'People are not calling' - Fire brigade plead with public to ring 999 instead of posting on social media

Ger Ryan, told Virgin Media News that he was concerned about a trend among the public to post about incidents on social media rather than contacting the emergency services.

'People are not calling' - Fire brigade plead with public to ring 999 instead of posting on social media

Members of the public who come across emergency situations such as fires are increasingly videoing or photographing the scene and posting it on social media rather than calling the emergency services, it has been claimed.

Acting Third Officer with Cork Fire Brigade, Ger Ryan, told Virgin Media News that he was concerned about a trend among the public to post about incidents on social media rather than contacting the emergency services.

He says that the Fire Brigade is not receiving the level of 999 or 112 calls it should be.

Unfortunately at the moment we are getting a lot less in call volume to our Munster Regional Control Centre when there is a big incident.

"People are assuming that others have rang the fire service or the other emergency services but in fact we are not getting a great volume of calls in big incidents.

"Those volumes of calls help us know the gravity of the situation before we get there."

Members of the public are being asked to be more aware of how important it is to call the emergency services when they stumble upon a serious incident. Mr Ryan says vigilance is vital.

"The call volume is down. People are not calling. People are using the phones to get the images but they are not calling the emergency services. So we would ask you to dial rather than film.

"Lives will be at risk if we don't get the proper information or if people assume that other people have rang the emergency service.

"Time is a huge factor in the fire service. Making sure that we get there quickly and with the accurate information is critical.”

Latest figures indicate that in 2017 emergency services in Ireland responded to 1.5m call outs.

There are two emergency numbers in Ireland — 112 and 999. Both are free of charge to call. 112 also works in any EU country and from any phone, free of charge.

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