The Town of Fountain Hills conducted a test of its CodeRED emergency notification system on Thursday, March 31, and it was successful, according to Fire Chief Dave Ott, the Town’s emergency management coordinator.

The Town communicates with citizens in varying instances of emergency, according to TOFH Community Relations Manager/PIO Bo Larsen.

“I send information via the Town channels for nearly all community emergencies such as flooding, fires and police situations when it’s deemed to be a community concern,” Larsen said. “The communication is continuous until it is deemed the emergency is past.

“This direction comes from Town Manager Grady Miller and Chief Ott. We work together on this. CodeRED is definitely when the most urgent and serious occurs.”

“CodeRed would be used as notification for emergencies that would require the need to evacuate or shelter in place,” Ott said. “These could be wildfire related, other natural emergencies, and police situations. It could also be used in conjunction with the Maricopa County WEA system.

“The Town channels may be used for notification of fires in our area that do not pose a threat to the Town.”

The test message was sent to 13,235 receiving devices, according to Ott.

The message went to 8,829 phones with 1,200 live contact and 5,000 answering machines as well as “other” categories.

There were 1,346 sent to emails, 3,011 text messages and 29 TDD systems.

Ott urges anyone who did not receive a message to go to the Town website, fountainhillsaz.gov, to sign up.