FireReady bushfire app sent out false alerts, users complain
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Version 0 of 1. The Victorian government has been forced to defend a smartphone app designed to inform people about bushfire warnings after several users complained it failed to operate properly during sweltering temperatures on Saturday. A number of small bushfires were tackled on the weekend in conditions considered the most risky for fire in several years in the state. But some users of the FireReady app, a $3m creation of the Victorian government, complained it failed to provide updated information on fires, as well as sending out false alerts. The state government told Guardian Australia the issues were down to people using an old version of the app, which was overhauled on 16 December. But several users have complained that the new app is not adequate either, with one posting on an Android forum: “I live and work in a high fire risk area and had the old app working perfectly on my Android Galaxy S. “The new app will not even open for me. I keep getting the registration failed message when I try to open it. I have followed all the tutorials and nothing has helped. Sometimes this app was my only available emergency information and now I am left with nothing!” FireReady, which is meant to handle the sending of more than 2.4m bushfire warning messages a minute to 1 million users, experienced problems in November, when it sent fire alerts to thousands of Victorians when there was no threat at all. In January the system failed due to the number of people using the service. Peter Marshall, secretary of the Victorian branch of the United Firefighters Union, told Guardian Australia several members of the public had expressed concern. “The complaints and problems are indicative of the issues under premier Denis Napthine, who can’t get anything right when it comes to fire safety,” he said. “Essentially, we’re seeing a government out of its depth and people at senior levels unable to release something that works properly. “The issue is that the Victorian public are test dummies if the wrong information is given. It’s a Russian roulette. You’d be better off buying a video game and playing that, it would be more reliable than this app.” A spokesman for Victoria’s fire commissioner, which oversees the app, told Guardian Australia FireReady had been taken up by 100,000 people and worked well. “We’ve looked into these issues and the problems are experienced by people using the old app,” he said. “They need to download the new app, which is performing well. “The old app was decommissioned on 23 December but if you haven’t updated it, with the push notifications you should be getting, you can still go into the app and it will appear to be working OK. We are promoting the new app heavily so people are aware of this change.” Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. |