THORNTON, Colo. - Thornton was between emergency alert systems when Wednesday's grass fire forced nearby homes, businesses and a school to evacuate, the city's Fire Chief Steve Kelley shared.
This comes as more and more communities shift from using emergency alert provider CodeRED following a data breach in late 2025.
“We utilize the IPAWS alert system through the state," Kelley said during a press conference Wednesday. "We did not do any other alerting.”
IPAWS is a system operated by the state of Colorado.
Thornton FD is one of 11 agencies currently using the system, according to IPAWS website.
Kelley explained the city is working on rolling out a new alert system through Motorola called Rave.
According to emergency management and fire department officials in Thornton, a new system should be up and running in early March — something Chief Kelley said is a top priority to keep people safe.
“Our efforts were focused on preventing fire spread into the neighborhood which successfully occurred," Kelley said. "That is one of of the key takeaways from this incident."
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As city staff get training on the Motorola system and information gets transferred from the old system to the new one in Thornton, some communities are already operating their own alert system, like in Jefferson County.
"The main one that we use within Jefferson County is our opt-in system lookout alerts," Jefferson County Emergency Manager Nathan Whittington said. "What that allows the citizens to do is go in register for those alerts that they want to receive."
Whittington says alerts are hyper personal.
Residents can elect what types of alerts they receive, and also opt to share personal information like if they own pets or are wheelchair-bound so first responders can best help, while also streamlining the info. The county also shares information on social media.
"10 years ago, social media never would have been a platform to go out there and say, this is a primary media where people are going to get information, push notifications, apps, different platforms out there," Whittington said. "We have to meet them where they are. We can't expect them to come to us."
And Jefferson County is already looking to new ways to make it easier for folks to get alerts — Whittington says they just need the community to trust the process.
"I know people are hesitant about downloading more apps," Whittington said. "But this would be a specific Emergency Management application that they would have on them on their phone that they could bring up information, but allows us to push out different types of information to them as well, all at the same time."
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