Emergency Centre

Contact:

Erika 3
10416 Tallinn
Estonia

Tel: +372 6287 400
fax: +372 6287 457
e-mail:
web: www.112.ee

Emergency Response Centre is a national government institution, which is governed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and is in the domain of Rescue Board. Emergency Response Centre was established on the 1th of January 2005 when the uniting process of the regional emergency response centres came to an end. During the 5 years Emergency Response Centre has formed a single team with professional and friendly workers.

The main activities of the Emergency Response Centre:

1. Processing the emergency reports

• Emergency response dispatchers can be reached by the single European emergency number 112

Client services can be reached:

• Information on Rescue Service 1524
• Help line of Tallinn 1345
• Hotline of the Environmentalinspectorate 1313

The activities fields of Emergency Response Centre:

1. responding to and handling emergency calls
2. sending out rescue teams and ambulance brigades to the place of accident
3. arranging co-operation with other services, companies and organizations, also arranging operative transmission of information and documentation and retaining accidents' database.

The country-wide emergency number 112 is always available, because the Emergency Response Centre ensured the technical capacities of overflow calls in a situation where one or more of regional centers are overloaded. So one doesn’t have to wait for access to the communication in a situation where every second is precious.

1. responding to and handling accident reports in service area

2. the handling, the documentation and retaining of accident reports

3. sending out rescue teams, ambulance, the needed technical means and rescue specialists to the place of occasion

4. informing the chairman of crisis commission of the county or the local administration in case of catastrophe and convocation the crisis commission by the order of local ERC.

Cooperation network of the help and information telephones 

Technological progress

Estonian Emergency Response Centre is the government institution for processing and transmitting information. It is therefore very important that the information and communication technology tools are not only in good working order, but also subject to constant innovation and updating.

Switzerland helps Estonian Emergency Response Centre develop communications and information technology

Estonian Emergency Response Centre project “Development of Communication and Information Technology”, or shortly “GIS-112” is funded within framework cooperation between Estonia and Switzerland.  The project’s aim is to reduce the responding time from answering 112 calls to the time when an emergency service reaches the scene. One of the main goals of the project is to reduce the number of deaths during fire accidents, guarantee a faster help to the injured, that way increasing the number of patients who are reanimated in emergency and minimizing possible damage resulting from the environmental and property accidents. Read more.

In the field of international cooperation the Emergency Response Centre has grown from a newcomer and leaner into an organization capable of sharing experience and knowledge of contemporary needs of the emergency centers to the other countries. Thus, the Emergency Response Center hosted colleagues from Finland, Sweden, Poland, Latvia, Armenia, Ukraine, Moldova and other countries and shared the Estonian experience of the Emergency Response Centre functions and their execution. Closer co-operation has developed with the Swedish Emergency Agency, which has been a partner in project of the develop help in Ukraine. A project was carried out in Armenia funded by the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a part of that was led the Emergency Response Center.

From 2009 Emergency Response Centre has participated in the European Commission Project of Mass Crisis Communication with the Public (MASSCRISCOM) within the area of Prevention, Preparedness and Consequence Management of Terrorism and other Security-related Risks.

Emergency Response Centre Organization Chart

Emergency Response Centre includes rescue employees as well as government officials, who are located around the country - Tallinn, Jõhvi, Pärnu and Elva. Such an inter-Estonian unanimous team will creates good conditions for development and a knowledgement of problems of various parts of Estonia and thus better serving of those needs.

In Emergency Response Centre there are 174 workers.

In the year 2009 the emergency number 112 received 260 877 emergency messages. It means, that last year there were 260 877 accidents where the dispatchers sent out the ambulance or rescue team. In 2008 that number was 261 648 an in 2007 was 255 988. Dispatchers handle about 1,55 millions calls a year.

In 2009 the Help line of Tallinn 1345 client services registered 64 725 problems that needed help. In 2009 this figure was 65 398.

Information on Rescue Service 1524 client services registered 34 657 problems needing help in 2009. In 2008 this figure was 25 272. Client services handled 36851 calls in 2009. In 2008 this figure was 30496.