VIDEO: Twitter is one of the quickest ways for fire departments and other emergency services to alert you to fires.
But changes with Twitter in the last couple of days means those tweets aren't being seen when it really matters.
If you tried to use Twitter this weekend, you likely had some trouble. The app is starting to limit how many tweets people can view, which local firefighters say is troubling while we're in the middle of peak fire season.
“So for us to be limited in the number of tweets that we send out to the community, it can put us in a really difficult situation,” said Spokane’s Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer. The Spokane Fire Department has used Twitter as a foundation for its communication with the public for over ten years.
Its Twitter account has a direct feed from dispatch, sending out crucial fire updates in real-time.