Defining an emergency




An incident, to be an emergency, conforms to one or more of the following: if it:

  • Poses an immediate threat to life, health, property, or environment
  • Has already caused loss of life, health detriments, property damage, or environmental damage
  • has a high probability of escalating to cause immediate danger to life, health, property, or environmentcitation needed

In the United States, most states mandate that a notice be printed in each telephone book that requires that someone must relinquish use of a phone line, if a person requests the use of a telephone line (such as a party line) to report an emergency. State statutes typically define an emergency as, "...a condition where life, health, or property is in jeopardy, and the prompt summoning of aid is essential."

Whilst most emergency services agree on protecting human health, life and property, the environmental impacts are not considered sufficiently important by some agenciescitation needed. This also extends to areas such as animal welfare, where some emergency organizations cover this element through the "property" definition, where animals owned by a person are threatened (although this does not cover wild animals). This means that some agencies do not mount an "emergency" response where it endangers wild animals or environmentcitation needed, though others respond to such incidents (such as oil spills at sea that threaten marine life). The attitude of the agencies involved is likely to reflect the predominant opinion of the government of the area.

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