Do not call the police/SCDF if you felt the tremors
There was a earthquake of magnitude 7.6 at Padang, Indonesia yesterday. The tremors were felt in several parts of Singapore and Malaysia. Strange, we seems to be getting more tremors in recent years.
But one thing I still don’t understand. Why do people call the police or Singapore Civil Defence Force when they felt tremors? It was reported on ChannelNewsAsia that the Police and SCDF received more than 150 phone calls. Was anyone injured? Did anyone get robbed? Is there any emergencies that requires the Police or SCDF?
I think this is a very serious problem. We really need to educate everyone to stop calling the emergency lines unless they have a real emergency. Feeling the tremors is not an emergency. Your building shaking is not an emergency. Unless someone is injured, there is really no need to call the police/SCDF. They are in Singapore too. They can feel the tremors too. They cannot turn off the tremors or stop your building from shaking. They can only help you if your life is endangered.
We are lucky that there is no injuries so far. But what if someone is really injured but couldn’t get thru the emergency lines because 150 people thinks that they need to call the police/SCDF? Think about it. Do you really need to call the emergency line? If not, stay off the emergency line so that those who really need assistance can get help as soon as possible.
If you are worried about your building’s structural integrity, call your building management or BCA at 6325 7720 or HDB’s Essential Maintenance Service Unit at 6275 5555 and 6354 3333. Do not call the police/SCDF even if there is a huge cracks on your building. They cannot do anything about it unless your building collapse.
Please help spread the words. Stop calling the Police and SCDF when there is tremors unless you really have an emergency.
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Tremors mean my life is endangered what. How I know what is going to happen next? Maybe some parts of the building collapse or something? Better let some ‘relevant’ authorities know what happened right? If not wait whole building collapse how I make call?
in emergency, you want us to call maintanance LOL…
It’s like you get into a car accident(no matter how big or small) you call your car workshop..LOL…..
maintenance is maintenance….we talking about emergency…of course now everyone is expert now that we know what caused the tremor…but at 615pm yesterday you know what really happened meh? Who knows? Everyone dont know….so when you dont know you call the emergency department to inform first, they need all this public information to ascertain or evaluation a situation.
I think it makes sense, esp if there’s no news about any earthquake yet and you feel your building shaking, it makes sense to call SCDF/Police. Never know why the building is shaking, could be bcos of tunneling for Circle Line also.. And then maybe it’s not good to ignore that..
.-= NTT´s last blog ..Best Kanelbulle in Stockholm.. =-.
“Do not call the police/SCDF even if there is a huge cracks on your building. ”
My Answer : I have to call if there is a HUGE CRACK on walls and I am in the same building because my life would be exposed to harm or danger.
“They cannot do anything about it unless your building collapse.”
They can save me and my life. If the building collapsed, it’ll be too late.
Jasmine: Your life is not endangered when there is tremors. Try to imagine how many people felt the tremors yesterday. If every single one of them call the police/SCDF, it will surely hog up the line. Then try to imagine maybe a old folk got heart attack because of the tremors. And the family couldn’t get thru the SCDF hotline because everyone is calling to tell the SCDF they felt tremors.
Call the emergency line only when you have an emergency. Especially for something so large scale.
NTT: I’m not telling people to ignore the tremors. I’m telling people not to call the emergency line unless they are injured. Free up the line for real emergencies. There are other ways to find out what is causing the tremors. Radio and TV for the not tech savvy folks and Twitter and Facebook for the tech savvy folks.
KT: There is really nothing the police/SCDF can do when there is a huge crack on your building. It will be too late to wait for them to arrive. You should inform your building management or all occupants of the building and inform them to leave the building.
If the building collapse, passerby will call the Police/SCDF and get them to rescue you. So don’t worry about nobody saving you should the building collapse. Most importantly, get out of the building first when there is cracks. (Or the building shaking too violently)
The correct authorities to call is the BCA or HDB when there are cracks on the building. Check out the SCDF website.
http://www.scdf.gov.sg/Community_and_Volunteers/Learn_Civil_Defence/Peace_Time_Emergencies/peacetime03.html
Like that, when you see a corpse, you call the Tong aik undertaker lor. No need call police liao.
Police, Fireman, Civil Defence, all of them only response to emergency and really emergency ok? Only when you really dying liao then call ok?
Tong Aik Undertaker
127 Lavender St, 338735, Singapore
p: 64553832
Ladies and gentleman, this is the number to call whenever you see a dead body. No need to call the police. The police cannot revive the dead. They also cannot settle any funeral needs. So please call Tong Aik Undertaker when come across a dead body.
