Happy birthday 999! The UK’s emergency call service turns 75

BT’s 999 service – the world’s first emergency call service – celebrates its 75th anniversary this weekend.

999 was launched in London on June 30, 1937, after the deaths of five women in a fire at the home of a London surgeon. After this tragedy, a committee was set up to look at how telephone operators could identify emergency phone calls.

The easy to remember number 999 was agreed on – and it became the world’s first emergency number. Glasgow became the second city to have the service in 1938, and it was extended to all major towns and cities by 1948.

The service has expanded rapidly since it began and when red lights and klaxons alerted operators that an emergency call was coming in. More than a thousand calls were made to the new number in the first week of the service – now there’s an average of 597,000 calls a week across the UK.

BT operators answer more than 98 per cent of the 31 million calls made annually from fixed and mobile phones within five seconds. The early hours of New Year’s Day is traditionally the busiest time when up to 13,500 calls can be received each hour.

999 calls are handled by one of our centres in Nottingham, Newport, Blackburn, Bangor and Glasgow, or one of the newer centres in Dundee and Portadown, which only recently began taking calls. Each operator handles around 250 emergency calls each day from all over the UK.

When taking an emergency call, speed and accuracy of information are vital. As the call is received, details of the caller’s phone number and other information flash immediately on the screen of the BT operator, who quickly confirms that the call is bona fide, which emergency service is required and then transfer the call to the appropriate service.

When BT operators pass calls to the emergency services, 52 per cent go to the police, 41 per cent to the ambulance service, six per cent to the fire and rescue service and one per cent to the coastguard and cave and mountain rescue services.