Alaska Chooses AwareAK for Public Safety Information

The State of Alaska has chosen AwareAK to provide residents and visitors with reliable and timely emergency information. This initiative aims to ensure that Alaskans have access to accurate and official updates from public safety organizations, reducing the risk of misinformation circulating through social media.

AwareAK will serve as a common platform for state, local, tribal, and other participating public safety organizations to communicate directly with the public. Every update will clearly identify the organization that published it and the time it was issued, helping Alaskans distinguish official information from unverified reports.

Alaska's vast size and complex operating environment make fast and accurate public safety communication essential. At nearly 571,000 square miles, the state is the largest in the nation. Wildland fires can occur across its approximately 375 million acres from as early as March through as late as October. The state experiences hundreds of wildfires during a typical season, with human-caused fires more common near populated areas and lightning responsible for many fires in remote regions.

The Alaska Division of Forestry & Fire Protection is responsible for providing wildland fire protection across more than 150 million acres. Protecting such an immense and geographically diverse state requires close coordination among state and federal agencies, tribal and local governments, fire departments, emergency managers, and numerous interagency partners.

AwareAK is being designed to support Alaska's coordinated public safety environment. When fully deployed, the platform will allow participating organizations to publish trusted information about wildfires, evacuations, severe weather, road closures, public safety incidents, and other emergencies through a consistent statewide experience. For wildfires, this information may include incident locations and fire perimeters, status updates, evacuation information, burn restrictions, and closures, as well as links to additional resources from responding agencies.

Intterra, the company behind AwareAK, will work closely with the State of Alaska and partnering organizations over the next several months to configure the platform, integrate available data sources, and onboard participating agencies. AwareAK is expected to become available to the public in early 2027 as a mobile application for Apple iOS and Android devices. The app will always be free to the public and will be available through the Apple App Store and Google Play. Residents and visitors will also be able to access AwareAK online at aware.ak.gov.

Similar to AwareCA, California's statewide implementation of the Aware platform, AwareAK is designed to provide public safety organizations throughout Alaska with a common foundation for keeping their communities safe while preserving each organization's authority over the information it publishes. The platform will support communication across organizational and geographic boundaries without replacing the operational roles or responsibilities of participating agencies. AwareAK will complement, not replace, existing emergency alert and notification systems, and agencies will retain full authority over evacuation orders, warnings, and related public messaging.