Australians at risk of bush fires will getting alerts from the government via their Facebook and Twitter social networking accounts, officials say.

In the wake of devastating bushfires in the state of Victoria that killed 173 people in February, the state government is determined to put more emphasis on early warning efforts, and Facebook and Twitter have been deemed a good fit for that, the BBC reported Monday.

Victorian Premier John Brumby praised the Internet alert idea, saying, "We'll be providing more information to the community, like Twitter and Facebook -- alternative means of communication to get the information out to the public, so that they've got better information from a variety of sources and if they need to make a judgment to go early, they will go and they will go early."

Many victims of the bushfire were reportedly killed as they attempted to defend their homes against the speedy blazes, which moved so quickly they became trapped. The BBC said the interim findings of a judicial inquiry into the causes of the disaster will be released next month.