Photo courtesy of Steven Freedman.

It’s always nerve-wracking to wake up in the morning to emergency lights and sirens.

Around 2 a.m., I was startled out of bed to the sound of fire trucks and medics zooming by my home. But before I could reach for my scanner, I saw our overnight Journal-World news partner was already tweeting about the events.

In case you heard the same and are curious, the call initially came across the scanner as a structure fire in the 700 block of Connecticut Street, but it ended up being a car fire.

Luckily, though, a fire unit on scene reported the vehicle was “quite a ways from the house” and firefighters were able to contain the flames to the car. No one was injured.

It was apparently pretty bad for the vehicle, though. Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical Division Chief Eve Tolefree said the damage was estimated at about $2,600.

Reader Steven Freedman submitted this photo to us from the scene. He captioned the image, “Firefighters fight late-night car fire in alley between Connecticut and Rhode Island streets.”

Photo courtesy of Steven Freedman.

Thanks, Steven!
________________

The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office is encouraging the community to sign up for an online program called Smart911.

This is a free service that you can use to register certain information first responders might need if there is an emergency at your home. Smart911 says it does not disclose the personal information you enter unless an emergency call is made from one of the phone numbers you registered with the site.

If you do make an emergency call from your registered phone number, emergency personnel can access the potentially life-saving information and know more about you and the residents of your home.

I went ahead and signed up because it is important to me that firefighters know about pets inside if there is ever a fire in my home.

Screenshot of my Smart911 page.

The importance of this really sank in for me when I was reporting on a house fire last year and one of its residents saw my tweets and told me he had a dog inside. Luckily, I was able to tell firefighters and the dog was rescued, but I shudder to think what might have happened had circumstances been different.

Resident tweeted to ask if I'd tell firefighters about dog inside. Thanks to Twitter & firefighters, this happened: pic.twitter.com/soAThi8ZL1

— Caitlin Doornbos (@CaitlinDoornbos) November 12, 2014

If you’re a parent, it’d probably be a good idea to register your children to the site. You can also enter any relevant medical information you think medics might need to have in an emergency setting, plus details on entrances and layout of your home. You don’t have to divulge all of that information to have access to the site, though.

With so many people using cell phones instead of landlines now, this seems like a good idea. When you call from a landline, it’s a little easier for dispatchers to see where you’re calling from. With a cell phone, things get trickier.

Smart911 shared this video about its services. Check it out below.

To sign up for Smart911, visit https://www.smart911.com/.
____________

And finally, the tallies from the Lawrence Police Department’s 911 call log.

As always, I’ll remind you that this is a list of noteworthy calls I pulled from the Lawrence Police Department call log. Not all calls yielded police reports, and many may have gone unsubstantiated. The list is meant to give you an idea of what kinds of calls police are responding to within a given time period.

This list is a collection of calls that police responded to between Wednesday and Thursday mornings:

Violence

• Disturbance (verbal or physical arguments): 5

• Domestic disturbance: 2

• Domestic battery: 2

• Fight in progress: 1

• Battery: 4

• Criminal threat: 2

Traffic

• Noninjury accident: 14

• Road rage: 1

Medical

– Medical: 6

• Alcohol poisoning: 2

• Suicide threat: 3

Miscellaneous

• Harassment: 1

• Drug activity: 1

• Suspicious activity: 6

• Noise or Nuisance: 7

• Vicious animal: 1

Welfare

• Adult welfare check: 8

• Child welfare check: 3

• Runaway: 1

• Missing child: 1

• Missing adult: 1

Property crimes

• Theft: 6

• Criminal damage: 2

• Trespassing: 3

• Stolen vehicle: 1