Real-time Australian emergency alerts in your smart home
Quick Start • Installation Guide • Automations • Map Card • Troubleshooting
Important: This integration is NOT authorised, endorsed, or affiliated with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). This is an independent community project that uses publicly available data from ABC Emergency to help Australians stay informed during emergencies.
When bushfires, floods, or storms threaten your home, every minute counts. This integration brings Australia's most comprehensive emergency information service directly into your smart home, enabling:
- Instant mobile alerts when emergencies occur near your home
- Tiered notifications based on Australian Warning System levels
- Family safety monitoring - track alerts near loved ones as they travel
- Smart home automation - trigger lights, sirens, or announcements during emergencies
- Multi-location awareness - monitor your home, workplace, and holiday house simultaneously
| Mode | Best For | How It Works |
|---|---|---|
| State Mode | Overview of all emergencies | Monitors every incident in a state/territory |
| Zone Mode | Protecting fixed locations | Alerts within configurable radius of your home, office, etc. |
| Person Mode | Family safety | Follows a person's location as they move |
This integration uses the official Australian Warning System levels:
| Level | Color | Meaning | Your Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| Emergency Warning | Red | You may be in danger | Act immediately to protect yourself |
| Watch and Act | Orange | Conditions changing | Take action now to prepare |
| Advice | Yellow | Incident occurring | Stay informed and monitor conditions |
- Bushfires and grass fires
- Floods and storms
- Severe weather and cyclones
- Earthquakes
- Extreme heat and heatwaves
- Structure fires
- And more...
- Per-incident events - Get notified for each new incident as it appears
- Per-incident-type radius - Bushfires alert at 50km, structure fires at 10km
- Nearest incident tracking - Know exactly how far away the closest threat is
- Binary sensors - Simple on/off triggers for each warning level
- Geo-location entities - See all incidents on your Home Assistant map
Know when you're not just near an emergency, but inside the actual warning zone:
- Containment vs Proximity - Being inside an emergency zone is fundamentally different from being nearby
- Polygon boundary detection - Uses actual emergency polygon boundaries, not just distance
- Enter/exit events - Get notified when you enter or leave an emergency zone
- Severity change events - Get alerted when an emergency escalates (e.g., Advice → Emergency Warning) while you're inside
- Per-alert-level containment - Know if you're inside an Emergency Warning, Watch and Act, or Advice zone
This integration exposes incident polygon boundaries as GeoJSON, enabling advanced map visualizations:
- Polygon geometry data - Full boundary coordinates available on geo-location entities
- Entity discovery - Sensors expose
entity_idsfor dynamic geo-location entity filtering - Companion map card - See the ABC Emergency Map Card for polygon rendering
For advanced dashboard mapping with polygon rendering, use the companion ABC Emergency Map Card:
| Feature | Native Map Card | ABC Emergency Map Card |
|---|---|---|
| Incident markers | Yes | Yes |
| Polygon boundaries | No | Yes |
| Filter by sensor | No | Yes |
| Custom styling | Limited | Yes |
The native Home Assistant map card shows incidents as points only. The ABC Emergency Map Card renders actual emergency zone boundaries using the GeoJSON data exposed by this integration.
# Example: Show bushfire polygons on map
type: custom:abc-emergency-map-card
geo_location_sources:
- sensor.abc_emergency_home_bushfiresSee Dashboard Maps for configuration details.
Click the button above to add this repository to HACS, or manually:
- Open HACS in Home Assistant
- Click the three dots menu → Custom repositories
- Add:
https://github.com/troykelly/homeassistant-abcemergency - Select category: Integration
- Click Install
- Restart Home Assistant
Click the button above to add the integration, or manually:
- Go to Settings → Devices & Services
- Click Add Integration
- Search for ABC Emergency
- Follow the setup wizard
automation:
- alias: "Emergency Warning Alert"
trigger:
- platform: state
entity_id: binary_sensor.abc_emergency_home_emergency_warning
to: "on"
action:
- service: notify.mobile_app_your_phone
data:
title: "EMERGENCY WARNING"
message: >
{{ state_attr('sensor.abc_emergency_home_nearest_incident', 'headline') }}
is {{ states('sensor.abc_emergency_home_nearest_incident') }}km away
data:
priority: high
channel: emergencyThat's it! You'll now receive critical alerts when emergencies threaten your home.
