Alarmed by the alarm: people react to ‘severe alert’ on phones over UK wildfires

Many complained online that piercingly loud tone was ‘overreach’ while others lamented lack of action on decarbonisationOn Friday at 7pm, Thérèse Coffey was nine miles away from a nuclear power station when her phone made a loud, piercing and very worrying sound: it was a “severe” emergency alert. “Was expecting [a] much more specific alert, not a generic message on wildfires,” the former Conservative cabinet minister said on X.She wasn’t alone in being alarmed by the alarm sent to phones in England and Wales. In the aftermath, thousands of social media users expressed their shock at alert. Some shared funny