Special Firefighters Rescue Team uses WhatsApp to locate lost people

WhatsApp is being used by the Firefighter’s Special Rescue Mountain Team (GERA) in Madrid to rescue people who are lost in the mountains. The team, belonging to Madrid 112 Firefighters, has been able to locate 6 people during the last two months, asking them to use  WhatsApp app to send their location. Many people is not aware of this app’s capability.

It all started casually a couple of months ago when the firefighters team was searching a person lost in the mountains and they couldn’t find him, explained to me Luis Rincon, GERA’s director. A team member asked him whether he was familiar with WhatsApp. The answer was yes, but the man didin’t  know how to send his location.

“All the emergency team had to do, says Rincón, was to guide him through the app so he was able to tell them where he was. That allowed us to save a lot of time, since the position sent is based on the GPS’s Smartphone and is quite accurate. “

“Once we know where a person is, we can either rescue them, if necessary, or guide them to find the right path”.

Operation Manual

"What we've done, explains Rincón, is a very simple operational manual to help people. We generated two trees, one for iPhone  and one for Android. There are almost ten million people using WhatsApp in Spain, but  most of them do not know how to send their location".

GERA's Firefighters 

"What we do when someone contacts 112 is giving them instructions, so they are capable of using  WhatsApp’s menus to send us their position. Smartphones have a great potential for rescue teams, but people ignore this functionality".

How to send your location

The first requirement is having the GPS on or activate it. “Many times people don’t have the GPS activated to save battery. What we recommend is that people learn at home how to do so, in case they need it”.

"Sending your position is an option WhatsApp offers, but people usually uses the app to chat and ignore this capability. What we have done is create some sheets to explain users how to send their location, depending on the smartphone they have. It is a quick reference guide to tell a person what they need to do to send a message with their position“.

“At the same time, we always try people to waste as little battery as possible".

"Not all menus are the same. What people who is planning to go out in the mountains should do is find out home how to use this capability in case they need it”.

"The person who has been able to take these steps is much easier to locate. Sometimes people do not even know what side of the mountain (Madrid or Segovia) they are. Before using WhasApp, they were asked to look at the smartphone screen and tell us their location, but there were many mistakes. We did not know if the position was accurate of it contained a mistake, that could be from 300 meters to 5 kilometers, depending on the Mobile Network ".

WhatsApp offers the correct position instantaneously

"With WhatsApp this is out of the blue. It gives the correct position with an error of 10 or 15 meters, approximately. "

"We are not the first emergency service to use WhatsApp to locate people”, said Rincon. León's Civil Guard  used WhatsApp last October the to find a woman who was lost with her car.

Emergency Centre Madrid 112, 2 years in Social Media

The Emergency Center Madrid 112 meets his first two years in the main social networks: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and Thinglink. Madrid 112 followers tripled to reach 21,000 today in their different profiles.  Twitter account @cmadrid grew from the 5,200 fans a year ago to 18,100 now, while Facebook fans increased from 1,500 to 3,115.

The regional government launched this service in order to inform citizens immediately in case of emergencies such as a road cut by a traffic accident, the interruption of rail traffic or, as happened last summer in Valdemaqueda, a wildfire. In the case of information related to the state of the roads Madrid 112 links the information with the Traffic General Service, so that citizens can deepen the information.

Today, more than 18,100 people follow through Twitter, the account @ 112cmadrid compared to 5,200 they did a year ago. This is an increase of nearly 13,000 fans. Madrid 112  provides last minute information on emergencies and engage with citizens whose questions are addresses through thisTwitter account. They also offer pictures, videos and civil protection recommendations, and broadcast their activity via Ustream.

Madrid 112 Facebook page is followed by more than 3,115 people, up from 1,500 a year ago. Many of those followers belong to emergency or civil protection services. They are mainly young and male audience. Madrid 112 also opened in February a profile on Tuenti oriented to youth and teenagers.

More than 306,000 videos uploaded to YouTube

Videos showing how regional emergency services work, including Firefighters and the Medical Emergency Services (SUMMA 112) has been visualized more than 306,000 times. By sharing this content, Madrid 112 pretends to create a civil protection culture.

Madrid 112 is also present in Flickr and Thinglink, a new social network that lets you post multiple photos with internal links to other photos, videos, texts or websites, an application that enhances the user experience graphically when sharing information across networks as Twitter or Facebook.

