New VicEmergency App for download
The new VicEmergency App is available for download now.
The app provides warnings and details of incidents, for fires, floods, storms, earthquake, tsunamis and water safety.i
Go to the EMV website to learn more and download the app.
New features of the VicEmergency app include:
- Incident and warning notifications for all emergencies
- User profile that enables simultaneous access to watch zones and emergency notifications across multiple devices
- Creation of up to 20 watch zones tailored to individual locations and needs
- Ability to edit watch zones and turn notifications on and off.
- Screen view rotation to view the incident map horizontally
- Responsive design for iPads and tablet devices
- The VicEmergency website www.emergency.vic.gov.au upgraded to create and edit watch zones and send email notifications
The new VicEmergency hotline introduced for this summer - 1800 226 226 - brings together all emergency numbers including the Victorian Bushfire Information Line, the Victorian Emergency Relief Information Line and the VICSES Flood and Storm Information Line.
Pager Warning
The VFBV/CFA Joint Communications and Technology Committee is warning members not to rely solely on third party notification providers via their smart phones instead of using their CFA issued pagers.
This follows a report to the Committee that some members are handing in pagers in favour of smart phone apps. The Committee warns that the app providers are not officially supported by the agencies and can remove their service at any time, so they are not a safe way of receiving an alert, even if their coverage or feature set is superior to the current CFA pager.
VFBV has been highly critical of the existing pager that was selected by a multi-agency group several years ago, CFA’s pager contract is due to expire next year and VFBV continues to advocate for the need to urgently address possible designs and feature sets for the next generation pagers, including two way communications ability.
The Committee has called for CFA to include Emergency Management Victoria (EMV) in early discussions, to investigate future pager options and ensure mistakes of the past are not made on the selection of the next generation paging device.
This item is from the VFBV/CFA Joint Communications Committee 2 Minute Briefing - to see more items from the Joint Committees, go to the VFBV website's front page and scroll down to the Joint Committee area.