P/S: Guess you never had friends who were policeman. Policeman they do everything from catching snakes to casting for dead bodies in the sea. Police is not mean emergency emergency only. So if you are unsure about anything, call police or any authorities because most of the time, they had already had experience dealing with such matters so you can take advise from them too. Or they can decide what they wanna do. Why don’t call? If this is not emergency then what is? Tremor wor….not raining.
The kind of cracks that you referred us to in the SCDF website is not emergency kind of cracks. Those are just like normal cracks or fault lines you see somewhere in the building that you think need some work.
Emergency should call emergency hotline, full stop. Those offices also don’t open 24hours a day.
Tremor is emergency right?
KT: you are not making sense. If there is a dead body, the police need to investigate. If there is crack, police cannot do anything for you.
My point is, free up the emergency line during such incident so that those who really injured can get thru the line and get help.
The police cannot do anything for me but the civil defence MIGHT be able to do something for me. Who knows what degree is the damage? I am certainly no expert in building cracks or any sort of emergency the civil defence are trained to do.
Therefore since I am in no position to decide what kind of emergency should I call so I will still call especially when it is after 6pm and all gahment offices had already closed.
Funny thing is when you talk about police, you know how to use the logic “investigate” but when comes to civil defence, seems you think they have no part to play in the “investigation”. They all are trained in emergencies, why do you want us not to call if we are facing some sort of emergencies? Strange.
No I agree that people shouldn’t be hogging the emergency lines, but the question comes to, how do you know if something is an emergency?? It’s a very subjective thing, and most of us are not equipped to make the decision..
I don’t think waiting for TV/Radio to announce is a good idea, you can’t grantee that they’ll know and broadcast before anything worse happens.. And also, TV/Radio will only know if someone calls them right?? So how??
.-= NTT´s last blog ..Best Kanelbulle in Stockholm.. =-.
I also agree that people shouldn’t be hogging emergency lines but when it’s in a state of emergency, nobody really knows what’s happening, so in that state it is not our intention to hog the lines but to report or to seek advice from relevant people who are trained in emergencies what to do….and if the whole country is tremored…then obviously the lines are going to be hogged but it’s not deliberately…….
Yes now after the event is over you can shout lines hogging but why don’t you tell us what exactly was happening on your blog? Now that it’s already over…..everyone also can talk smart lar……
So how about this.. What if they can setup another line which is “non-emergency civil defense” hotline, just like what they did for the ambulance?
.-= NTT´s last blog ..Best Kanelbulle in Stockholm.. =-.
If say one day you see a python in your lift or an elephant bathing in the reservoir, who do you call?
These are sporadic events that doesn’t warrant an individual hotline specifically set up just for it. Why policemen are handling all these so called “non criminal” activities because they don’t catch criminals all the time. Half their time are spent in office waiting also, so in that case what’s wrong in utilising that ‘service’ which we tax payers have a share in?
Yes I agree with you that line hogging is not right and if anyone does it for fun, sure it’s downright wrong. But your arguement that everyone should stop calling civil defence is akin to asking all the ships to stop prying our waters because it’s getting more polluted. How can? Somethings are just an act of nature. If lines get hogged, it is just an act of nature. If our waters or beaches get polluted, it’s just an act of nature. You can’t just tell someone to stop doing something you know…….
KT: My point is, there is no need to call the emergency hotline when there is a tremors unless you are injured. Full stop. If you think you need/should/must call the emergency hotline, go ahead. I just pray that if one day, a serious disaster hit Singapore and you or your love ones is injured, you will be able to get thru the emergency hotline as soon as possible. Hopefully the emergency hotline is not jammed up by people who are not injured but think that they need to call the emergency hotline just because they felt tremors. I end my case here.
Ntt: Well, if there is a tremors, just call BCA or HDB.
I have never experienced a tremor or an earthquake before so I don’t know how I would really react.
But say if one day I suddenly woke up and saw my bed sliding towards a direction, things swinging around in my home and I feeling giddy, you can be sure that I will pick up the phone and call every close friends, families and hotlines I can remember. And that’s not because I want to HOG but to INFORM, SEEK ADVICE, GET ASSISTANCE, in short, just want to let people know what they should know. And lastly if the building finally collapsed, at least people know what happened before it collapsed.
If got python or elephant sighting then call the zoo lah. As if the police can do anything about an elephant right? They will still need to call the zoo to catch the elephant or snake mah. Anyhow call emergency no is typical kia-si behavior. Hopefully less people will anyhow call the hotlines. They already got a lot of prank calls also. No wonder old people sick at home, heart attack, cannot call through and die.
It is alright to call the police when there is python or elephant sighting. Cause it is not widespread. But calling the police during earthquake when you are not injured is damn freaking idiotic and selfish. Why the hell do you need to call the police for? You are not injured, so stay off the fucking line and let those with real emergency get help.