Antonia Kanczula
Yet again, it’s been a busy week for quirky tales – from using social media to track disease outbreaks to a Mexican football team replacing their players’ shirt names with Twitter handles.
Proving that amongst its myriad benefits, Twitter can be a conduit for reliable, level-headed and valuable community information, this week’s nod goes to the London Fire Brigade and their decision to tweet about every fire its crews attended on a very busy Bonfire Night.
A blazing shed in Enfield, a bin fire in Romford, torched trees in Hendon and refuse infernos in Romford – no incident was left uncatalogued. The twin aims of the Twitterthon were to help raise public awareness and reduce the number of out-of-control fires. While it’s too early to say if they achieved these, LFB’s dedicated tweeting was definitely, if you pardon the pun, illuminating.
