How do I get alerts near my sites?

Table of Contents

A layer notification sends an alert when Bushfire.io detects an event near any site on a custom layer. Each layer notification belongs to one person. As an admin, you can create layer notifications for the people on your team.

Info

Requires a subscription to Bushfire.io Business or Enterprise. Webhooks require Enterprise. Part of the Enterprise Admin Guide.

Before you start

Add your sites to the layer. See How do I add a site?
Share the layer with the person who will get the alerts. See How do I share a layer?
If the alerts go by SMS, email or webhook, add the destination to the person first. See How do I add a destination for a staff member?

Create a layer notification

Go to My Organisation > Layers.
Select your layer.
Beside Notifications, select the ➕ button. You can also select Actions > Create Notification.
In Select a user, select the person who will get the alerts.
Select Create Notification.

Universities custom layer page with the add notification (plus) button and Create your first notification link highlighted

Set up the notification

In Name, enter a name. Each alert includes this name, for example “Depots: 5 km”.
Under Which notifications would you like to receive?, select a preset:
- Both warnings and incidents in my region (30 km)
- Only warnings in my region (50 km)
- Only Incidents in my neighbourhood (10 km)
- Possible events in your region (Pro) (50 km)
- I will configure my own (Advanced)
If you need a different distance, move the How far from each location should we alert you? slider. The range is 0.25 km to 75 km.
Under Notifications, select where the alerts go: push, SMS notifications, Email notifications or Webhook notifications.
Make sure that the severity, alert levels, event types and phases suit your team.
Select Save Notification.

Custom Layer Notifications form with name, alert types, a 50 km radius, delivery options and severity toggles

The app shows Notification created for custom layer. The notification is now in the Notifications list of the layer.

Copy a notification to other people

Open the layer.
On the notification, select Actions > Copy to Other Users.
Select the people to copy it to. All other people with access to the layer are selected by default.
Under Copy Options, turn on Copy Email Notifications, Copy SMS Notifications or Copy Webhook Notifications. Each copy uses the destinations of the person who gets it.
Select Copy Notification.

Change or delete a notification

Open the layer.
On the notification, select Actions > Manage to change it, or Actions > Delete to delete it.

Warning

Delete has no confirmation. The app deletes the notification immediately.

Good to know

The distance applies to each site on the layer. If your layer has many sites, keep the distance to a few kilometres.
When you change a notification, the app shows how many alerts it sent in the last 2 days. If the number is high, make the distance smaller.
SMS notifications are not available for incidents. Use SMS for warnings only.
Bypass silent mode with Critical Alerts (iOS only) makes alerts sound when a phone is silent. Use it only for life-threatening events. See Using Critical Alerts.
The Updates phase sends an alert each time an event changes. Busy events can change every few minutes.
If the ➕ buttons for SMS, email and webhooks are missing, your organisation has turned off Allow Users to Manage Notification Destinations. See How do I add a destination for a staff member?