WhatTheHack: What's with the sirens?
From What The Wiki?!
The first aid tent, located at one of the corners of the festival terrain, looks impressive. There are some high-tech stretchers - curvaceous metal lined with blue supports - and unfortunately, there are some people in it.
The Chaos Emergency Response Team - web site at http://cert.ccc.de - is huge: it consists of twenty people working in shifts. There are two certified doctors (one from the UK, one from Germany), a couple of paramedics, fire brigades, first aid workers and so. Their spokesperson is Sven aka SaniFox, who is trained as a paramedic and a firefighter. It takes a while before he has an opportunity to answer some questions for WhatTheNews, because there is a steady supply of people dropping by who need help. The CERT team has been providing emergency services at CCC meetings, and Sven himself has been involved with big events such as the German Church Days, with hundreds of thousands of visitors, and the Love Parade, with an unsurpassed million visitors. Compared to such numbers, WhatTheHack must be a piece of cake.
Sven: 'Nerds and hackers aren't always as aware as they should be of the risks of drugs and drinking. For the rest, there isn't much of a difference with other crowds.' You mean that hackers don't engage in more dangerous activities? 'No, they don't, or either they are very security-aware.'
How does this event compare to others at which Sven has been providing first aid? 'All in all, we have had about 140 patients. The most common complaints are insect bites, blisters and small wounds. So far, we have had only one person who was dehydrated. Although WhatTheHack is not nearly as hot as the CCC camp in 2003, where the temperature was a steady 40 degrees and many people got dehydrated, everybody needs to remember to drink a lot now too.'
Have there been any emergencies? 'Last night there were two people with drug problems. As it turned out, their complaints were solved relatively quick, but we didn't know that when we went out to assist them. Yes, we used our sirens, we had no idea what to expect, and you need to act fast and expedient when you get such a report. Some people were a bit upset over the sirens, but we really need them. I need to stress this: when you hear a siren, you need to understand that there is something serious going on. We're not just using them for the heck of it.'
[story submitted by Karin Spaink]