2 days with Glen Gilmore

Antrax crisis management, a 2.0 approach is the title of the conference @GlenGilmore lectured yesterday in the Spanish city of Alcorcon, very close to Madrid. The emergency digital magazine, @iRescate, directed by me, and the city Hall Town of Alcorcon @AytoAlcorcon organized the event, which the cooperation of the Spanish Society of Emergency Medicine, SEMES Madrid.

Since anyone interested in the conference may follow all the information in @iRescate, where also an exclusive interview will be available soon, and Twitter (#Antrax) what I’d like to talk in this post is how I met Gilmore and my personal impression on the conference and him.

Social Media

Glen Gilmore contacted me through Twitter on the summer of 2011. I started using the app only that same year, and I must confess that I didin’t know, at that time, how important he was. I didin’t know he has more than 130.000 followers only in his personal account, besides those he has in his others’.

The thing is I probably RT something he wrote (neither of us remember how it was) and we started talking in Twitter. He immediately asked me to join him in LinkeIn, which is what he usually does to check whether somebody is reliable in social media, as he explained to me when we met in Madrid.

What I recalled clearly is that I thought, for the message he sent me in Spanish to join him in LinkedIn, that he was a gentleman. I also thought, for his profile picture, that he was much older than he really is. The funny thing is that he immediately “threaten” me to visit Spain next September. I inmediately answered: “You will be very welcome”.

More than a year happened, during which we kept talking on Twitter, when he sent me an e-mail saying he was coming within a week to Madrid and if it would be possible to lecture on the Antrax crisis. He also added that he needed a translator :-) At that moment, I offered myself to perform the task.

I answered immediately saying it was all a bit too sudden, but, nonetheless, I would make some calls to find a suitable place for the event. I called my friend, @CarlosNovillo, Alcorcon’s Fire Fighter’s Chief, who said that Alcorcon’s Mayor @DavidPerez, would be very interested. I also talked to the vice president of the Spanish Society of Emergency Medicine, SEMES, @fernandolopezmesa, who offered the possibility to certify the conference as a course. All settled, I talked to Madrid 112 Press Manager, @Luisserranor, to organize a visit to Madrid 112.

Devirtualization

We finally met on Wednesday the 25^th on Madrid. We spent three hours together talking on his experience with the Antrax and discussing the presentation he would make the following day. We also talked about the Spanish situation and met a demonstration on the city centre. By that time, I obviously knew how much influence he has on social media, and I wanted everything to be all right.

And it was.

Trustworthiness and social media

Emergency Managers always say  trustworthiness is key in an emergency situation. You can not pretend to open an account on Twitter and be trusted by the citizens next day only because you are and authority. Credibility is something that must be constructed day after day, so you are a reliable source of information.

Glen and I trust each other for the moment we met in social media, and that was the base for the event to be a success.

Emergency Services

We spent Wednesday 26^th all day together, from the moment Madrid 112 Press Manager and me picked him up at his hotel. We visited Madrid 112 Joint Centre in the morning, then had lunch in Alcorcon with the Fire Fighters Chief, the Security Responsible of Alcorcon city town and some other authorities. At 6 o’clock p.m. we met Alcorcon’s Mayor and the conference started.

Visiting Madrid 112 Joint Centre

Gilmore was impressed by the Spanish Emergency Services, and so he said to Madrid 112 Director and to Alcorcon’s Mayor. I remember him saying that he felt “more secure” after visiting the Joint Centre and knowing how they work.

He tried all day to make himself understandable in Spanish, and we really had a great time.

If anyone understands perfectly why the Hufftington Post named him a “Twitter Power House”, what I would like to remark about him is not only his professionalism, well known everywhere, but his kindness and closeness.

As he said, social media connections are real connections, and they make it possible that we finally were able to meet in Madrid and he could lecture here on the Antrax crisis and the power of social media in emergency management.

Thanks to all my friends and authorities who make this event possible and to Glen for making all the way to Spain to share his experience with us!

Forest Fire in la Gomera. Why don’t create a Vost Spain to monitor social media in disasters?

I really can’t understand why authorities are unable to decide who should be the official source when a disaster-a forest fire in our case-strikes. The lack of decision makes it difficult to counter criticism as well as to trust the different sources of information, in a sense that neither the public, nor the media know for certain whether the information delivered is accurate and trustful.  

