We wrote about the matter, among other places, in the article My child isn’t breathing, my legs are going numb – residents’ false alarms. People call about trivial matters without realizing that in this way they engage emergency services, which at that time may be needed somewhere where someone genuinely needs their help.
For example, a 34-year-old man called the emergency medical service in Lubin, saying that he required immediate help because… his legs were going numb. The emergency team could not get into the apartment. More services were dispatched to the scene. Police officers and rescuers tried to get inside, but no one answered. They notified the fire service, which forced the door open. Inside – once again – there was no one. After a while, the man who had made the call emerged from hiding; he had been watching the emergency services’ operation the entire time. He explained to the police that he had alerted the emergency service because he had become stressed. He was fined 500 zlotys.
We decided to check what the situation looks like in Bolesławiec. We contacted the duty officer at the Bolesławiec fire service. It turned out that residents of our county also sometimes call firefighters about trivial matters. Recently, someone notified the officers that… one hornet – literally just one! – had flown into their home.
Sometimes people report that an oil spill has appeared on the road. Firefighters arrive at the scene and it turns out to be… a puddle. “People want to do the right thing and intervene, but often this intervention is limited to calling the fire service number,” senior captain Tomasz Łukaszewski, duty operations officer at the Command Post of the County Commander of the State Fire Service in Bolesławiec, said in an interview with “ii”. Residents call, for example, to report that a broken branch is lying on the pavement. Or that a small twig has fallen onto the road.
On another occasion, the fire service is notified when a garbage bin is burning, even though a single bottle of water would have been enough to put it out. “Sometimes all it takes is a little thought,” emphasizes senior captain T. Łukaszewski.
The next absurd report was made by a person with an allotment garden, who notified the officers that some kind of reptile had hidden under one of the stones on his plot, located right next to a forest. It was difficult to determine exactly what kind from the description. The man was instructed not to irritate the animal and was asked to contact forestry workers.
Sometimes drivers who have driven into a ditch call the fire service number and want firefighters to pull them out. Meanwhile, it turns out that no one was injured in the incident and no one needs to be pulled from the vehicle, so the fire service’s intervention is unnecessary. After all, it is not the officers who deal with pulling cars out of ditches, but roadside assistance.
Soon we will describe the absurd reports received by duty officers at the County Police Headquarters in Bolesławiec.
KPP Lubin/KP PSP Bolesławiec/ii