Queens County, Nova Scotia
In Nova Scotia when help is really needed, dial 911. See: http://www.halifax.ca/Fire/911QA.html
However
there are a number of things you need to be aware of that are not
fully covered in the excellent site created by the Halifax Fire
Department. Many of these occur when dialing 911 from cell phones. The
following events occurred with calls reaching the Mill Village
& District Fire Department:
A:
A truck driver passing Exit 17a on Highway 103 called at around
midnight saying there was a fire above the Exit on the Mill Village
side. He did not stop to investigate and did not call until he was
a number of kilometers closer to Halifax. The Department was paged
and responded to a non-event. The yellow street light which had been
only recently installed, combined with the foggy conditions was
mistaken for a fire and smoke.
B:
A call was received around 2.00pm during a heavy snow storm reporting
a school bus in the ditch. The site was on a road which connected,
according to road signs, with Bridgewater and Liverpool. No civic
address was given or highway number. MVDFD responded as well as
Charleston and Port Medway. No bus was found after searching all
the roads in our districts which fit the description, and some that
did not. After a number of calls to Central Dispatch, it was
determined that the incident was at or near the intersection of
Highways 210 and 325 about 1 kilometer from the Newcombsville Fire
Station in Lunenburg County.
C:
On a warm and sunny evening volunteers responded to a page to a house
fire at a civic address on the main highway going through Mill
Village. A good turn out had the MVDFD ready to roll in 10 minutes
with 3 trucks. The civic address did not match anything in the
district which has buildings on the main highway (Highway 103 has
limited access) or on Highway 3. It would have been a record mutual
aid to Mill Village, Hants County.
D: A call came in while it was still light saying there was a man lying by a car on the shoulder of Highway 103 somewhere around kilometer marker 166. A search of the portion of 103 in the MVDFD district found no such situation. The best interpretation is that he was checking out the underside of the car.
All
of these incidents involved helpful passing motorists who had kept
moving and did not provide clear directions. The motorist should have
stopped and offered to give aid and in any event to obtain and
provide more precise directions. They were somewhat disconnected
from the event they were reporting and failed to do the minimum they
would want if shoes were reversed. They did not want to get involved
or take the time to ascertain a clear picture of the situations.
They failed to answer the 4 W’s.: Who ? What ? Where ? and
When ?
If
you call 911 from a cell phone, identify who you are, what the
problem is, where it is with some precision, and when you saw the
event. A proper call made from the scene will automatically answer
when.
Some vehicles have global position devices (GPS) . Our fire trucks do not. If you have GPS data, ask the 911 if the data will be of any use. We can not get to the scene with any dispatch unless we know where to go. Somewhere along the 103 does not even tell us whether we should turn left or right. Civic numbers are a good start but the name of the occupant at a house will usually be recognized by one of the firemen. Civic numbers some times are harder to see than one imagines. The numbers, along with street signs, are favorite targets of the intellectually challenged. They do not just get lost. But without them, we may.
The NS Emergency Measures site is: