When two girls, aged 10 and 12, were lost in a storm drain in South Australia last night, most people would have expected them to have called the emergency services immediately, seeing as they had their mobile phones with them. However, that was not the case with the two lost girls. Instead of ringing the emergency services, the two girls decided to make a Facebook status update stating that they were lost, which, luckily for them, caught the attention of one of their male friends who called for help.
The two girls were eventually rescued from the storm drain in Hackham, in the south of Adelaide, by the fire service, according to ABC news (via TechRadar). The firemen used a ladder to get the young urban explorers back to safety. Fireman Glenn Benham said "it is a worry for us because it causes a delay on us being able to rescue the girls."
"If they were able to access Facebook from their mobile phones, they could have called 000, so the point being they could have called us directly and we could have got there quicker than relying on someone being online and replying to them and eventually having to call us via 000 anyway."
While the girls were lucky that there was someone online at the time the girls made their Facebook status update, the South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service have expressed concern that the girls decided to update their Facebook page rather than calling 000, the number for the Australian emergency services. Also, some were concerned that the 10 and 12 year old girls were exploring the drains at all, given the risk of drowning in the event of flash floods.