Today, 911, the emergency phone number within Canada, serves an important role in the care of citizens in need of immediate help from medical services, the police force, or the fire department. The number connects callers to a 911 dispatcher who, after asking a few standard questions, is able to dispatch the necessary responders to the appropriate location. Before the advent of the 911 emergency number, citizens would have to call different numbers for the different services. For instance, in Montreal, residents would have to dial 934-2121 to reach the police, 872-1212 for the fire department, and 842-4242 for ambulance services (SPVM, n.d.). Lengthy and difficult to remember, these numbers prevented callers from receiving quick and easy access to the required emergency services. Thus, within the field of emergency medicine, the 911 system has played an especially important role. By decreasing response times, the introduction of the 911 call system has increased early treatment rates for medical emergencies, thus saving many lives.
The first known emergency call system was established in London, England through the number 999 in June of 1937. Its introduction followed a 1935 house fire, during which a neighbor attempted to call the fire brigade but was held in a queue by the phone exchange (NHS North East Ambulance Service, n.d.). Five women were tragically killed in the fire, leading to a governmental inquiry that concluded with a recommendation for the formation of a single, easy to remember number that would alert emergency services. While the initial British 999 system only covered a 12-mile radius (Mayor of London and London Assembly 2015), it quickly expanded to Glasgow in 1938 and other major cities such as Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Manchester and finally Newcastle following World War II, until finally becoming a nationwide service in 1976 (NHS North East Ambulance Service, n.d.).
In North America, on the other hand, the first emergency service number was located in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Also initially under the 999 number, it was first introduced in 1959 through efforts by the Mayor of the time, Steve Juba (Winnipeg Police Museum, n.d.). It took Canada, however, 13 more years after the Winnipeg number was established to officially adopt an emergency call system, with the first city to actually implement the service being London, Ontario in 1974. In regards to Quebec, Laval was the first city to launch the 911 system in 1977, with Montreal finally following suit and establishing their 911 number for residents in 1985 (SPVM, n.d.).
Just like the UK, the 911 system gradually expanded across Canada, finally reaching the last of the provinces—Prince Edward Island—in 2000 (CBC Digital Archives, n.d.). Furthermore, as recent as the year 2019, the Northwest Territories were finally able to bring the 911 number to their residents. Not only provided in English and French, their call system also allows callers “to connect with interpreters in all nine of the territory's official Indigenous languages” (Cohen 2019). Another great advancement in the emergency phone system includes TEXT with 9-1-1, a service that allows members of the deaf, deafened, hard of hearing or speech impaired community to communicate with 911 dispatchers via text (Text with 9-1-1, n.d.). Finally, other initiatives, such as a project titled next-generation 9-1-1 are also currently hard at work on efforts to expand the reach of emergency phone services (CRTC, n.d.). In short, the 911 emergency call system has come a long way since its advent in London in 1937. As it continues to progress, it will be exciting to see what the 911 system will accomplish in the future.
References
CBC Digital Archives, n.d. “Did You Know?” Winnipeggers call 999 for help. Accessed August 29, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20121105054133/http://www.cbc.ca/archives/categories/science-technology/technology/canada-says-hello-the-first-century-of-the-telephone/winnipeggers-call-999-for-help.html.
Cohen, Sidney. 2019. “‘Growing pains’ expected when N.W.T.'s 911 service goes live on Monday.” CBC News, October 30, 2019. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/nwt-911-live-1.5340356.
CRTC. n.d. “Next-generation 9-1-1.” 9-1-1 Services. Accessed August 30, 2022. https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/phone/911/gen.htm.
Mayor of London and London Assembly. 2015. “999 celebrates its 77th birthday.” City Hall Blog. https://www.london.gov.uk/city-hall-blog/999-celebrates-its-77th-birthday.
NHS North East Ambulance Service. n.d. “National Emergency Services Day - the history of 999.” Accessed August 29, 2022. https://www.neas.nhs.uk/news/2019/september/9/national-emergency-services-day-the-history-of-999.aspx.
SPVM. n.d. “History.” 911 Emergency Centre. Accessed August 24, 2022. https://spvm.qc.ca/en/Pages/Discover-SPVM/Who-does-what/911-Emergency-Centre-/History.
Text with 9-1-1. n.d. “What You Need to Know about TEXT with 9-1-1.” Accessed August 30, 2022. https://www.textwith911.ca/en/what-you-need-to-know-about-text-with-9-1-1/.
Winnipeg Police Museum. n.d. “The ‘50s and ‘60s: Chief Robert Taft: 1953-1965.” The First 100 Years. Accessed August 30, 2022. https://winnipegpolicemuseum.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/The-50s-and-60s-Robert-Taft.pdf.
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