Yesterday there was a grass fire north of Coonalpyn and heading towards our friend's place in Jabuk. We are about 35 minutes north of them and could smell the smoke.
All's good now and under control, but it's something one would like to know about early and keep an eye on. So I thought I'd look for a phone app that would give me incident reports nearby. The SA CFS used to have a good app, but in their own words when I enquired about it not working, I was told that it is no longer supported... Budget cuts??? Who knows.
Most other States have really good apps, like 'Fires Near Me' etc. The only thing I could find was an email notification, so I subscribed. Yep, it worked... every 15 minutes throughout the night to give me updates of fires in Adelaide and all over the bloody State! Needless to say, I am now unsubscribed.
Maybe Smokey may have a solution, but I only want to be warned about fires that may directly affect me, not someone in Ceduna! Why is it that SA seems to be well behind again, especially seeing that they used to have an app that worked well years ago?
Gotta go now, my soapbox is on fire...
A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving. Lao Tzu
Ok, I have just found an app called Alert SA and it actually looks pretty good. It gives you a map view of all fires and allows you to set up to 10 'Alert Zones' for automatic alerts just for those areas, via the phone. It's produced by the SA Fire & Emergency Services Commission.
I did see that one, which is developed by NSW. The one that shows all of Australia doesn't allow you to pick a notification zone and reviews tell me that outside of NSW the info is very slow and basic. So probably not the best for where we are.
A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving. Lao Tzu
Gerry....take my advice don't rely on it....so many have not got the notifications even in set up zones
No, I don't. It's not real intuitive to set up and some of the comments indicate that maybe it wasn't set up correctly. Might increase my zone and see what it does.
A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving. Lao Tzu
Dave, mine definitely sends me notifications. For those who don't, it's most likely they have 'push notifications' turned off on their particular phone or they haven't allowed specific apps to send messages to their phone.
It actually sent me one 12 hours ago, I think for the grass fire near Jabuk. I don't know of any other app that will notify so I'll have to stick with it as well as to keep an eye on the web sites.
A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving. Lao Tzu
Budget cuts??? Who knows.
