Home Assistant Integration

Get real-time Australian emergency data on your Home Assistant dashboard. Bushfires, floods, storms, earthquakes, rescues, and satellite hotspot detections from 33 government feeds across all 8 states and territories. Free to use.

What You Get

Entity	Type	What It Shows
geo_location.emergencyapi_*	Geo Location	Each incident as a pin on the HA map. Shows event type, status, distance, severity, and agency.
binary_sensor.emergencyapi_alert	Binary Sensor	ON when any incident exists within your radius. OFF when clear. Use this to trigger automations.
sensor.emergencyapi_incidents	Sensor	Count of active incidents within your radius.
sensor.emergencyapi_nearest	Sensor	Distance to the nearest emergency in kilometres.

Polygon geometry is supported. Fire perimeters, warning zones, and flood boundaries from WA DFES, NSW RFS, and other agencies are passed through as entity attributes for custom Lovelace cards.

Installation

Step 1: Get a free API key

Sign up at emergencyapi.com/signup. No credit card required. The free tier includes 500 API calls per day, which is more than enough for Home Assistant (the integration uses about 288 calls per day at the default 5-minute interval).

Step 2: Install via HACS

Open HACS in your Home Assistant, search for "EmergencyAPI", and click Install. Restart Home Assistant after installation.

If you prefer manual installation, download the latest release from the GitHub releases page and copy the custom_components/emergencyapi/ folder to your HA config directory.

Step 3: Add the integration

Go to Settings > Devices & Services > Add Integration > search "EmergencyAPI". Enter your API key and set your monitoring radius (default: 50 km). The integration will start pulling incidents immediately.

Example Automations

The binary sensor makes it simple to trigger automations when an emergency is nearby. Here are three examples you can copy directly into your automations.yaml.

Send a phone notification

automation:
  - alias: "Emergency Alert Notification"
    trigger:
      - platform: state
        entity_id: binary_sensor.emergencyapi_alert
        to: "on"
    action:
      - service: notify.mobile_app_your_phone
        data:
          title: "Emergency Alert"
          message: >
            {{ state_attr('sensor.emergencyapi_nearest', 'title') }}
            is {{ states('sensor.emergencyapi_nearest') }} km away.

Turn on a red warning light

automation:
  - alias: "Emergency Red Light"
    trigger:
      - platform: state
        entity_id: binary_sensor.emergencyapi_alert
        to: "on"
    action:
      - service: light.turn_on
        target:
          entity_id: light.warning_light
        data:
          color_name: red
          brightness: 255

Voice announcement via Google Home

automation:
  - alias: "Emergency Voice Alert"
    trigger:
      - platform: state
        entity_id: binary_sensor.emergencyapi_alert
        to: "on"
    action:
      - service: tts.google_translate_say
        data:
          entity_id: media_player.living_room_speaker
          message: >
            Emergency nearby.
            {{ state_attr('sensor.emergencyapi_nearest', 'title') }}
            is {{ states('sensor.emergencyapi_nearest') }} km away.

Data Sources

The integration pulls data from 33 official government feeds including:

NSW: RFS incidents + CAP warnings, SES HazardWatch
VIC: OSOM incidents, CFA fire danger, EMSINA fire/flood/SES
QLD: ESCAD all incidents, bushfire alert warnings
SA: CFS, MFS, SES + community pager dispatches (ambulance, fire, SES)
WA: DFES incidents, warning areas, fire ban zones, CAP warnings
TAS: TFS, TasALERT multi-agency, CAP warnings, warning polygons
ACT: ESA all incidents (includes ambulance), fire danger ratings
NT: PFES incidents
National: DEA satellite fire hotspots, Geoscience Australia earthquakes

Full attribution details at /api/v1/attribution. See the Australian emergency data feeds guide for detailed information about each feed.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does it cost?

Free. The free tier includes 500 API calls per day. The integration uses about 288 calls per day at the default 5-minute polling interval. You would need to upgrade only if you set a very short polling interval or run multiple HA instances.

How often does it update?

Every 5 minutes by default. You can configure this from 2 to 60 minutes during setup. Shorter intervals use more API calls.

Does it work outside Australia?

No. EmergencyAPI covers Australian emergencies only. The data comes from Australian state and federal government agencies.

Can I filter by incident type?

The integration pulls all incidents within your radius. You can filter in automations and dashboard cards using the event_type attribute (bushfire, flood, storm, earthquake, medical, rescue, hazmat, etc.).

Does it show fire boundaries or polygon areas?

Yes. Incidents that include polygon geometry (fire perimeters, warning zones, flood boundaries) pass the raw GeoJSON through as entity attributes (geometry_type and geometry_json). Custom Lovelace cards can render these as boundary overlays on the map.

Links

Get started in under 5 minutes.

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