Since the fire is, according to law, in emergency level 2, it is being managed by the regional authorities in the Canary Island. Nonetheless, it is the press manager of the cabildo insular who is monitoring information in social media through her official account (@KarenBencomoP) without any coordination with the  official 112 twitter account (@112Canarias) who is also informing.

As @jldecastellvi says in his post , @KarenBencomoP  seems to be a new account created because of the fire. Having more than one spokesperson shouldn't be a problem, so long as the information delivered is coordinated and there is a single message. Otherwise, we may have a lot of noise, which can lead to rumour spreading.

I’ve been told that a group of emergency professional, among which are @jldecastellvi, @LuisSerranoR, Javier Blanco (@tango_alfa2), @GalvezRivas and Mónica Ojeda (@artebirgo) are thinking of creating a VOST Spain to monitor information in cases like this.

It sounds to me it a really sensible and great idea. What do you think?

Why rumours spread on #ardevalencia fires: from lack of monitoring to rumour spreading

Lack of coordination between those who were in charge of social media during Valencia fires seems to me the main reason why rumours spread so quickly during the incident. But it wasn't the only one. When there isn't an official and trustworthy source of infomation, neither a single message nor a credible spokeperson, what we must face is counter criticism. But how can we fight rumour when no one is listening to social media and local authorities are not monitoring them? How it is possible to trust oficial sources when the infomation delivered is neither coordinated nor accurate?

 The messages delivered by what we could considered the offical sources mixed everything, from the chainsaws that no authority asked for in Carlet  to the 902 phone number that @CruzRojaEsp added to one message and people included since then in every tweet they send, as well as the combination of these two factors, causing confussion everywhere. Why did all this mess-up kept going for at least three days? Probably because no one was monitoring social media nor listening to what was being said.

What the official account of the local government in Valencia @gva_112cv was doing was pulling data, which doesn't sound that bad, if data were useful. But it wasn't, since they were pulling technichal data, with have no interests to citizens. As in a 1.0 world, they were not monitoring social media but releasing not useful information through Facebook and Twitter, as in the old days. The same way we used to send press releases using the mass media some years ago, as if the landscape had not changed.

Communications in Social Media emergency era

No one was answering to what citizens were saying, as @luisserranor explained so well in this video. 

 Lack of credibility

Trustworthy can not be achieved on a single day. @gva_112cv didin't have the chance, till now, to face a disaster of this magnitute. I don't know how many people are in charge of that account, but it also seems a fact that they don't count on a VOST  to help them. What doensn't work in the ordinary does not work in the extraordinary, and that lack of expertise is probably the reason why no one thought, for instance, of using something like a Usahidi map to locate those places of interest.

We all know what happens when you don't trust the source of information. You seek what you need to know somewhere else, and that is what happens here. It is neccessary to engage with your community by releasing useful information and listening to what they are saying about you, as well as answering their question. Following this path, it would be possible that, when a disaster strikes, you can monitor information through social media and, by delivering a single message, you can become a trusted source of information, capable of coping with the situation and have some chance of being listen to.

The impact of social media in emergencies. Restoring security and safety in case of crisis.

A year has already past since both earthquakes struck the Spanish city of Lorca and Kobe in Japan. In Lorca, the earthquake came as a total surprise, since Spain is not used to them. Therefore, there was not an alert sent to the population, nor a social media emergency plan established, nor did citizens know what to do to protect themselves. (Basically stay indoors, don’t use elevators, cover under a table or similar away from glass, windows and so on, and don’t move until the shaking stops). If outdoors, move away from buildings, street lights and utility wires). Nine people died when some buildings collapsed. Recovery was organized, through social media, while Emergency Services did their best and were able to restore security in a reasonable time. Fundraising was organised in Twitter (@smxlorca)

Japan Tusnami and Earthquake

The Japanese case is completely different. No only for the magnitude of the catastrophe, that can not be compared ( 15,845 casualties, 3,380 missed and  5,893 injured)  but also for the Tsunami that followed the earthquake. So long as we know, tsunamis can not be predicted. Despite the fact that Japanese citizens know very well what to do in case of earthquake, the impossibility to set a Tsunami’s early warning is the key point when talking about mitigation and recovery. 

