CFA's SMS gateway service will cease in May 2021 after this year's Fire Danger Period.
The gateway service was provided as a solution for members who were not allocated a pager (probationary and non-operational members etc.). This has now been superseded and will be replaced by the introduction of the new Supplementary Alerting Service (SAS) app.
With the availability of the new Supplementary Alerting Service (SAS) app, the gateway is no longer required.
Members are encouraged to transition to the Supplementary Alerting Service (SAS) app prior to the closure of the gateway in May.
CFA worked with EMV, SES, Ambulance Victoria and ESTA on the development of the SAS which works together with EAS Paging to provide members with increased functionality and enhanced communication during fire and incident response.
You can find the app by searching for Supplementary Alerting Service in both the Android and Apple app stores. You can access the desktop version here.
EAS will remain the number one means of communicating emergency callouts and dispatch to CFA members.
With the SAS app members can:
- Set availability for turnouts and indicate if they are responding to an event
- See who from their brigade is responding and view their ETA
- View responding-member qualifications and competencies
- Chat with fellow brigade members
- Experience one-touch navigation to their station or the incident
Members will continue to receive SMS notifications from the gateway service until its closure. To stop this occurring, brigades will need to remove their members from the service manually. This can be actioned by contacting your District HQ and requesting members be removed from the SMS Gateway service.
