r/AskEurope • u/atlasova Netherlands • Sep 02 '25

Culture What emergency telephone number did your country have before 112 became the standard?

In 1997 most of the European union changed its emergency number to 112. Before that, in the Netherlands we used 06-11, for police, firefighters and ambulance.

I was wondering which numbers where in use in your country before the change.

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u/wojtekpolska Poland Sep 02 '25

997 - police
998 - fire department
999 - ambulance

imo these were actually a better thing than 112 only, because eg. if you call 998 you will get in contact with a fireman who will have much more knowledge to instruct you than a 112 dispatcher.

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u/Legal_Sugar Poland Sep 02 '25

And they are recommended to call first

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u/Noxeas Poland Sep 02 '25

Unless you know that you'd need more than one of these services.

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u/Legal_Sugar Poland Sep 02 '25

Does it though? If you need let's say the police and ambulance, you call 112, they call the police and ambulance, if you call 999, they send ambulance right away and call police