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Emergency services and rescue services are organizations that ensure public safety and
health Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organ ...
by addressing and resolving different emergencies. Some of these agencies exist solely for addressing certain types of emergencies, while others deal with ad hoc emergencies as part of their normal responsibilities. Many of these agencies engage in community awareness and prevention programs to help the public avoid, detect, and report emergencies effectively. Emergency services are often considered first responders. Emergency services have one or more dedicated
emergency telephone number Most public switched telephone networks have a single emergency telephone number (sometimes known as the universal emergency telephone number or the emergency services number) that allows a caller to contact local emergency services for assis ...
s reserved for critical emergency calls. In many countries, one number is used for all of the emergency services (e.g.
911 911 or 9/11 may refer to: Dates * AD 911 * 911 BC * September 11 ** 9/11, the September 11 attacks of 2001 ** 11 de Septiembre, Chilean coup d'état in 1973 that outed the democratically elected Salvador Allende * November 9 Numbers * 911 ...
in the
Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America, North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. ...
, 999 in the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...
, 112 in continental Europe, 000 in
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
). In some countries, each emergency service has its own emergency number (e.g. 110 for police, 118 for coast guard, 119 for fire and medical in
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...
; 110 for police, 119 for fire, 120 for medical in
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
). Calls made to emergency services to report emergencies are called calls for service. The availability of emergency services depends very heavily on location, and may in some cases also rely on the recipient giving payment or holding suitable insurance or other surety for receiving the service.


Types of emergency services


Primary emergency services

Primary emergency services are emergency services that provide basic emergency assistance and care. They can be summoned directly by the public. There are three primary emergency services. *
Police The police are a Law enforcement organization, constituted body of Law enforcement officer, persons empowered by a State (polity), state, with the aim to law enforcement, enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citize ...
Law enforcement Law enforcement is the activity of some members of government who act in an organized manner to enforce the law by discovering, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing people who violate the rules and norms governing that society. The term ...
, crime prevention, criminal investigation, and maintenance of public order. There are a variety of similar law enforcement agencies, such as gendarmerie, but police are the most common. *
Fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition point, flames ...
Fire suppression Wildfire suppression is a range of firefighting tactics used to suppress wildfires. Firefighting efforts in wild land areas require different techniques, equipment, and training from the more familiar structure fire fighting found in populated ...
,
fire prevention Fire prevention is a function of many fire departments. The goal of fire prevention is to educate the public on the precautions which should be taken to prevent potentially harmful fires and how to survive these fires in the event that they do o ...
, technical rescue, and hazardous materials mitigation. Some fire services also provide emergency medical services. *
Emergency medical services Emergency medical services (EMS), also known as ambulance services or paramedic services, are emergency services that provide urgent pre-hospital treatment and stabilisation for serious illness and injuries and transport to definitive care. ...
Emergency medicine,
patient transport Patient transport is a service that transfers patients to and from medical facilities in non-emergency situations. In emergency situations, patients are transported by the emergency medical services. Non-emergency patient transport is sometimes ...
, and technical rescue. Some emergency medical services are part of fire services, though most are independent.


Specialized emergency services

Specialized emergency services are emergency services that are not considered one of the three primary emergency services. They can be provided by one of the primary emergency services (often as a division or unit) or by a separate governmental or private body. Specialized emergency services may typically be contacted and requested by the public, unless they are a division or unit of a primary emergency service. They may also often be requested by primary emergency services to handle certain emergencies or augment existing emergency services personnel. Some of these services may be location-specific and have jurisdiction over specific areas or situations, with little if any authority outside them. In some jurisdictions, specialized emergency services may be allowed to use emergency lights on their vehicles, often yellow or amber lights unless they are aready part of a primary emergency service, in which case they typically use the emergency light setup used by their respective emergency service. * Animal control service – Animal assistance, ensuring public safety around animals * Bomb squad – Bomb disposal, hazardous material disposal, weapons and munitions disposal * Border guard – Border control, border security, border protection * Bylaw enforcement – Enforcement of local ordinance * Civil defense – Disaster protection, wartime civilian protection, rescue aid * Coast guard – Maritime law enforcement and rescue within national waters * Conservation officer – Wildlife protection, wildlife law enforcement, hunting and fishing enforcement * Coroner – Death confirmation, cause of death identification ** Medical examiner – Death investigation * Emergency management – Incident management, coordination in major emergencies * Humanitarian aid – Basic aid and care for people in need * Incident response team – Specialized incident response * Lifeguards – Medical aid and rescue at pools, beaches, shorelines, dive spots *
Military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
– National defense, internal security, emergency assistance (in certain situations and jurisdictions) ** National Guard – Internal security * Park rangers – Law enforcement in parks and nature reserves * Poison control center – Advice on poison exposure * Police tactical unit – Hostage rescue, counter-terrorism, dangerous situation resolution, combat * Prison officer – Law enforcement and first response within correctional facilities * Public utilities – Safeguarding and maintaining utilities and infrastructure * Public works – Assessing, cleaning, and repairing infrastructure * Roadside assistance – Aiding motorists in need of assistance, conducting vehicle maintenance and repairs * Search and rescue – Rescue of missing, trapped, or at-risk victims ** Cave rescue – Rescue of victims in caves and underground areas ** Mountain rescue – Rescue of victims on mountains or in wilderness areas * Security forces – Internal security * Security guards – Asset protection, property protection, private enforcement * Ski patrol – Medical aid and rescue at ski resorts and mountain resorts * Tow truck – Moving disabled, impounded, or illegally-parked vehicles * Wildland firefighting – Wildfire suppression


Cooperation

Effective emergency service management requires agencies from many different services to work closely together and to have open lines of communication. Most services do, or should, have procedures and liaisons in place to ensure this, although absence of these can be severely detrimental to good working. There can sometimes be tension between services for a number of other reasons, including professional versus voluntary crew members, or simply based on area or division. To aid effective communications, different services may share common practices and protocol for certain large-scale emergencies. In the UK, commonly used shared protocols include CHALET and ETHANE while in the US, the
Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-ter ...
has called for nationwide implementation of the
National Incident Management System The National Incident Management System (NIMS) is a standardized approach to incident management developed by the United States Department of Homeland Security. The program was established in March 2004, in response to Homeland Security Presidenti ...
(NIMS), of which the Incident Command System (ICS) is a part.


Disaster response technologies

Smart Emergency Response System (SERS) prototype was built in the SmartAmerica Challenge 2013-2014, a United States government initiative. SERS was created by a team of nine organizations. The project was featured at the White House in June 2014 and called an exemplary achievement by Todd Park (U.S. Chief Technology Officer). The SmartAmerica initiative challenges the participants to build cyber-physical systems as a glimpse of the future to save lives, create jobs, foster businesses, and improve the economy. SERS primarily saves lives. The system provides the survivors and the emergency personnel with information to locate and assist each other during a disaster. SERS allows organization to submit help requests to a MATLAB-based mission center connecting first responders, apps, search-and-rescue dogs, a 6-feet-tall humanoid, robots, drones, and autonomous aircraft and ground vehicles. The command and control center optimizes the available resources to serve every incoming requests and generates an action plan for the mission. The Wi-Fi network is created on the fly by the drones equipped with antennas. In addition, the autonomous rotorcrafts, planes, and ground vehicles are simulated with Simulink and visualized in a 3D environment (Google Earth) to unlock the ability to observe the operations on a mass scale.Vide

Smart Emergency Response System


Response time

A common measurement in benchmarking the efficacy of emergency services is response time, the amount of time that it takes for emergency responders to arrive at the scene of an incident after the emergency response system was activated. Due to the nature of emergencies, fast response times are often a crucial component of the emergency service system.


See also

* Civil Air Patrol * Civil defense *
Common Alerting Protocol The Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) is an XML-based data format for exchanging public warnings and emergencies between alerting technologies. CAP allows a warning message to be consistently disseminated simultaneously over many warning systems to ...
* Emergency management * Emergency service response codes * Incident response team * Public safety *
Public service A public service is any service intended to address specific needs pertaining to the aggregate members of a community. Public services are available to people within a government jurisdiction as provided directly through public sector agencies ...
* Rescue squad * Rural Fire Service/ Country Fire Authority


Sources

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