About Incident-Alert (IA)
The intent of the Incident Alert (IA) System is to allow office workers who reside on the fringe of Melbourne to receive timely information about bushfires in their home area.
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How does Incident-Alert process a new bushfire?
When a new fire is recorded on the CFA website we work through the list of IA subscribers and check if their profile matches the new fire. We can then activate one or more processes to alert the affected subscribers to the Fire. The process is fully automated.
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Is the IA system real-time?
No. You should be alerted to an incident within ten minutes of the fire station siren being activated. During overnight upgrades and unplanned outages this may be a bit longer. |
Is IA part of the CFA or state government?
No. We have no connection to either of these entities. |
Do you need to use this system?
No. The Country Fire Authority and DSE both have excellent websites displaying the same information as IA does. |
Why did we not alert you to an incident.
We are reliant on numerous computer systems over the world all talking to each other. Some times they don't and this prevents us in providing a 100% service. You should not rely solely on the IA website to make decisions.
Other reasons that you did not receive an alert are the mistyping of street addresses, the incorrect location cited or that the incident was not noted on the CFA system. Getting Tiddles the cat down from a tree may not warrant the incident being logged or you being informed.
A further reason is that a bushfire in your area might be initially called in as a smoke-siting in the neighboring area and it is only until the attending crews correct the location that you may get the alert. |
What is a false positive and why should I not be too concerned?
False Positives are where you receive an alert which does not particularly affect you or it is for an incident on a cold wet day that could not cause you a problem. With the CFA callouts in the tens of thousands each year, it is impossible to limit each user to just the particular incidents they require without manual intervention. |
Are you charged for the data?
Certainly not. IA charges for certain delivery processes (SMS, Pagers, manual escalation and monitoring) due to the cost of providing this and for heavy users of email as this is another additional cost. We attempt to keep these costs down to a minimum. The majority of the subscriber fee goes to our service providers; with a small provision to allow for upgrade the processes and systems for 2006/2007 fire season. Anything left over will allow the site owners to ride for Australia in the 1247km Paris-Brest-Paris cycle event in 2007. |
Does IA sell or provide personal data to third parties?
No. Data privacy is extremely important to us and we hate spam as much as you do. We only send alerts, very occasional system administration messages and a few feedback emails to you. We will never pass on private data to another party or allow our subscriber list be used for spam. We however ask that you accept the small third party ads in the alert emails and on the website as a method to contain costs. |
How can I find out more?
Please use the " Contact IA " in the top menu. We love feedback and would be interested in any suggestions you have for the site - constructive or otherwise.
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