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Limitations with wireless alert system complicate evacuations
Posted
February 7, 2023
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February 7, 2023
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5:48Now PlayingIt’s a dangerous combination Colorado knows too well: strong winds, low humidity and a spark in the wrong place. On May 12, firefighters in Colorado Springs raced to put out multiple fires threatening neighborhoods across the city, while 911 operators across several Colorado counties tried to contain a message also spreading like wildfire.
It started in the Stetson Hills neighborhood. A fire in a drainage ditch was threatening homes.
“We’ve got fire behind these houses and running,” a firefighter told dispatchers. “Start evacuating the homes on Summer Grace.”
Firefighters called for evacuations for about six blocks of homes to the west of the drainage ditch. As fire crews asked for more resources to protect homes from what would be dubbed the Akerman Fire, 911 operators wrote up the alert. They drew a shape around the neighborhood on a map to limit where the message would go, and sent out the evacuation notifications through the federal Wireless Emergency Alert system, or WEA.
The system, which is responsible for AMBER Alerts, sends notifications to all cell phones in a geographic area as drawn on a map. It’s distinct from opt-in alert systems that rely on databases of cell phone and landline records in addition to signups from people in the area.
The WEA system is likely to reach more people. On May 12, it did exactly that.
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