ICE Your Cell Phone

In case of emergency, would fire and police personnel know who to contact on your behalf? The Lisle-Woodridge Fire District Division of Emergency Medical Services wants you to “ICE” your cell phone.

Paramedics will turn to a victim’s cell phone for clues to that person’s identity. You can make their job much easier and save precious time with a simple idea that they are trying to get everyone to adopt: “ICE”.

“ICE” stands for In Case of Emergency. If you add an entry in the “contacts” list in your cell phone under ICE with the name and phone number of the person that the Fire Medics should call on your behalf, you can save them a lot of time and have your loved ones contacted quickly. 

It only takes a few moments of your time to do. Follow these simple hints to get the best out of ICE: Make sure the person whose name and number you are giving has agreed to be your ICE partner and supply that partner with a list of people and their phone numbers they should contact on your behalf. Make sure your ICE partner’s number is one that is easy to contact. For example, a home number would be useless in an emergency if the person works full time. Be sure your ICE partner knows about any medical conditions that could affect your emergency treatment – for example, allergies or current medication. Should your ICE preferred contact be deaf, prefix their number with ICETEXT.

Because you are not downloading information and are simply entering a phone number, following this procedure will not contain a “virus”. Since cell phones vary between manufacturers and some may recognize if you enter a duplicate number, you should consult your owners manual or service provider for tips on working with that entry.

Paramedics know what ICE means and they look for it immediately. Put ICE in your cell phone in case of emergency to help us help you.

ICE your cell phone now!

For information on this or other EMS programs, please contact Bureau Chief Dan Anderson at 353-3000.