Broadcastify
An excellent App that provides the ability to listen in to fire ground radio. This will tell you exactly what is happening in real-time. Search for Scanner Radio in your App Store or use broadcastify.com in a browser.
NSWFires App
The NSWFires App is available for Apple and for Android. It combines information that appears in Fires Near Me integrated with live wind information and with hotspot information (see below). Its a great tool.
Live Traffic
During a Bushfire Emergency roads will be closed by the police once they are deemed to be unsafe. Use the Live Traffic App on Android or Apple to access this information.
On a browser this is the link: https://www.livetraffic.com/desktop.html
Beware that there may be occasions where you will be able to leave your location but may not be allowed back to your house. There is also no way of predicting when this will happen. If there is a danger of this happening you may be best to take all your family with you and certainly do not leave old or infirm people on their own at home unless you have made arrangements with a neighbour to care for them.
Windy
Windy is available as an app for Apple or Android and is also available on this link:https://www.windy.com/ Its a fabulous weather app. You can select a wide range of different views from wind to weather radar and pollution levels. The weather radar has an integrated lightning tracker and you get a seamless view across the country unlike the different range views on the BOM site.The wind information is critical during a fire as the fire is most likely to reach you when the wind is coming from the direction of the fire.Beware that during the Gospers Mountain Fire the wind behaviour was frequently very different to the forecast and sometimes seemed to be coming from all directions. On some days the presence of an inversion layer kept the smoke under it and had the effect of dampening the wind.
Staying in touch witth your neighbours so you all know where each of you are is important. Setting up a WhatsApp group is a good way to do this. You can also share the latest fire information between the group.
Fires Near Me
Fires Near Me is the official RFS App and is available for Android and Apple.
You can also view online at https://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/fire-information/fires-near-me
When a new fire is reported it weill appear on Fires Near Me in near real time. When the status of a fire changes it will generally be changed on the App immediately.
The burnt area shown on the App does NOT reflect the current fire front. The information is mainly generated from an aerial line scan that is completed at the end of a day and the map is then updated overnight.