Frequently asked questions
If an answer is missing or something looks contradictory, write to us: [email protected]
What is this platform?
A free, non-governmental platform that matches concrete available resources with concrete needs during disasters: machinery, transport, accommodation, parking and storage areas, shelter for farm animals, and labour.
It works in five languages across eleven countries. Matching runs on language-neutral keys, which is why a French offer of a “pelleteuse” finds a German request for a “Bagger”.
What this platform explicitly is not
It is not a dispatch centre and not an authority. It shows matching resources but does not decide who goes where. Every match only comes about through the explicit agreement of both sides.
In immediate danger, always call the emergency services first: 112, in Switzerland 118 (fire) and 144 (ambulance), and follow the instructions of the responders.
What does it cost?
Nothing. There is no advertising, no commission, no paid features and no reselling of data.
The platform runs on existing infrastructure at very low ongoing cost. That is deliberate: almost every comparable project disappeared when its funding ended — and a disaster platform is only useful if it is still there on the day.
Who may offer something?
Any adult, as well as businesses, farms and associations. An account is required — by email and password, or via Google or Facebook.
Making an offer commits you to nothing. If a request comes in, you decide: accept, decline, or simply not reply. Address and contact details are exchanged only once both sides have agreed.
Who may post a need?
That additionally requires a verified phone number and a stored home location.
The bar is deliberately higher than for offers: a made-up offer sits there harmlessly, a made-up need sets people and machines in motion.
Why can’t I browse the offers?
Offers are deliberately not public anywhere — neither searchable nor visible on the map. Only the matching against concrete requests reads them.
The reason comes from disaster research: unsolicited help regularly ties up the very volunteers, storage space and vehicles that are needed for the urgent work. In several disasters, authorities had to explicitly ask the public to stop donating. So here, only what someone actually needs gets asked for.
Why am I asked for a quantity?
Because missing quantities are the most common reason help fails to arrive. Without a number, nobody knows whether one offer is enough or three more are needed.
Several people can cover one need together. The platform keeps separate counts of what has been proposed and what has actually been confirmed — so a need cannot be assigned twice and does not stay silently uncovered after a decline.
How precisely is my location visible to others?
Not precisely at all, and that is the point. What is public is a circle of roughly one kilometre around a grid-snapped point — two kilometres for accommodation, farm animals and labour, because there a person or a farm is what needs protecting.
The offset is fixed per record and does not change between requests. That matters: a random offset per request feels safer but can be averaged away by probing repeatedly. A fixed one cannot.
The platform also never releases a distance in metres or a numeric match score, only broad bands — otherwise the exact location could be reconstructed from the numbers.
When does someone get my address and phone number?
Only once both sides of a match have explicitly agreed. Before that, nobody sees more than the coarse circle.
Every single disclosure is logged. That makes it possible to show later who saw which data and when.
What happens if I don’t answer a request?
Nothing. The request expires after a deadline and your resource is automatically released again.
You can also reply directly by email or SMS with “yes” or “no” — in a disaster the mobile network often still works when the data connection is long gone. If a reply is not clear, nothing happens on purpose: accepting ties up a resource, declining burns a candidate. When in doubt everything stays open and you can still accept later.
Where do the situations on the map come from?
From six independent sources: two satellite systems (NASA FIRMS for active heat signatures, Copernicus EFFIS for confirmed burnt areas), two official alert channels (BBK/NINA for Germany, FOCP/Alertswiss for Switzerland), the European weather warnings via MeteoAlarm, and the INGV earthquake and volcano services for Italy.
Official warnings appear as a matter of principle — a human at an authority triggered them. Satellite data has to qualify: through a confirmed burnt area, at least two independent sources, human confirmation, or repeated detection across two separate satellite passes. Single heat pixels never appear, because industrial sites look like fires from orbit.
Why is my region missing?
We watch Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, France, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Andorra and Spain.
The boundary follows language: we only show situations in countries whose population can also use the platform. Showing a situation where nobody here could organise help would be an empty promise.
What is crisis mode?
Inside a confirmed crisis zone, the verification bar is lowered for people seeking help — someone who has just been evacuated should not fail on a formality.
But never without limits: there must be an active zone with sufficient confidence, the category must be permitted, and there is a cap per zone and hour. For heavy machinery the bar is never lowered automatically — a wrongly eased sleeping place costs a pointless phone call, a wrongly eased excavator sends machines into a forest. Every automatic easing is logged and reviewed by a human within 24 hours.
Who is liable if something happens during a deployment?
The people involved. The platform brokers a contact and makes no deployment decision.
Check for yourself before agreeing what your insurance covers — that applies particularly to machinery, vehicles and taking in people or animals. For activities requiring a certificate, such as chainsaw work or a category C licence, no substitute suggestions are ever made: where a qualification is required, the wrong person is more dangerous than nobody.
How do I report an abusive entry?
Every request for help has a report link. Reporting is anonymous and takes two clicks.
A single report removes nothing — that would be a censorship lever. Only when three independent people report the same entry is it hidden and put to a human for review.
How do I delete my account and my data?
Write to us at [email protected] — we delete the account and the associated data. There is no self-service button for this yet; as soon as there is, it will be stated here.
Excepted are logs we must retain for legal reasons, in particular the record of location disclosures that took place. Details are in the privacy policy.