Fire Hydrants

They date back over 200 years.  They come in all different shapes and sizes and are an important part of fighting a fire.  What are they? 


Of course I’m taking about fire hydrants.  Check out this clip on some very important history and tips about fire hydrants. 

Butt Dials on the Rise!

Aren’t smart phones great?  They really do it all.  But every now and then your rear end decides to make calls of its own.  But dialing, as it’s known, has become much more of a nuisance for newer phones than compared to older style flip and bulky phones.  You might be saying, how is this related to firefighting?   Before I answer that question, have you seen how easy it is to make an emergency call, even when you phone is locked?  Don’t type in the right password, or just by hitting the “emergency call” button, will bring you to a screen where an emergency call can be placed.

Having the ease of making an emergency call is great when you’re in a real emergency.  But then you butt decides to make that emergency call without you knowing, causes serious issues to our 911 call system.  And it’s not just you butt but let’s say you leave you phone in a book bag of pocket book and another object pushed the touchpad to dial that emergency number.  Without the phone owner knowing, a police officer or firefighter will be responding to your location.  But why?

When a 911 call is placed, either it being a real emergency or not, a dispatcher will pick up the line and ask if everything is ok.  When no one answers, the dispatchers have to assume that there is an emergency and will do the perform the necessary steps to make sure everything is ok.  The dispatcher will first attempt a call back in which he will dial the phone number and try to verify if there is a real emergency.   If no one answers the call, the line is busy, or it doesn’t go through, a police officer will be dispatched to the location where the call was placed.  Even with cell phones, an approx location is shown when you call 911.  A fire truck might be dispatched if the dispatcher feels the call needs a fire department response.  Before you know it, a police officer will be at your location asking if everything is alright.    

 It’s great that we have this program on our phone, but just be careful to not call 9-1-1 when it’s not an emergency.  Every time someone butt dials 9-1-1, the dispatcher need to take time to call back and then dispatch a police officer.  In that time, he could be answering real emergency calls.  If you do accidentally butt dial 9-1-1, pick up your phone and tell the dispatcher that everything is alight and it was just an accident.   No harm, no foul! 

So, if you don't what the SWAT team showing up at you house, make sure you

lock you phone and protect it from "butt dialing" *

*All photos on this blog were taken by me and are copyrighted. You may not under any circumstances use any of my photos without permission.