 Hazardous material incidents such as gas or chemical leaks and structure incidents such as house, factory and building fires can pose a serious threat to your health and safety. It's up to you to stay alert for the warnings and take action. Emergency services send three levels of warnings to help you make decisions about your own and your family safety. They are advice, watch and act, and emergency warnings. Let's look at these warning levels in relation to hazardous material and structure incidents. The first level, advice, means that there is an incident in your local area. Stay informed and monitor conditions. The second level, watch and act, means that an incident may impact your health and safety. The warning will direct you to shelter in place. This means you need to take shelter indoors, close all windows and doors. Close or cover all vents. Turn off heating systems, cooling systems and fans and stay informed. The third level, emergency warning, means that there is an incident and the affected area is extremely dangerous. You need to take immediate action. People in the area should leave immediately and others should not enter the area. If you can't leave, shelter indoors immediately and follow the same steps as watch and act. But remember, if you stay, emergency services may not be able to help you. A recommendation to evacuate may be sent out if there is an imminent threat to you and it is safe to evacuate. So what actually happens when an incident occurs? Once emergency services are alerted, firefighters arrive and decide if a community warning is required. Depending on the situation, an appropriate warning is sent out to the community. Members of the community like you actively seek information about the incident and take action immediately when directed to. As the situation progresses, follow-up messages are sent out. These messages will provide updated information and will tell you if the situation has improved or worsened. Once the threat passes, an all-clear message is sent which means that you are no longer in danger. If you are sheltering in place, you are now safe to open doors and windows to ventilate your home and go outside. Ultimately, it's every community member's responsibility to seek information about emergencies. You can access real-time information by tuning in to your local ABC Radio, commercial stations and some community stations. Watching Sky News, visiting the Vic Emergency website, downloading the Fire Ready app, following CFA on Twitter and Facebook. Also, stay alert for sirens and telephone alerts. And remember, understand shelter in place. The steps involved are critical to your health and safety. Actively seek information from a number of sources, don't rely on just one. Take action immediately when you're directed to do so. Don't hesitate, don't wait. Your life is in your hands.