😅

  • OverlyAnxious
    OverlyAnxious Community Member Posts: 6,389 Championing

    I don't think most of it is arson at all. But you're right, deliberate arsonists wouldn't take any notice of the warnings. Not much we can do about those unfortunately.

    I wouldn't wish overthinking on anyone, but there are also a lot of underthinkers! I'm often surprised by how people just don't foresee the consequences of their actions until it's too late. Those are the people who might consider not lighting a disposable barbecue on a pile of dead grass surrounded by heathland…

  • WhatThe
    WhatThe Community Member, Scope Member Posts: 6,274 Championing
    edited August 16
    https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/1144610#Comment_1144610

    Crying wolf? I turned off that alert and kept the more critical one though if there's ever a real emergency, I'll hear my neighbours' shouts and screams well enough without it.

  • Emilee
    Emilee Community Member Posts: 138 Empowering
    https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/1144610#Comment_1144610

    I agree with this. I was quite upset to see it. Perhaps they're not showing the actual scale of issues with these wildfires but it didn't feel worth using the alert system for this and will have caused a lot of panic.

    I haven't turned it off but if they use them again for things like this, I certainly will be.

  • Emilee
    Emilee Community Member Posts: 138 Empowering
    https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/1144606#Comment_1144606

    Yes I agree with this. My phone is permanently on silent and only vibrates for notifications which is more than enough. The noise really isn't necessary.

  • Emilee
    Emilee Community Member Posts: 138 Empowering
    https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/1144731#Comment_1144731

    I didn't realise there were different levels. I'll be looking at that too.

  • Mr_Shoes_Tied
    Mr_Shoes_Tied Community Member Posts: 157 Empowering

    I have them all turned off, I can't handle the noise especially unexpectedly

  • Rosie_Scope
    Rosie_Scope Posts: 9,376 Online Community Team

    This made me jump so badly! I panicked and closed the notification before I could read what it was about. So probably not the most effective way to contact me in an emergency if it was something that needed any action!

    I agree that the noise wasn't necessary for the message that they were sending. If it was something where you needed to take shelter immediately, then maybe that would be useful. But much as the wildfires are a very important issue, this message could have been delivered in a different way in my opinion.

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