Twitter launches emergency alert service for floods, fires

SOCIAL network Twitter launches an emergency alert service for Australian users today with bushfires and floods top of its agenda.

ORIGINALLY designed to save only your social life, Twitter will today reveal partnerships with 14 Australian organisations to assist in an emergency situations.

Alerts from Twitter will be available in Australia immediately, delivering real-time notifications to smartphones in the case of a fire, flood or criminal outbreak.

The alert system, to which Twitter users can subscribe, will see organisations send SMS and pop-up messages to smartphones, and highlighted messages on users' Twitter feeds.

Five Australian state police services, four fire services, and national and local government agencies will participate in the scheme.

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Twitter Australia media partnerships director Danny Keens said launching the service in Australia was a "priority" for the company as Australian tweeters were quick to talk about disasters online.

"We would have liked to launch it earlier here but we only opened the local Twitter office in August," Mr Keens said.

"The key thing was trying to get it out before summer because we tend to have a lot of bushfires - it's a critical time of year for fires - and moving into January and February there's often flooding."

Two natural disasters - Brisbane's January floods (#bigwet) and New South Wales' October bushfires (#NSWFires) - ranked as the two most talked about news events in Australia on Twitter this year.

The social network launched the Alerts service in the US, Japan and South Korea in September, and in the UK and Ireland last month.

In its first months in operation, it warned users of a shooting in Washington DC and flooding in Essex.

Australian organisations signed up to the service include NSW, Victorian, Queensland, Western Australian and South Australian police services, fire services from NSW, rural NSW and South Australia, and government agencies including the Department of Health, and Brisbane and Sydney local councils.

NSW Rural Fire Service deputy commissioner Rob Rogers said the social media alert system would be "another tool in the toolbox" for emergency services, which were already striving to get messages out to the widest audiences.

"Since the Victorian fires of 2009, fire agency roles have become 90 per cent fighting the fire and 10 per cent telling people what is going on," Mr Rogers said.

"There can be two types of messages, primarily: a fire is going to impact you and if you're going to leave, leave to the east or west or, if there is only limited road access, to stay in place in shelter.

"If you get that wrong, it could have serious consequences."

Twitter users can sign up to the service by visiting the profiles of emergency services and subscribing to alerts.

Alerts will arrive in an SMS message, though users of Twitter's Google or Apple apps will receive pop-up notifications.

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AUTHORITIES PARTICIPATING IN TWITTER ALERTS

NSW Police (@nswpolice)

Victorian Police (@VictoriaPolice)

Queensland Police (@QPSmedia)

Western Australia Police (@WA_Police)

South Australian Police (@SAPoliceNews)

The Australian Government's travel advisory and consular (@smartraveller)

The Department of Health (@healthgovau)

The NSW Rural Fire Service (@NSWRFS)

Fire & Rescue NSW (@FRNSW)

Country Fire Service South Australia (@CFSAlerts)

The City of Brisbane (@brisbanecityqld)

The City of Sydney (@CityofSydney)

The Australian Red Cross (@RedCrossAU)

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