Incidents & warnings - CFS

Incidents & warnings

Going incidents across South Australia are listed here with information updated every five minutes. You can refresh this page to see updates. No table is displayed if there are no going/safe incidents and completed incidents have been displayed for one hour.

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Stay informed and get alerts
Status:
  • Warning icon warning message current
  • going
  • safe
  • complete

Understanding warnings

The way we display incidents adheres to the Australian Warning System.
You should never wait to receive an official warning before you leave. Fires can start quickly and threaten homes and lives within minutes. Warnings are issued when a fire has started and you need to take action. Warnings can be issued in any order, for example, the first warning you could get could be an Emergency Warning.

The three levels of warnings are:

  • Advice
  • Watch and Act
  • Emergency Warning

Bushfire Advice

A Bushfire Advice message will be issued when bushfires pose a threat to property or public safety, or when:

  • a bushfire has been reported and we are attending but no further information is available (Incident notification).
  • a bushfire is producing smoke in an area that may cause concern to the public
  • there is a need to advise of a specific event.

Bushfire Watch and Act

A Bushfire Watch and Act message is regularly issued for bushfires that pose a localised threat to property or public safety where:

  • a bushfire is threatening or is a potential threat to public safety in the immediate area of a fire
  • a bushfire is producing smoke in an area that may cause concern to the public on a day of elevated fire danger
  • there is a need to advise of a specific event.

Bushfire Emergency Warning

Bushfire Emergency Warning messages will be issued for wide area community affect when:

  • an uncontrolled bushfire is burning under Extreme to Catastrophic Fire Weather conditions; and
  • the risk of loss of life or threat to properties is almost certain or has occurred; or
  • where special circumstances exist, for example when a life or house has been lost.

Additional messages that may be issued are:

Advice - Reduced Threat

We will issue a Reduced Threat Message when the threat to the community has reduced.

All bushfire incidents that have had an Advice, Watch and Act or Emergency Warning message issued will be finalised with an Advice - Reduced Threat message.

Incident Update

An Incident Update contains supplementary information about an incident. This may or may not be associated with a warning message.

How we issue messages and alert the community:

Multiple messages for bushfires

We may issue multiple messages where a fire is affecting communities that need different calls to action.

Reasons for multiple messages include:

  • differences in the lay of the land
  • complexity of fire
  • assets and infrastructure under threat
  • differing fire direction
  • severity and behaviour on specific areas of the fire ground that are uncharacteristic to the rest of the fire ground
  • long protracted incidents.

Emergency Alert messages

Emergency Alert provides Bushfire Emergency Warning messages by text and voice messaging to landlines and mobile phones.

Police and Emergency Services will provide as much information as possible during a bushfire. It is your responsibility to ensure you are adequately prepared for bushfires and know what to do.

Incident definitions

DATE AND TIME
when incident was first reported to the CFS.
LOCATION
the general area where the incident was reported.
TYPE

describes the type of incident.

  • Burn off - an intentionally ignited fire by a member of the public for the reduction of vegetation and or stubble as part of farming practices. Individuals conducting a Burn off need the appropriate local council permits.
  • Prescribed burn - an intentionally ignited fire contained within a designed area. Prescribe burns will be conducted by Department for Environment and Water (DEW), ForestrySA, SA Country Fire Service (CFS) and the Metropolitan Fire Service (MFS). Generally Prescribed burns are conducted during the cooler months to reduce fuel build-up and decrease the likelihood of serious hotter fires.
STATUS

describes the type of incident.

  • Going - Any fire expanding in a certain direction.
  • Contained - A fire is contained when its spread has been stopped, but it may still be burning freely within the fire control lines.
  • Controlled - The time when the complete perimeter of a fire is secured and the fire is not expected to break away.
  • Complete - The time when the incident is secured and there is no further need for CFS involvement.
  • Safe - When we consider that no further action or patrols are necessary.
LEVEL

describes the type of incident.

  • Level 1 Incident - A simple and small incident. There is minimal threat to the community.
  • Level 2 Incident - More complex in size, resources or risk. There may be a threat to the community at a local or regional level.
  • Level 3 Incident - This may need the establishment of divisions for effective management of the situation. There will be a significant threat to the community at a local, regional or state level.
DISTRICT
the Fire Ban District where the incident is located.
RESOURCES
the number of CFS appliances currently attending an incident.
AIRCRAFT
the number of aircraft currently attending an incident.