As with many of the stories which we share, one of our followers made us aware of the fact that Hampshire Police had to share a post on its facebook page asking people not to call 999 during a powercut.
Whilst power cuts can be a common occurrence, especially during adverse weather conditions, most people have the presence of mind to refrain from clogging up the 999 system will calls regarding this sort of inconvenience.
But it would appear that some residents in Hampshire thought that the 999 system would be the best point of contact rather than, for example, calling their power suppliers.
The post shared on the Hampshire Constabulary Facebook page said:
“We’re aware of the widespread power cut across Portsmouth and surrounding areas.
“This is being dealt with by Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks.
“Please do not contact us to report this power cut; unless it is in relation to an emergency.
“For more information please follow Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks’ Facebook page.”
Followers were stunned that people were calling 999 to report the power cut with Emma Roberts saying:
“Who on earth would ever contact the police about a power cut?!?
“Shocked they have to post this request to not contact them.”
Meanwhile, James Reed said:
“To be honest, I didn’t even know Portsmouth had electricity.”
Leah Cozens also commented:
“Do people not realise that it’s the electricity board to contact in the event of a power cut, not the police? I am shocked. Unbelievable!”
Got a blog, video or story for our team?
Contact us via our Facebook page (below). We are interested in emergency services related stories and videos from both civilians and serving members of the emergency services, NHS or armed forces. You can contact us anonymously if you prefer.
Our team comprises exclusively of former armed forces and emergency services personnel.
Before you go...
We need your help. As former emergency services & armed forces personnel, we pride ourselves on bringing you important, fast-moving and breaking news stories which are free from the negative bias which is often directed at the emergency services by some sections of the mainstream media.
One of the reasons we started 'Emergency Services News' was because we became tired of reading badly informed stories about the emergency services which seemed only ever to highlight negative aspects of the job.
We want to be the unheard voice of the remarkable men and women who serve in the emergency services, NHS and armed forces. And with around 500k page views each month, we are getting there!
As income from ads, the mainstay source of income for most publishers, continues to decline; we need the help of our readers.
And remember, if you have a service, product or job vacancy that you would like to promote to our large readership, then you can buy advertising space in our articles.
You can support emergency services news from as little as £1. It only takes a minute. Every contribution, however big or small, is vital for our future.
Please help us to continue to highlight the life-saving work of the emergency services, NHS and armed forces by becoming a supporter.
