After a spate of deliberately lit fires in the Harrogate area of Adelaide Hills, South Australia, residents set up an early warning telephone system for arson protection and to save lives.
Harrogate Residents Defend Against Arson
Superintendent Tom Rieniets from the South Australian Police addressed 250 people at the Harrogate Town Hall on Monday 8th January 2007 after 19 fires had been deliberately lit in the area.
"Times, dates, vehicles, people - you name it, we want to know about it", he said. "You can make a citizens arrest but you can't use any force other than what is reasonable to hold them until police arrive."
Over the next fours days an additional ten fires were lit in the area moving the police to declare it a major crime.
"These people have to be stopped", said Ann Ferguson, Mayor of Mount Barker Council. Mayor Ferguson realized the plight of this community in a year where stock feed and water was scarce already and these fires were not only economically damaging but potentially life threatening.
Mayor Ferguson was instrumental in helping the locals form a Bushfire Alert community while also mustering the cooperation of the State Police and neighboring councils. The residents registered their details in a portal at BushfireAlert.com.au and the alerting community was formed.
Now when they spot an arson or a new bushfire, they report it to 000 (Australia's equivalent of 911) then dial the Harrogate Bushfire Alert number and leave a brief message about the incident; the community members then receive this voice message on their home, work and mobile phones simultaneously while a text version is also sent by email and SMS. They can also dial in and listen again to the recent alert messages.
Last year a resident saw a person lighting a fire in the distance and she tried calling neighbors to get the vehicle registration number however by the time she got hold of people in the area the offender had got away.
The Bushfire Alert system overcomes this problem as the entire community is now alerted rapidly wherever they are at the time, providing a far greater chance of catching the arson or at least gaining a vehicle description or registration number.
Since the system was activated the arson had no where to hide and attacks in that area ceased immediately.
Mayor of the Mid Murray Council, Ian Mann OAM, said, "Getting these people (arsons) put away has got to be a good thing; this community telephone system is a great initiative".
The state owned Country Fire Service recommend phone tree systems which is essentially how Bushfire Alert works, except that Bushfire Alert contacts large numbers of people simultaneously rather than one by one as a phone tree does, thereby saving precious time at the start of the emergency when it's most needed.
Bushfire Alert is regularly used by fire brigades, SES groups, police and neighborhood watch groups in South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland Australia.
The patent filed alerting technology has been installed in government since 2004 processing millions of calls each year, proving its robustness and reliability.
The system enables government and emergency organizations to operate their own public alerting functions in conjunction with or isolated from the community based systems. Systems can be readily installed in any country or they can share existing infrastructure which already has multiple access points.
Also see the Emergency Alerting System
Harrogate Arson Case Study (~165Kb)
Emergency Alerting Booklet (~349Kb)
Please contact us for further information sales@skunkworks.net.au
Note: The offender was allegedly caught working a different area where another Bushfire Alert community was also active and used.