P.E.I. Firefighters Association says new call-location technology has already been useful

Fire departments across P.E.I. have implemented new technology that makes responding to emergencies called in using a cellphone much faster and more accurate.

It's called RapidSOS, and it shares the location of incoming 911 calls to give first responders more pinpointed information about where an emergency is. 

Departments expect it to help them get to the scene much faster when there's no civic address nearby — for example, when someone is out on a boat, in a forest or a large farm field, or at a major outdoor concert.  

Tim Jenkins of the P.E.I. Firefighters Association said it's already proved useful in the month since it's been operating here.

"It could easily save you a half an hour, an hour finding somebody," he said.

"There's been a number of calls on P.E.I. where it has come in handy, on the Rails-to-Trails [network] and in the water. It's spring; things are happening on the water now.

"We can see where that boat is out in the water if they're having some type of emergency, be it medical or fire or an accident on a boat," he added. "It shows us the location of that phone calling so we can see where they are in reference to where we're launching a boat."  

It would also be of benefit if a 911 call came in from an injured forester or farmer. 

"Farmers, for example, could be anywhere on 50 acres and they have a single address... We can see from that where that phone is, so what field they're in, or what part of that field they might be in," Jenkins said.

Then there are events like the Cavendish Beach Music Festival. 

"With the concerts we're have in P.E.I. [attracting] 25,000 to 30,000 people, you can actually see what part of the concert field that they might be in, calling 911 from."

How it works

When a 911 call is made using a cellphone, location information is shared through the RapidSOS system and sent to those who need it.

The exact location of that phone will be shared for 10 minutes after a call is made, and sent to first responders using an app called IamResponding, which is also owned by RapidSOS.

After 10 minutes, updated location data won't be shared anymore, so callers won't have to worry about their phone being constantly tracked.

"From the 911 call, it'll actually track the phone with breadcrumbs, so if you're walking through the woods, it'll show us the direction you're walking for that 10 minutes," said Jenkins.

"Because it's personal information, nobody can just track your phone, unless you call 911. For 10 minutes, first responders know where that call is coming from."

Not just for fires

Jenkins said this kind of location data is useful for other situations where danger may not be as obvious, like seeing smoke from a fire.

"It could be someone who fell off a cliff, you know. If you got to [search] the whole cliff to find them, it'll take a long time," he said.

Jenkins said this kind of location information was available to 911 operators before, but not in a format that could be shared digitally with responders nearing the scene.  

He spoke of the difficulty of "trying to relay that information over the phone from a dispatch to a firefighter who's looking over a cliff, and they don't know where each other is.

"It's much easier to look at your phone and it's there."