Japan's Tsunami

In Japan social media were used from the very beginning, reaching more than 5,500 tweets per second.  Let’s remember that while the earthquake knocked out electricity supplies and shut down two nuclear power plants, Internet availability remained relatively unaffected, so agencies and citizens, as well as the Government, were able to use social networks to find useful information about what to do in the aftermath of the disaster as well as to connect and search for their loved ones.  Usahidi was also very useful.  

                                                           

                                                       

Japan is but one example of how social media has become an essential part of recovering in the aftermath of a disaster. The issue now is how we use social media in the recovery phase of a catastrophe. If we take into consideration that at least a third of the general and online population would expect help to arrive in less than one hour, according to @RedCross survey, it seems to me that PIOs, Governments, Emergency Managers and Agencies should try even harder to come up with their expectations.

Digital volunteers versus virtual operation support team.

Digital volunteers and virtual operation support teams /groups are proving to be a good solution, but as some #smem people say, we should extend this model, since we have the technology and are capable of developing early warning systems. In fact, there are some projects in the European Union, like the Alert4All project, where I give advice as a media expert, which has among their main goals to improve early warning systems in case of emergency. So, as I already said, what is left is our will to use the available technology to enhance recovery in the aftermath of a disaster.

What do you think? Comments are welcome.

Basic Life Support: training students in emergencies

The Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine has just published a longitudinal investigation which shows how high school students’ skills –related to CPR- improve after being training with Basic Life Support Techniques. The document indicates that Sudden Cardiac Arrest is the most common cause of death worldwide. It affects about 350,000 to 700,000 people in Europe annually and its incidence is expected to rise in the coming years. Although the Sudden Cardiac Arrest incidence at schools accounts for only 2.6% of all public location, if students, as well as teachers, know CPR manoeuvres, they can save a life that, otherwise, might be lost. Moreover, they will be capable of applying CPR anywhere a person collapsed by them.

According to Theresa M Meissner, Cordula Kloppe and Christoph Hanefeld investigation  people who suffer from sudden cardiac arrest depend on prompt basic life support (BLS). Patients who receive bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) have a two to three times higher survival rate (8.2% vs. 2.5% for patients who did not receive CPR). Extensive education of the population in particular countries and regions led to high numbers of bystander CPR in cases of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests. To mention but one example, 12 year old Kylee Shea collapsed in her school (in the United States). She survived because two trained teachers helped her using a life saving device, as shown in this video.

However, studies show that often less than one-third of out-of hospital witnessed cardiac arrest victims receive bystander CPR. Furthermore, 50-65% of cardiac arrests happen at home. Because these victims are less likely to receive bystander CPR, they have poorer outcomes than those who are subject to out of hospital cardiac arrest in other non-hospital locations. In these cases, bystanders are usually family members and can include high school aged students. “Educating school children about Basic Life Support- Meissner, Kloppe and Hanefeld say- is an excellent strategy to reach a broad public and increases the percentage of trained adults in a community”. It is also relevant the fact that high school students have the cognitive and physical ability to act as first bystanders in an emergency by providing CPR to children and even adults.

Other Civil Protection contents

There are some other important skill that students should learn at school. What to do in case of fire, how to act in a car accident, how to prevent, manage and protect yourself in case of natural or man made disaster, how to communicate the incident when calling 112 (911 in the USA), how to evacuate a building, if necessary.

In #Edcivemerg share the opinion that schools are an ideal setting to teach these contents  because a large part of the community is introduced to these life-supporting prospects. We highly recommend that all this knowledge are implemented as a mandatory part of the curriculum. And that is why #Edcivemerg spokespersons are having a meeting tomorrow with the General Director of Evaluation and Cooperation, Xavier Gisbert @XGDC at the Ministry of Education to present him our manifesto and some contents proposals to be introduce in Spanish schools.


What do you think? Comments are welcome.

Would you know how to face an emergency?

Only this week, the EdCivEmerg team found out an interesting video  where we can see how very young Northern Ireland children have being trained to acquire Basic Life Support techniques, in order to know what to do in case of an emergency at home, in a shop or in the street. It has been estimated that if Basic Life Support had been given to these victims, 1800 lives could had been saved. 

Here in Spain, we also have some programmes, but we don’t have this content at school. This means that Basic Life Support is unknown by most citizens. I have a 14 year old son who, now and then, when it is too hot or the place is too crowdy, he faints. Till now, either his father or me have been around to help him. But from now on, since he is starting going out by himself, with some friends of his age, who will help him if the situation worsen? What if no one does something as simple as taking him out into the shade, put his head down and his legs up? What if no one alerts the emergency services, in case it is needed?