| Guide | Description |
|---|---|
| Getting Started | Detailed installation and first-time setup |
| Configuration | All configuration options explained |
| Entities Reference | Complete list of sensors and their attributes |
| Automations | Ready-to-use automation examples |
| Containment Safety Guide | Critical: Alerts when inside emergency zones |
| Events | Event-based per-incident alerting |
| Notifications | Mobile alerts, critical notifications, TTS |
| Scripts | Emergency briefings, evacuation checklists |
| Troubleshooting | Common issues and solutions |
| FAQ | Frequently asked questions |
| Glossary | Term definitions |
| Changelog | Version history |
| Advanced Usage | Templates, Node-RED, AppDaemon |
automation:
# Advice level - informational notification
- alias: "ABC Emergency - Advice Notification"
trigger:
- platform: state
entity_id: binary_sensor.abc_emergency_home_advice
to: "on"
condition:
- condition: state
entity_id: binary_sensor.abc_emergency_home_watch_and_act
state: "off"
action:
- service: notify.mobile_app_your_phone
data:
title: "Emergency Advice"
message: >
{{ state_attr('sensor.abc_emergency_home_nearest_incident', 'headline') }}
({{ states('sensor.abc_emergency_home_nearest_incident') }}km away)
# Watch and Act - more urgent
- alias: "ABC Emergency - Watch and Act"
trigger:
- platform: state
entity_id: binary_sensor.abc_emergency_home_watch_and_act
to: "on"
action:
- service: notify.mobile_app_your_phone
data:
title: "WATCH AND ACT"
message: >
Take action now! {{ state_attr('sensor.abc_emergency_home_nearest_incident', 'headline') }}
is {{ states('sensor.abc_emergency_home_nearest_incident') }}km away
data:
priority: high
# Emergency Warning - critical
- alias: "ABC Emergency - Emergency Warning"
trigger:
- platform: state
entity_id: binary_sensor.abc_emergency_home_emergency_warning
to: "on"
action:
- service: notify.mobile_app_your_phone
data:
title: "EMERGENCY WARNING"
message: >
Act immediately! {{ state_attr('sensor.abc_emergency_home_nearest_incident', 'headline') }}
is {{ states('sensor.abc_emergency_home_nearest_incident') }}km away
data:
priority: critical
channel: alarmautomation:
- alias: "Family Member Near Emergency"
trigger:
- platform: state
entity_id: binary_sensor.abc_emergency_dad_active_alert
to: "on"
action:
- service: notify.family_group
data:
title: "Emergency Near Dad"
message: >
There's an active emergency near Dad's location.
Distance: {{ states('sensor.abc_emergency_dad_nearest_incident') }}km
Type: {{ state_attr('sensor.abc_emergency_dad_nearest_incident', 'event_type') }}Get notified for each new incident as it appears:
automation:
- alias: "New Emergency Incident"
trigger:
- platform: event
event_type: abc_emergency_new_incident
action:
- service: notify.mobile_app_your_phone
data:
title: "{{ trigger.event.data.event_type }}: {{ trigger.event.data.alert_text }}"
message: >
{{ trigger.event.data.headline }}
{% if trigger.event.data.distance_km %}
({{ trigger.event.data.distance_km | round(1) }}km {{ trigger.event.data.direction }})
{% endif %}See Automations Guide for more examples including TTS announcements, smart light alerts, event-based alerting, and quiet hours handling.
Each instance creates a device with these entities:
| Entity | Description |
|---|---|
sensor.abc_emergency_*_incidents_total |
Total active incidents |
sensor.abc_emergency_*_incidents_nearby |
Incidents within your configured radii |
sensor.abc_emergency_*_nearest_incident |
Distance (km) to nearest incident |
sensor.abc_emergency_*_highest_alert_level |
Highest warning level active |
sensor.abc_emergency_*_bushfires |
Active bushfire count |
sensor.abc_emergency_*_floods |
Active flood count |
sensor.abc_emergency_*_storms |
Active storm count |
| Entity | Meaning |
|---|---|
binary_sensor.abc_emergency_*_active_alert |
Any alert active |
binary_sensor.abc_emergency_*_emergency_warning |
Red level (highest) |
binary_sensor.abc_emergency_*_watch_and_act |
Orange level or higher |
binary_sensor.abc_emergency_*_advice |
Yellow level or higher |
| Entity | ON When |
|---|---|
binary_sensor.abc_emergency_*_inside_polygon |
Inside ANY emergency polygon |
binary_sensor.abc_emergency_*_inside_emergency_warning |
Inside Emergency Warning (red) polygon |
binary_sensor.abc_emergency_*_inside_watch_and_act |
Inside Watch and Act (orange+) polygon |
binary_sensor.abc_emergency_*_inside_advice |
Inside Advice (yellow+) polygon |
We welcome contributions! Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.
This project follows:
- Test-Driven Development (TDD)
- Issue-Driven Development (all changes require a linked GitHub issue)
- Strict type safety (no
Anytypes)
This integration was created in early December 2025 when bushfires broke out near a friend's house in Woy Woy, NSW. We needed a way to easily add alerting to our chosen family group so everyone could stay informed and safe.
What started as a quick hack to help friends became a full-featured integration that we hope helps other Australians protect their homes and loved ones.
This code was written on the land of the Gadigal and Wangal peoples of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to Elders past, present, and emerging, and acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded.
In the spirit of this integration's purpose - helping communities stay safe during emergencies - we acknowledge the tens of thousands of years of land management by First Nations peoples, including the use of cultural burning practices that helped maintain the health of Country.
This integration uses publicly available data from ABC Emergency, which aggregates emergency information from state and territory emergency services across Australia.
This is NOT an official ABC product. The ABC Emergency website states:
The information displayed on this page is assembled from multiple data sources and may not reflect the most up-to-date information available. For emergency information, contact your local emergency services.
Always follow official emergency service instructions. This integration is a convenience tool and should not be your only source of emergency information. In a life-threatening emergency, call 000.
This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.
Made with care for the Australian community