Twitter users could soon be able to report emergencies in 140 characters and bypass 999 calls under proposals aimed at making communication with the UK's biggest fire service easier.
The announcement comes following the recent publication of the Brigade's draft Integrated Risk Management Plan. Also known as the draft London Safety Plan, the document sets out how the fire and rescue service in London will be delivered over the next few years.
The London Fire Brigade (LFB) has said that it will explore the idea of setting up the world's first 999 emergency feed to ease pressure on the telephone service which takes more than 30million calls a year. It aims to work with the government and other blue light services to establish whether the idea could become a reality, and the extent to which social media might be used to report emergencies.
Many emergency services around the country are already making use of social media, not only to track and monitor fires but also to highlight awareness campaigns at traditionally busy periods, for example, Bonfire Night.
One particular incident, a large blaze in west London in January, had firefighters scouring social media to get as much information about the incident as possible. Due to the police helicopter not being available, the LFB turned to its Twitter followers who were in the area to take pictures and describe the scene. Information was relayed back to experts at headquarters who were able to make an assessment as to the severity of the situation. Without help from social media, the LFB said, it would have taken longer to control the fire.
The LFB will look at different social media, micro-blogging sites and smart-phone apps as alternatives to the current telephone system.
It cites figures from Ofcom that suggest that the number of people talking on the phone is in decline and that 20 per cent of adults now use a smart phone. Statistics from Twitter itself show that over 2,000 tweets are sent per second worldwide.
Rita Dexter, Deputy Commissioner of London Fire Brigade, said:
"With over a billion people now using Facebook and half a billion using Twitter, it's quite clear that social media is here to stay. The London Fire Brigade is the biggest fire service in the country and we think it's important to look into ways to improve how we communicate with the public and how they can get in touch with us."
However, the plans have been slammed by union chiefs who believe that the idea could put lives at risk. Ian Leahair, Fire Brigades Union executive council member for London said:
"It is a ludicrous idea. It will inevitably lead to more hoax calls."
A spokesman for the London Ambulance Service, which deals with between 4,000 and 5,000 calls each day, also criticised the plans, asking:
"What is the benefit? If you were able to tweet using a smartphone, then why not call? For us it would be too important to speak directly to the person on the line and get as much information as possible, which would be difficult to do on Twitter."
But the LFB said that cynics rubbished the idea of dialling 999 in an emergency when it was first introduced more than seven decades ago. "When it was first set up in 1935, people said that dialling 999 to report emergencies would never work ... today BT handles over 30 million emergency calls each year", said Ms Dexter.
The plan will be subject to a public consultation in coming months. In the meantime, fire chiefs have urged people to continue to dial 999 in emergency situations as their Twitter feed @LondonFire is not currently manned around the clock.
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