About half of the mobile phones do not beep when notified of disasters and accidents. The reason in most cases is an old device without the function of receiving messages in the “cellular broadcast” mode, which is used by the national BG-ALERT system to distribute warning messages to the population.
This was written by “Telegraph”, referring to experts.
In many cases, however, even new phones do not receive the messages, as the function, although available, is turned off. In some cases, this is intentionally done by the user himself, and in others, it comes as a factory setting on the device, and the users were not aware of it. Separately, the system does not work when the phone is turned off, as well as in places with missing range.
Namely the missing coverage in several border villages in Bolyarovo municipality
was one of the reasons that even if a message about the raging fires was sent, it would not reach the people.
In the specific case, it was not sent at all, because no authorized institution (Ministry of Internal Affairs, regional administration, municipality) considered it necessary to do so. A week later, with the explosions in the fireworks warehouses near Elin Pelin, there was scope and messages, but instead of giving clear information, they created additional confusion.
„At this point, after these cases, we already know that the BG-Alert system itself is at least technically proven to work. Which in itself is good. The question is henceforth to improve the coordination between the institutions that deal with it, as well as to train enough state and municipal officials to avoid messages that could, instead of informing the public, lead to panic and contradictory interpretations” , told the “Telegraph“ deputy Bozhidar Bojanov, member of the committee on internal security and public order, and the committee on electronic governance and information technologies.
According to him, this should happen as quickly as possible in order to have positive results
until the next use case of the system, which could be any moment.
The notification system is under the control of the national fire service. However, certain employees of ministries, regional administrations and town halls have the right to initiate messages through it. However, in order to be eligible to issue emergency notifications, they must have received training from the Ministry of the Interior, then gain access to the system – profile with username and password.
If a facility does not have a trained officer, they must submit a request for each specific message via email to the National Fire Operations Center. However, this slows down the process.
„This is why it is important that local institutions can directly send messages. However, the problem is that the regulation currently describes the training of these people as wishful thinking. "There is no imputed obligation to the institutions, nor a deadline for them to send employees to be trained by the Ministry of Internal Affairs," commented Bojanov. This is also the reason why the trainings have not started until now.
Learning to create messages starts with their content, they explained to “Telegraph“ sources from the Ministry of the Interior.
In the message, it must be written which institution sends it, what the event is, where exactly it is happening, as well as what threat it poses.
Individually, the message may include recommendations for action and other additional information.
Precisely in these elements is the problem with the messages sent during the explosions near Elin Pelin.
They then ordered the evacuation of “those in the vicinity” first, without specifying the distance.
In a second message, the evacuation of all residents of the village of Gara Elin Pelin (over 3,500 people) was specifically ordered, instructing them to go in the direction of the village of Novi Khan. According to people familiar with the area, the implementation of this order by so many people with cars would lead to road blockages and the inability of fire engines to reach the scene.
Disaster and accident messages must be short, precise and clear, without jargon, dialect or terms and abbreviations, the BG-Alert regulation states. They must radiate maximum confidence and certainty about the danger.
Recommendations for action must be specific, and the content must not lead to confusion or contradict publicly known information, such as currently circulating on the Internet, radio or television. When sending several messages about the same event, care must be taken to ensure that the information is consistent and that the messages do not contradict each other.