Basic Life Support

As you may know, up to 75 % of citizens suffer cardiac arrests at home, 3 out of 4. 25.000 people every year here in Spain.  Up to a thirty per cent of the population seems to know how to make a cardiopulmonary resucitation.  In other words, only 3 out 10 people can apply mouth to mouth resuscitation and cardiac massage. Just a few citizens are capable of applying Basic Life Support. It is been estimated that every minute a person who suffers a cardiac arrest and they are not treated their posibilities of survival decreases to a 10 %. After 8 to 10 minutes, they will not be able to survive. 

Probabilities of survival a cardiac arrest, in terms of time
consumed until resucitation maneuvers start.

Parliamentary bill

I wish we could avoid it. But wishes go nowhere. That’s why a group of professionals have joined our efforts in www.EdCiv.Emerg to ask our authorities to include Civil Protection and Emergencies content at school. Our aim is simple. We want so save lives: my son, your son, your neighbour, any human being around you who may need your help. To this aim, our local Government will present a parliamentary initiative next week to include these contents in a new subject at school. We are talking about very basic principles that can be applied by any one in case of an emergency. Starting from the very beginning.: Protect (yourself and the victim) Alert (the emergency services by calling 112 in Europe- 911 in the USA) and Save. 

In the USA a proposal to require hands-on CPR practice in high school resuscitation programs has passed the Senate. 

I hope Spanish proposal goes on the same way.

How a social media campaign can help save lives

As many of you may already know, a group of emergency services professionals have started a campaign to include civil protection education in schools here in Spain, with the ultimate goal of saving lives. The opportunity arose when our new Education Minister José Ignacio Wert , @Jiwert, announced that it was his intention to introduce some changes in a school subject called Civil Education. To this end, we have created the hastag #EdCivEmerg, where you can follow all the information related to this topic. 

It all started last week when Luis Serrano @LuisSerranoR posted a tweet  to the Education Minister asking him whether he would consider adding civil protection and first aid contents to this subject. The Minister replied that he liked the idea.  Following this, the idea was endorsed by Government Adviser, Cristina Cifuentes (@ccifuentes), the Presidency Adviser Regina Plañol (@reginaplanol), as well as some NGOs, such as the Spanish Red Cross, (@CruzRojaEsp), the Spanish Association Against Fire (ASELF), (@ASELFcomunica), the  Spanish Society of Cardiology @secardiologia, and many other organizations and citizens connected to Civil Protection.

PSAPs support

Last Tuesday, 7th February, the campaign received a great boost when all the directors of Civil Protection, and the Director of PSAP, decided to publicly endorse our proposal. I’d like to give my special thanks to @javierromaguera,  Director of 112 service in the Spanish city of Ceuta (situated in North Africa), who has backed  this initiative from the very beginning, and has introduced it to their fellow colleagues.

Social Media Back-up

As you can see, following the hastag #EdCivEmerg, hundreds of citizens are signing up to the manifesto, named ‘Civic Education and Emergencies’.

We could not have been able to obtain support from such a great number of people without the social media, including traditional media through their twitter accounts. 

European 112 day

February 11 is European 112 day. A great chance to spread the word. Help us reach  Emergency Services, once and for all, through a single phone number,  and help us save lives by training children on First Aid and Civil Defense at school.

All the members of #EdCivEmerg team , @Alfredo_112,  @pelluzo,  @CarlosMatabuena, . @danielortiz1984,  @fernanlopezmesa, . @FonsecaFj, . @igonzalezh,  @tango_alfa2, @jvarela, @Jorgeizdo, 

@ChemaCepeda,  @jldecastellvi, . @LuisSerranoR,  @marcoseguillor, @jesterhanny,  @PaolaGonzalezH,  @mrsrosaperez and myself @marialuisamoreo, an many more,  are doing our best to have our children prepared in the case of an emergency, as they are in the U.S.A, Japan, or Northern Europe, to quote a few examples. Our goal is to save lives, and that, in our opinion, should be taught at school, on a regular basis, so that citizens are able to cope in an emergency situation. 

Don’t you agree?

If you would like to sign up to our campaign, you can do so on our website www.edciviemerg.com. Here you can also read the many interviews we carried since last week.