# Hazards Near Me NSW — user reviews > 70 indexed App Store user reviews of Hazards Near Me NSW by NSW Rural Fire Service, rated 3.21/5 from 1,277 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/hazards-near-me-nsw/id370891827/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/hazards-near-me-nsw/id370891827.md ## Newest reviews (18 of 70) ### 2/5 — No way to turn off irrelevant warnings *2026-04-18, version 6.5.0* I only wanted warning of planned burns Sydney wide. I'm not in a flood zone etc. Makes the app unusable. ### 3/5 — Crashing *2026-04-04, version 6.5.0* Don’t know what happened as it has been working ok, today it’s just crashing ### 3/5 — Needs work *2026-04-02, version 6.5.0* App could be so much better if whoever programmed it knew the difference between a planned burn off and an incident. ### 3/5 — Useful but frustrating *2026-03-02, version 6.5.0* Notifications remain on the badge even after the event has resolved, please fix that bug. If it’s resolved I don’t need a notification alert ### 3/5 — Hazards near me *2026-02-11, version 6.5.0* Not helpful in that you get notified of an event but it might be 12 hrs old. Would be more beneficial to have newest on top and others following. ### 2/5 — So now I need an account/login *2026-01-02, version 6.5.0* Great extra time when it used to work without one….and now I’m put on a mailing list…..sorry you have strayed from the original purpose ### 3/5 — Needs more work *2025-12-05, version 6.5.0* Notifications need fine tuning. I only want to know if there is a fire in my watch zone. Nothing else. Fire danger ratings and heat warnings I already get from the BOM and radio, and I only want this app pinging me if there’s a fire in my watch zone. ### 3/5 — Stop spamming me *2025-11-28, version 6.5.0* I signed up for “hazards near me” alerts. NOT government pronouncements every other hour about fire bans or weather conditions. Stay in your lane. ### 2/5 — No notifications *2025-11-27, version 6.5.0* Not happy I have a fire 2.5 kms behind me in thick bush, and no notification sent! Not very happy with that. What happens at night????? ### 3/5 — Can’t get rid of notifications *2025-10-26, version 6.5.0* I like the app. However, there are a number of issues: 1. Can’t easily find fire ratings. The app knows where I am. It should put the fire rating large and loud in the map (especially total fire bans). 2. Expired incidents should be cleared automatically. 3. I’ve clicked on all (many) notifications and I still have a ‘1’ on the icon— geez… ### 3/5 — Missing closed hazard access *2025-09-27, version 6.5.0* You should still be able to view the details of a hazard after it’s been resolved. In most cases, while threat to life may have passed, the hazard effects are still there. So if I’m in the area, it would be useful to know what areas I should avoid? So instead of advising “Incident resolved” but giving no details of it, please provide the details too. ### 3/5 — Won’t let me *2025-09-07, version 6.5.0* The app won’t let me on goes to load then just jumps out of the app please update it ### 3/5 — Failed during major storm *2025-07-04, version 6.5.0* This week we here in the shoalhaven region of NSW were hit by a cyclone bomb and had over 300ml of rain with winds over 100kph. We lost power and wifi/internet ... but we could send and receive txt msg. I still received notifications from the Hazards app but couldn't open them to read because it required data/internet/wifi .. so we didn't know what was going on. It would be great if you could send txt msg to people within an area like the police do. Otherwise it's a great app. Cheers ### 2/5 — Bring back Floods Near Me App *2025-05-01, version 6.4.0* Prefer the previous app. Bring it back. ### 3/5 — Fix Notification design flaw *2025-04-03, version 6.4.0* Design flaw in Notifications. They expire, yet the app continues to display the red icon - clicking that results in ‘no longer active’ - so why keep the unread notification? Frustrating waste of time. The app has no way of providing feedback. “In app feedback” is a gift for you, yet missing. The ‘developer response’ is generic copy/paste, clearly showing review/ are not read. Prove me wrong? ### 3/5 — Customisation Preferences *2025-03-17, version 6.4.0* This app is definitely useful. I would love it though if we were able to customise certain aspects of the app’s design to be more accessible. I would love to be able to increase the font size or change certain colours so that it was easier to read or differentiate between some of the icons ### 2/5 — Notifications *2025-03-10, version 6.4.0* Notification received on screen but when the app is opened there are not notifications. Also open up watch zone but map that opens is 5 times the size needed. ### 3/5 — Bring back original app *2025-03-08, version 6.4.0* This “hazards” update much less intuitive than the fire’s near me app. Over complicated. Need to be able to modify it for specific situations. Now always opens on maps for Europe, UK, France etc WHY ? ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Won’t load *2026-04-05, version 6.5.0* Freezes when I tried to open app Still not opening. NSW Gov rubbish? ### 1/5 — Dangerously incorrect information *2026-01-09, version 6.5.0* Fires right on the New South Wales border are showing as EMERGENCY - LEAVE NOW in the VicEmergency App In this useless app the EXCACT same fire is showing only as CROSS BORDER INCIDENT, and a black and white triangle, which means INCIDENT. How have you got this so wrong!? That’s actually dangerous. ### 1/5 — No notifications, poor UI. VicEmergency is way better *2026-01-08, version 6.5.0* Bad. Should be more like VicEmergency ### 1/5 — Watch zones *2026-01-07, version 6.5.0* Created a Watch Zone when first downloaded. Now app has decided I don't have one, I do, and continues to send notifications that I don't. Waited months for an update that might fix it. None forthcoming so deleted it as it's not actively maintained. Just another useless government app that they spend millions on but no accountability for bad tenders. ### 1/5 — Recently fails to load *2025-08-26, version 6.5.0* I’ve noticed over several weeks the app no longer loads when clicking on a notification despite trying to load. Furthermore it fails to launch when simply searching and attempting to open the app without clicking on the notification ### 1/5 — Basic info *2025-05-24, version 6.4.0* Watch and act is the suggestion with