API reference

Incidents

Live and historical emergency incidents from every state and territory, in one GeoJSON schema. Base URL https://emergencyapi.com/api/v1.

GET/incidents

List all current incidents

Returns a GeoJSON FeatureCollection of all current emergency incidents, with support for filtering, pagination, and bounding box queries.

Parameters

Name	In	Required	Type	Description
`state`	query	No	`string`	Comma-separated state codes (e.g. nsw,vic,qld)
`eventType`	query	No	`string`	Comma-separated event types (bushfire, burn_off, fire_ban, structure_fire, vehicle_fire, grass_fire, hazmat, rescue, flood, storm, tree_down, cyclone, earthquake, extreme_heat, vehicle_accident, medical, alarm, other)
`category`	query	No	`string`	Comma-separated event categories. Groups related event types (e.g. fire includes bushfire, structure_fire, grass_fire, vehicle_fire). burn_off is its own category (planned). See /api/v1/schema for the full mapping.
`featureType`	query	No	`string`	Comma-separated feature types. Defaults to 'incident' (point incidents only), so boundary polygons never appear unless requested. Request them explicitly: incident_area, warning_area, fire_ban_area. See /api/v1/schema.
`severity`	query	No	`string`	CAP-AU severity levels (Extreme, Severe, Moderate, Minor, Unknown)
`urgency`	query	No	`string`	CAP-AU urgency levels (Immediate, Expected, Future, Past, Unknown)
`certainty`	query	No	`string`	CAP-AU certainty levels (Observed, Likely, Possible, Unlikely, Unknown)
`warningLevel`	query	No	`string`	Australian Warning System levels
`status`	query	No	`string`	Incident status filter
`agency`	query	No	`string`	Source agency filter
`bbox`	query	No	`string`	Bounding box: minLon,minLat,maxLon,maxLat
`limit`	query	No	`integer`	Results per page (default 100, max 500)
`cursor`	query	No	`string`	Opaque pagination cursor, taken from meta.next_cursor of the previous response. Absent next_cursor means there are no further pages.
`after`	query	No	`string`	Alias for cursor. This is the parameter name emitted in links.next, and is accepted for backward compatibility. If both are supplied, after wins.
`format`	query	No	`string`	Response format. CSV includes columns: id, state, agency, feed_id, title, event_type, status, warning_level, severity, urgency, certainty, lng, lat, address, suburb, lga, location_state, reported_at, updated_at, fetched_at, is_retracted, retracted_at, retraction_reason. cap-atom returns a standards-validated CAP Atom feed (each entry inlines a CAP-AU alert in <content>; incidents retracted in the last 7 days appear as Cancel messages). cap-au is the deprecated legacy <alerts> wrapper, kept for backward compatibility; new consumers should use cap-atom.
`include_retracted`	query	No	`boolean`	Include retracted incidents (default false). Retracted incidents are marked when upstream feeds stop publishing them.

Responses

Status	Description
`200`	A GeoJSON FeatureCollection of incidents
`429`	Rate limit exceeded

Request

curl "https://emergencyapi.com/api/v1/incidents?state=nsw%2Cvic&eventType=bushfire%2Cflood" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

Response

{
  "type": "FeatureCollection",
  "features": [
    {
      "type": "Feature",
      "id": "nsw-rfs-1234567",
      "geometry": {
        "type": "Point",
        "coordinates": [
          150.604,
          -33.883
        ]
      },
      "properties": {
        "source": {
          "state": "nsw",
          "agency": "RFS",
          "feedId": "1234567"
        },
        "title": "Bush Fire - Warragamba",
        "eventType": "bushfire",
        "status": "active",
        "warningLevel": "watch_and_act",
        "severity": "Severe",
        "urgency": "Expected",
        "certainty": "Observed",
        "location": {
          "address": "Warragamba Dam Rd, Warragamba NSW",
          "suburb": "Warragamba",
          "state": "NSW",
          "latitude": -33.883,
          "longitude": 150.604
        },
        "details": {
          "description": "Bush fire burning in a south-easterly direction"
        },
        "timestamps": {
          "reported": "2026-04-07T14:30:00+10:00",
          "updated": "2026-04-07T16:45:00+10:00",
          "fetched": "2026-04-07T16:46:12+10:00"
        },
        "retraction": {
          "retracted": true,
          "retractedAt": "2026-04-07T18:00:00+10:00",
          "reason": "upstream_removed"
        }
      }
    }
  ],
  "meta": {
    "total_count": 245,
    "has_more": true,
    "next_cursor": "cursor_xyz789",
    "generatedAt": "2026-04-07T16:46:12+10:00"
  },
  "links": {
    "self": "/v1/incidents?limit=100",
    "next": "/v1/incidents?limit=100&after=cursor_xyz789"
  },
  "attribution": "https://emergencyapi.com/api/v1/attribution"
}

GET/incidents/{id}

Get a single incident

Returns a single incident as a GeoJSON Feature.

