WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — More fire departments, including the Wichita Fire Department, are implementing an alert system to keep fire officials safe.

When fire trucks or ambulances leave the station, their lights and sirens blare. An automatic digital notification tells drivers when emergency vehicles are approaching before they even make it down the road.

“It’s HAAS Alert, and basically, what it is, it is a system that utilizes different apps. It makes them aware that they’re responding on the side of the road for a grassfire, a car wreck, or a medical. It makes them alerted to the fact that there’s a fire department vehicle up there,” said Sedgwick County Fire District 1 Deputy Chief Ray Hensley.

Deputy Hensley says in just October, Sedgwick County Fire District 1 sent over 21,000 alerts to drivers.

“They will be more cognizant of an emergency vehicle approaching the intersection or up on the side of the road,” he said.

The alerts appear on the cars’ navigation and entertainment screens and drivers’ cell phones through GPS.

Deputy Chief Hensley says it’s essentially a verbal warning.

“Most cars nowadays have navigation systems installed into the vehicles. Announcers over the speakers in the car, you know, turn right in 300 feet or whatever, and this will make you aware, like one in a quarter mile that there’s an emergency vehicle on the road,” he said.

Once other departments have the tech up and running, Hensley says the county will use what they call responder-to-responder technology, so fire trucks know when other trucks are approaching.

The HAAS Alert System uses the Waze app, which can be installed on your car play or cell phone.

This article was originally published by Carina Branson and Jasmin Adous at KSN