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Compass App Helps Krefeld Firefighters Find Lost Teenagers

A dispatcher overcame failed network locating by having a caller read offline GPS from a phone compass.

Overview

  • Two girls, ages 13 and 14, called 112 after getting lost after dark in Krefeld’s Kapuzinerberg woodland.
  • Weak mobile coverage and no internet blocked the dispatch center’s technical location tools, and the call quality was poor.
  • The dispatcher had the caller retrieve GPS coordinates from a compass app and passed them to the on-scene commander.
  • Crews located the pair about 30 minutes after the emergency call in the Inrather Berg area, and medics found them uninjured.
  • Eighteen personnel from the professional and volunteer fire brigades and the municipal rescue service concluded the operation in roughly an hour.