A FIRE brigade on the Powys border is encouraging people to download an app to their smart phone that can pinpoint their location in an emergency.

Kington Fire Station has advised members of the Powys public to download and familiarise themselves with the ‘what3words’ app following an incident earlier this month – whereby emergency services were sent to the wrong location when responding to a serious car accident.

The incident occurred on Thursday, July 15, whereby fire crews and other emergency services arrived at the wrong location due to incorrect instructions given over the phone.

“This morning we were sent to a potentially serious car accident (luckily no injuries today),” said Kington Fire Station on their Facebook page.

“The location we were given was incorrect and delayed all emergency services while we searched all local roads to find the accident. Accurate locations are invaluable to us and can save lives.

“Have you heard of what3words? Add it to your phone, you never know when you'll need it.”

What3words is a proprietary geocode system designed to identify any location with a resolution of about three metres. The system encodes geographic coordinates into three permanently fixed dictionary words. For example, the front door of 10 Downing Street in London is identified by ///slurs.this.shark, while ///punctual.chromatic.division will take you to a precise spot at the Co-op fuel station in Llanelwedd, just outside Builth Wells.

What3words differs from most location encoding systems in that it displays three words rather than strings of numbers or letters.

What3words divides the world into a grid of 57 trillion 3-by-3-metre squares, each of which has a three-word address. The addresses are available in 47 languages.

Founded by Chris Sheldrick, Jack Waley-Cohen, Mohan Ganesalingam and Michael Dent in July 2013, in February 2020, in Scotland, it was first used by stranded walkers. The same month, in Australia, it was also first used in a rescue operation.

The system is used by the Mid & West Wales Fire & Rescue Service, as well as the Welsh Ambulance Trust, although it is not clear yet if Dyfed Powys Police utilise it.

How do I use what3words in an emergency?

-Find the 3-word address for your current location on the free what3words app for iOS and Android. It works offline – ideal for areas with unreliable data connection.

-Share your 3-word address over the phone to the call handler.

-The emergency service can then coordinate a response directly to the exact location where help is needed.