Rave Mobile Safety App Used Throughout County

Bourbon Fire Deputy Chief Steve Kimker said December 10 that the Rave mobile safety app is being used throughout the county and can not only provide a quick emergency response, but also be used to notify residents of non-emergency situations.

Kimker encouraged county officials to use the app, which can send out a notification to residents informing them of everything from a power outage to a road or bridge closing.

The geo-locate function allows administrators to push out notifications to anyone within a certain area rather than sending out a mass message across the county.

Kimker said the city of Cuba is preparing a rollout of Rave to use for alerting residents.

All three school districts in the county are using Rave.

“It makes a huge difference,” Kimker said. “We had an incident at Bourbon High School with a fire alarm, so the principal hit the panic button.”

Within 2.5 seconds, Kimker said, a notification had gone out to every emergency personnel in the county.

“By the time it went to the alarm company to 911 dispatch and page, it had been two to three minutes,” Kimker said. “We were on our way before we ever got the page. It notifies people so much faster.”

Kimker said 911 has been doing extensive testing and even when an emergency personnel from the county is in another part of the country, they receive a notification.

“That’s working fantastic,” Kimker said. “You guys at the county are a part of this. Anyone that wants to use it can. 911 can set it up for your entity.”

Kimker said it’s another tool and 911 will be ramping it up even more. 

“We’ve made a lot of changes and we want to make sure everyone knows it’s there,” he said.