Parameters

Name	In	Required	Type	Description
`id`	path	Yes	`string`	Incident ID (e.g. nsw-rfs-1234567)
`format`	query	No	`string`	Response format. Default geojson returns a GeoJSON Feature. cap-au returns the incident as a single standards-valid CAP-AU <alert> document (Content-Type application/cap+xml), validated against the OASIS CAP 1.2 schema and the CAP-AU Profile v3.0.

Responses

Status	Description
`200`	A GeoJSON Feature, or a CAP-AU alert document when format=cap-au
`404`	Incident not found

Request

curl "https://emergencyapi.com/api/v1/incidents/{id}" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

GET/incidents/nearby

Find incidents near a location

Returns incidents within a radius (km) of a given lat/lng coordinate, sorted by distance.

Parameters

Name	In	Required	Type	Description
`lat`	query	Yes	`number`	Latitude
`lng`	query	Yes	`number`	Longitude
`radius`	query	Yes	`number`	Radius in kilometres (max 500)
`limit`	query	No	`integer`
`state`	query	No	`string`
`eventType`	query	No	`string`
`severity`	query	No	`string`
`eventCategory`	query	No	`string`
`urgency`	query	No	`string`
`certainty`	query	No	`string`
`warningLevel`	query	No	`string`
`agency`	query	No	`string`
`status`	query	No	`string`	Comma-separated incident statuses (active, contained, controlled, safe, completed). Defaults to all.
`include_retracted`	query	No	`boolean`	Set true to include retracted incidents. Default false; retracted incidents are hidden, matching /incidents.

Responses

Status	Description
`200`	Nearby incidents as GeoJSON FeatureCollection
`400`	Missing or invalid parameters

Request

curl "https://emergencyapi.com/api/v1/incidents/nearby?lat=-33.87&lng=151.21" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

GET/incidents/snapshot

Audit trail snapshot

Returns the incidents that were active at a specific point in time. Recent datetimes are reconstructed from live and lifecycle data. Datetimes before 2026-04-08 are reconstructed from the historical archive (4.8M+ records) and are gated by the same tier lookback as /incidents/history (free has no archive access; Starter 1 year, Developer and Business 5 years, Pro and Enterprise unlimited). Archive (pre-2026-04-08) snapshots require a state filter, and meta.source indicates whether the result came from "live" or "archive".

Parameters

Name	In	Required	Type	Description
`datetime`	query	Yes	`string`	ISO 8601 datetime to query (cannot be in the future)
`state`	query	No	`string`	Filter by state code. Required for archive (pre-2026-04-08) snapshots.
`event_type`	query	No	`string`	Filter by event type
`limit`	query	No	`integer`	Max results (default 500)

Responses

Status	Description
`200`	Incidents active at the requested datetime
`400`	Missing or invalid datetime, or an archive (pre-2026-04-08) snapshot requested without the required state filter
`403`	Archive access requires a paid plan, or the datetime predates your tier's lookback window

Request

curl "https://emergencyapi.com/api/v1/incidents/snapshot?datetime=2026-04-20T14%3A30%3A00%2B09%3A30&state=sa" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

GET/incidents/history

Historical incident data (paid tier)

Returns historical emergency incidents from the 4.8M+ record archive (1840-2026). Free tier is blocked. Starter tier limited to 1 year lookback, Developer and Business to 5 years, Pro and Enterprise unlimited.

Parameters

Name	In	Required	Type	Description
`state`	query	No	`string`	Comma-separated state codes
`eventType`	query	No	`string`	Comma-separated event types
`after`	query	No	`string`	Start of date range (ISO 8601, inclusive). Tier-limited.
`before`	query	No	`string`	End of date range (ISO 8601, exclusive). Defaults to now.
`limit`	query	No	`integer`	Max results per page (1-500, default 100)

Responses

Status	Description
`200`	Historical incidents matching filters
`403`	Free tier blocked or depth limit exceeded

Request

curl "https://emergencyapi.com/api/v1/incidents/history?state=wa%2Csa&eventType=bushfire%2Cflood" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"