generic info with no details of river levels, whether rising or falling and expectation which was not updated over 24 hours. Meanwhile we lost road access. I’d have expected better details frequently updated for a Hazard app by govt ### 1/5 — The Name *2025-05-22, version 6.4.0* Really?! Shorten. ### 1/5 — Useless App *2025-05-22, version 6.4.0* I downloaded the app thinking I could get alerts with all rain at the moment, and I couldn’t even login! I tried with my Apple and Gmail accounts, even creating an account unsuccessfully. It kept saying my password wasn’t strong enough no matter what I typed! What a big waste of time. ### 1/5 — Notifications can’t be found *2025-04-29, version 6.4.0* Notifications flash across my iPhone screen but when I go to the app no notifications can be found . App tells me that I have to create a watch zone to get notifications. I keep creating the watch zone ! It’s there ! Last year when there were fires within two blocks of my house, there were no alerts to anyone in my area.. ### 1/5 — Limited *2025-03-06, version 6.4.0* Only works for NSW & VIC. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — My review *2025-10-30, version 6.5.0* Great easy to use ### 5/5 — Invaluable information *2020-01-08* This is a great app that really helps me understand where the fires are that impact me in the Central Tablelands. My only suggestion would be to allow the user to determine the distance from a fire using their watch zone when they are out of the watch zone rather than using location services. I work in Sydney during the week so it is hard for me to determine if a fire is moving closer to my home as the app only displays the distance using location services so in my case the CBD of Sydney. Apart from that the app is a lifesaver. Keep up the great work and thanks to all the firies working tirelessly to keep us safe during this ongoing catastrophic event. ### 5/5 — Great App - Needed at an important time in Oz *2020-01-05* This has been a really fantastic app to use, especially with the extreme bushfires occurring in Australia at the moment. To further improve this app for the future, it would be great if the developer could overlay additional information on the map, such as wind direction and the air quality index. I’ve been flipping between this app and the AirVisual app to get situational awareness of bushfire locations, wind direction, and air quality (eg. Trying to work out how bad the smoke is in Canberra, even though Canberra doesn’t have fires in it). Not sure how much effort would be involved to merge the information on the same map in the app and yet still make the app easy for people to use. Will leave that up to the developer to decide. ### 5/5 — Great app, with suggested improvements... *2019-12-29* This is a great app and hats off to the team responsible for this, especially during the big fires in NSW the latter parts of 2019. Some suggestions to improve the usefulness even more could be: 1. Allow the user to go back and review historical fire front overlays on the map. That way we can see where it’s moved in the past day, past week etc... and therefore see what’s changed over time, like when viewing rain radar information on any weather app. Some sort of slider bar would do the trick when in map mode. At present I have to remember where it was yesterday and try and compare that to what it looks like today. 2. Enhance the map view by (if possible) showing where the active fire fronts are in a different colour. The big fires of 2019 had enormous coverings of grey to indicate its size, but this doesn’t distinguish between where it’s burning now and where it may have been extinguished along its perimeter. For now we have to assume if it’s not moving then it’s been successfully dealt with. 3. Enhance the watch zones with circular rings instead of just a semi transparent circle indicating - say - each kilometre away from your watch zone point. This combined with point 2 above would help tell the story for the user as to how fast it is approaching, and how far away it is now. That, or a ruler would help. These are just suggestions to make this already great and valuable app, even greater. Thanks guys. PC ### 4/5 — Description other *2026-06-10, version 6.5.0* Too much of situations are classified as “Other”. It would be nice to know actual situation! ### 4/5 — Great except notification clearing *2026-01-24, version 6.5.0* Good app. Really important and useful. Please fix the notifications - I have to tap between Map and Notifications exactly 3 times, every time, to get rid of the red bubble. ### 4/5 — Notifications *2025-01-15, version 6.3.0* My notifications are not working on the iPad version ### 4/5 — Essential for bush living *2024-12-23, version 6.3.0* Extremely useful to have when living in bushfire prone areas, but could benefit from the addition of a map overlay showing wind speeds and direction. As others have mentioned - would be good if ‘resolved’ incidents were cleared from the active notification list and/or perhaps shown on the map with a different icon to indicate a recent event that has been resolved. ### 4/5 — Glitch between Incident resolved and Status *2023-08-20* We are very appreciative of the development of an app like this. It makes us much calmer when there are fires in our area. Just a few suggestions. The information in the My Notification does not always match the map information. The My Notification often says incident resolved but if you go to the map it states in status that it is still being controlled or out of control. It would be less confusing if the status was updated to under control in both places before the incident resolved notification is given. ### 4/5 — Great app .. but updates *2020-02-02* Great app and notification on fires in the region. When fire starts up the app is good at updating the relevant information .... but I have found being in an area that is currently threatened by the Namadgi fire, the updates are very very few and far between. I’ve noticed it’s almost on a 24 hr basis that the map is update to current and relevant information. Not knowing how far the distance is from icon point to fire ground I’ve used the app less and less for current up to date reliable information and had to rely on social media, radio and television (which doesn’t bother me) but current reliability on activity is definitely not this app’s strong point. --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-08.*