Sikhumbuzo Moyo, [email protected]
BULAWAYO City Council’s fire and ambulance services department is turning to technology to curb malicious emergency calls after responding to 231 false alarms made with malicious intent between January and September this year.
The false alarms are draining resources, particularly fuel, while diverting emergency crews and potentially delaying responses to genuine emergencies.
Bulawayo chief fire officer Mr Mhlangano Moyo said the department was working with the local authority’s information technology department to install an application designed to identify callers and pinpoint their locations.
“When we receive a call, we request certain data like telephone numbers so that we can use our geographic information system (GIS). We are now in the process of installing an application called ‘Here you Go,’ and once successfully installed, this thing of false alarms will come to an end,” he said.
“Our IT department is busy on that. The application will be able to provide us with the exact location and identity of the caller.”
The technology is expected to help emergency responders establish where calls originate and identify people suspected of deliberately making false reports.
However, the department also recorded 1 551 false alarms with good intent during the same nine-month period, highlighting the different circumstances that can lead to unnecessary deployments.
Mr Moyo said some calls were made in good faith, even when the circumstances changed before emergency crews arrived.
In some cases, fire and ambulance teams reached scenes only to discover that the person requiring assistance had already died. In other instances, callers struggled to provide precise directions and instead guided crews towards recognisable public buildings or other landmarks.
There were also cases where crews arrived to find that another ambulance had already collected the patient.
Although such incidents do not necessarily involve deliberate deception, they can still result in the deployment of personnel and vehicles that might otherwise have attended to other emergencies.
The department’s planned technological intervention is intended to improve the identification and location of callers, potentially reducing unnecessary deployments and helping emergency crews use their resources more efficiently.
Mr Moyo did not give a specific date for the application’s implementation, saying the council’s IT department was still working on the installation.
The initiative comes as the department continues to respond to a range of emergencies, making the effective use of personnel, vehicles and fuel critical to timely service delivery.
