TRI-STATE (WFIE) -
Social media is changing the world, and now, it's affecting how people reach out during a crisis.
But can you count on it?
When dispatchers at a 911 center got a call from someone across the country alerting them to a local fire, they were puzzled.
Firefighters didn't brush it off as a prank, they suited up, jumped in their truck and raced to the house to find smoke pouring out of the windows.
"I was getting to the point where 'someone better come,'" said fire victim, Bob Chambers.
Chambers, who suffers from Muscular Dystrophy and has limited movement, was inside and home alone. When a fire started, he couldn't reach the phone so he used his specialized keyboard to tap out a message to people he was playing a game with through Facebook.
"A couple people that knew me shouted back 'Are you kidding?' I went no!," Chambers said.
More and more cases of people posting cyber cries for help are popping up across the world.
A recent Red Cross survey found 44 percent of people would use social media to alert rescue crews if they couldn't call 911.
That's what Kwanza Hall, an Atlanta City Council member, did after he discovered an unconscious woman on the street. His phone battery was about to die, so he tweeted "Please call the paramedics" and gave his followers the location.
An ambulance soon showed up and rushed the woman to the hospital.
"I'm just thankful she's alive," Hall said.
But experts warn while both Chambers and Hall were lucky, relying on social media in an emergency is risky.
"The public's expectation of what response they will get via use of social media is far beyond the capacity of public safety agencies to deliver on," said George Rice with the Industry Council for Emergency Response Technologies.
Most agencies do not monitor social media sites, for people who need help. And if dispatchers are alerted to a post, they also have to figure out if it's a prank.
"It's always difficult to discern what may be real and what may not be real," said Bill Delaney of Montgomery County Fire Rescue.
If you do have a real emergency, is shooting a quick text to 911 an option?
Though the FCC is pushing for dispatch centers nationwide to update their technology to accept texts, right now it only works in a couple places across the country. Many cities and towns just can't afford it.
"Our resources are stretched to the limit," Delaney said.
Public safety experts say despite the high tech world we live in, dialing 911 is still the best way to contact emergency dispatchers.
That wasn't an option in Chamber's case, and his cyber pleas for help worked. He and his wife are thankful.
"I am so grateful that there was somebody out there that took it seriously," said Chamber's wife, Patricia Ducham.
So, if someone posted a request for help on a public safety agency's social media page and the department did not respond, could the agency be at risk for a lawsuit?
Experts say unless an agency claimed to accept emergency calls on their Twitter or Facebook page, then probably not. But it's still an untested area of the law.
Copyright 2012 WFIE. All rights reserved.
