Relying on phoning 000?

Interesting you say that Robin, it was a similar story in Canberra in 2003. Fend for yourself was pretty much the rule of the day. Thankfully, many of the people in rural areas realised this before the fateful Saturday.

Interesting how many people are saying "We were never warned" even though the news reports for at least half-a-week before were saying that Sat 7 Feb was going to be the worst bushfire conditions that Vic had ever experienced (ie. droughts, fire danger, winds, fuel loads etc.)

Getting back to the question: I wouldn't be too hopeful, especially if calling from a mobile. I've tried to call local police (from Canberra) on the 131444 number and usually get connected with Adelaide police who, understandably, have no idea of the location I'm reporting!

Decades ago the USA figured out how to give millions of people a warning of approaching storms - there is now a nationwide network of Weather Alert transmitters.

Why is it so hard for Australian authorities to learn from this ????

Instead of adding 20 CB channels for mindless chatter, they should reserve 4 channels for an Emergency Warning network to allow SES and CFA/RFS/CFS to warn the masses without all the arguing about phone alerting that stopped it being implemented before Black Saturday.

Broadcast station warnings are only useful when people have them turned on - people leave Weather Alert radios on permanently as they're silent except when needed for an alert.

Just had a similar situation here in Brisbane this month with local flooding.
Wasn't major, no where near as bad as 1974.
But a few people got caught, and want to know why.

All the locals who had been here any time knew. That much rain, that road closes, the creek will rise to this point. The locals knew what was going to happen when the BOM forcast heavy rain a few days out.

People just don't talk to their neighbours any more and get the local experience. And the old locals give up trying to talk about past history because the newies just drive past and don't stop for a chat.

I don't think any ambo takes werewolves into account when making a job application. :)) (Or the mentally unstable, the drugged out, etc etc etc).
I still dips me lid to all the ambos and boys in blue and fireies out there. I've worked with them and by golly, they're good.

Goes further than that now Mark.

We were the next car in line, i.e. first on scene at a road accident near Gatton a year or so ago on a Sunday. Wife rang 000 while I went to see what I could do.
She spoke to Melbourne. They had no idea where Gatton is. Had to work back from Qld, south east, so many ks from Brisbane.

But it all worked in the end, and we there was some good help turned up, all three services. Still a fatality though :o(.

hey John

your right about that. whats next?

call centre in india?

In NSW if 000 connect you to Ambulance or Fire Brigade you will be answered by a Call Centre Operator who will have no local knowledge.

If you ask for the Police, you will be connected to the nearest Police Station, where there is some chance that they will know the part of the country you are trying to describe.

if you can provide a street name

That WAS the problem with Ambulance 000.

I know NSW Fire Brigade Call Centre and NSW Police I've worked with are quite capable of accepting various forms of reporting your position.

Mike,

You need to clarify

"In NSW if 000 connect you to Ambulance or Fire Brigade you will be answered by a Call Centre Operator who will have no local knowledge."

and

"I know NSW Fire Brigade Call Centre and NSW Police I've worked with are quite capable of accepting various forms of reporting your position"

There looks to be a contradiction regarding the Fire Brigade

I know that NSW Fire Brigade do not insist on a street address - they can enter this into their computer "I'm 2km North West of Cowan" - even if they have no idea where it is.

Local knowledge might then add "Are you sure, this is a Reserve that's not open to the public".

The technology exists (so I believe) to trace calls, and a hefty fine should be mandatory for that sort of waste of valuable operators time.

Often it's from Public Phones . . . . .

mike did

whether its from a private or public phone......if you make a prank call it CAN be traced.

. . . . so are the Police going to take fingerprints off the Public Phone to see who used it to make a prank call to 000 ?

mikedid

maybe not but if you were seen there you would.

hahahaha...not Friday yet, but highly appropriate. Thanks for that.

A connection will be disconnected 30 seconds after the Calling Party hangs up, even if the Called party doesn't hang up.

Your post would have best been left uinsaid. It is obvious that you have either not read the responses, or chosen to ignore them entirely.

dio

if it is meaningless........why did you bother to enter into it?

. . . . so when people post about problems with their vehicles, you'll reply "stop wasting time here, just take it in to your dealer" ???

. . . when people post about tyre advice, you'll reply "go to your tyre dealer, they're the experts" ???

"The bottom line is that nothing is perfect, but in an emergency, what option do you have but to call 000? "

If I'm travelling to an area where there's a reasonable change of needing to call Emergency Services, I make a list of the Number and location of Police Stations and Hospitals.

So driving around the city you have a copy of each Police Station’s phone number, its opening hours and the number of the nearby suburbs if it is closed?

Or do you mean out of the urban area?

What happens if there is another emergency at that station at the time you ring, or it only has a skeleton staff as less urgent calls at night are handled by the bigger station in the next town?

000 is not perfect, but a non centralised point of communications is not effective use of limited resources. By “jumping the queue” you are effectively reducing effectiveness of the emergency services’ ability to respond to an incident

Do you know how 000 calls are connected to the Police in NSW ? The 000 Operator finds the number for the Police Station nearest to the incident and transfers the caller to that number !

Obviously, I don’t have you’re breadth or depth of knowledge of this matter, so forgive me if I made an error from another state. After all, 000 is nationwide.

Does the 000 operator in NSW just drop an emergency call onto the police station’s line, whether it is answered or not?

If all calls are transferred to the local police station, who is responsible for coordinating what happens when the incident crosses over a number of different services or even across a number of different areas.

There is no “triage” conducted by 000? If you ask for police in an emergency, the 000 operator transfers it to the police, regardless of whether an Ambulance may be required. If the station says we can’t respond at this time, the operator doesn't transfer the call to another station?

I’ve been known to ring the local police station for non urgent matters and I will look that number up, but to me, 000 is for emergencies. It is easy to remember, easy to teach to children and can be punched into the phone in the dark or in a panic

So, can you please answer, you have all the numbers for all the police stations that you would be near during the day

Using your example, tonight when I go to pick my daughter up from training, I will need the numbers of each of the 2 police districts I may pass through and the 4 police stations I will pass (or 5 if I take a small detour to Bunnings)

"Does the 000 operator in NSW just drop an emergency call onto the police station’s line, whether it is answered or not? "

- they keep going through a list until it's answered.


"If all calls are transferred to the local police station, who is responsible for coordinating what happens when the incident crosses over a number of different services or even across a number of different areas. "

- the caller decides whether cal goes to Police, Ambos or Fire.
- there are standard policies for escalating to other services


"There is no “triage” conducted by 000?"
- No, 000 Operators aren't qualified to assess the situation


" If you ask for police in an emergency, the 000 operator transfers it to the police, regardless of whether an Ambulance may be required."
- see escalation procedures above.