By Thia James

Fire dept. launches sign-up campaign for new mass alert system

Apr 1, 2015 | 11:28 AM

Prince Albert’s emergency mass notification system will soon be live and residents can register to receive the alert messages right now.

The Prince Albert Fire Department (PAFD) is encouraging residents to create an account if they want to receive text or email messages for the city’s emergency mass notification service, P.A. Alert. The system already has residents’ White Page listings pre-loaded into it. It can even send messages via pagers and fax machines.

In an emergency, the system will send messages to residents via these means. Residents who set up accounts will be able to tailor their alerts, so they can receive notifications about neighbourhoods outside of their own, such as where their child’s school or daycare or parents’ home is located.

Deputy fire chief Corey Rodgers said on Wednesday morning the system is currently ready to send out messages, but the PAFD will be sending out a test alert on May 30.

“But the important thing is we need people to register with contact information, so we can give them that information,” he said. For the next two months, the fire department will be leading a campaign to get residents to sign up through the P.A. Alert website, as well as at public events.

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Rodgers said P.A. Alert can be used to advise residents to evacuate or seek shelter.

“If we had to evacuate an area because of a hazardous materials release, or we could also provide information to individuals if we have a location where we want people to go to and register that they’ve attended and we can send out non-emergent information such as road closures and things like that as well.”

The latter is something he said they may do in the future.

According to Rodgers, the P.A. Alert system could be used to get information to residents in the event of a blackout, such as the one that Prince Albert experienced in 2012. In the event there is a forest fire, the alert system could be used to alert people who live in the country/residential area.

“For us, it’s for the city, but, you know, we have to look outside at what happens outside that could affect the city and use some good judgement as to when and how we can use it,” he said.

Originally, the PAFD began to look at implementing a warning system for country/residential residents in the event of a forest fire.

“Historically, there was some research done into the air raid alert type of systems. They’re very costly and all we can do with that is flick a switch and get a siren [on]. With a system like this, with the technology we have available to us, we can now actually tell people in a message what needs to happen, what they need to do and we get feedback from the people that we contact.”

The system has been online since last fall and the fire department has been trying to get information out to the public via social media and at Prince Albert Raiders games. To date, 350 people have signed up for accounts, and there are 9,000 White Page listings already loaded into the system.

The alerts can be targeted to residents in a specific area, and Rodgers said they can “drill down” to a neighbourhood, or several blocks, or to one part of the city, such as the East or West Flat.

Although it is the fire department using the system, and it’s more of an emergency management tool, Rodgers said it can be rolled out and used by the Prince Albert Police Service or other agencies. He said this is something the fire department will discuss with the police, and there have been discussions already.

Prince Albert isn’t the first city to launch an emergency mass notification system – Saskatoon has such a system set up too.

The software system is designed by U.S.-based Everbridge Company and it costs taxpayers $5,600 annually to operate.

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames