Gary Cutlack - 

The London Fire Brigade is considering letting us use Twitter to make 999 emergency requests, seeing as we’re all too engrossed in staring at our phones to bother actually making a proper phone call.

The fire brigade currently advises against leaving a message on its Facebook page or tweeting it should your lounge currently be on fire, for obvious reasons to do with speed of response. However, without actually specifically mentioning Twitter or Facebook, a London Fire Brigade spokesperson said it was looking into ways users could start to notify it of emergencies using social channels, seeing as we’re more at ease with sending a text message than calling an actual person these days.

Rita Dexter, the deputy commissioner of the London Fire Brigade, said: “The London Fire Brigade is the biggest fire service in the country and we think it’s important to look into ways to improve how we communicate with the public and how they can get in touch with us.” [BBC]