Background Living Here

911 Calls

Calling 9-1-1 provides rapid and easy access to police, fire and ambulance services. Only call 9-1-1 in an emergency:

  • Medical emergency
  • Crime in progress
  • Fire
  • Life-threatening situations

Location is critical:

  • Know the street name and number.
  • Know the name of the closest intersection.
  • If the location is unknown, use landmarks to describe it.

If you are calling from a cell phone, the traditional information received from a landline is not available to the emergency operator; the only information that appears on their screen is the cell phone number and the location of the closest cellular tower.

There may be some limitations to accessing 9-1-1 during an emergency for subscribers to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) home and cell telephone services. VoIP phones have no fixed address. Location identifiers are not available when an emergency    9-1-1 call is made. The VoIP operator receiving your 9-1-1 call may be located in a different city and may send your call to the wrong     9-1-1 call centre, causing a potential delay. For VoIP subscribers, access to 9-1-1 may or may not be available during a power failure or if the internet connection is disrupted.

For more information, read the County of Simcoe Emergency 9 -1-1 brochure.

Text to 9-1-1 Service

The Orillia Fire Department, along with its emergency services partners, are pleased to announce that Text with 9-1-1 Service (T9-1-1) for the deaf, deafened, hard of hearing and speech impaired (DHHSI) community will be available starting Aug. 1, 2016, in the City of Orillia, the Townships of Severn, Ramara and Oro-Medonte, and the Chippewas of Rama First Nation.

T9-1-1 is a service that allows members of the DHHSI community to call 9-1-1 during an emergency and converse with a 9-1-1 call-taker by text message. The Orillia Fire Department is a Primary Public Safety Answering Point for 9-1-1 calls in the City of Orillia and surrounding communities. A special application allows the 9-1-1 call-taker to recognize the call as coming from a registered cell phone that is associated with a DHHSI member, and enables the call-taker to text with the caller to deal with the emergency.

It is important to note:

  • To be eligible to use this service, members of the DHHSI community must register with their wireless service provider.
  • DHHSI persons must be aware that they can only access T9-1-1 services from their T9-1-1 registered cell phone and only in parts of Canada where the service has been deployed.
  • In the event of an emergency, the T9-1-1 registered user must dial 9-1-1 on their cell phone, just like they were making a voice call. Even if the caller can't speak, the 9-1-1 call taker should automatically receive an indicator that advises them to communicate with the caller via text messaging.
  • DHHSI callers should only call 9-1-1 for emergencies.
  • Voice calling remains the best and most effective way to access 9-1-1 services for a person that is not Deaf, Deafened, hard of hearing or with speech impairment.

For additional information, including how to register your cell phone for T9-1-1 service, please visit Textwith911.ca.

Telephone Device for the Deaf

To access emergency services using Telephone Device for the Deaf, dial 9-1-1 and press the spacebar until a response is received.

What You Should Know

  • Prank 9-1-1 calls are a criminal offence.
  • If you call 9-1-1 and hang up, police will be notified.
  • Do not call 9-1-1 for information about road conditions, school closures, fallen power lines, non-emergency situations, or general inquiries.

 

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