By pointing to the immense use of Twitter by citizens during crises, communication experts argue that governments should participate more actively on Twitter during crises. Until now, however, little empirical research has been conducted to validate this claim. This article aims at validating this claim and putting forward building blocks for an evidence-based vision on the use of Twitter by governments during flash crises, i.e. large-scale incidents that occur unexpectedly and immediately. The authors analysed 52.806 tweets sent by citizens and governments during a large-scale industrial fire in Moerdijk (2011). They looked at the content of the tweets and sorted them into fourteen categories. The results show that most of the tweets sent by citizens contained no new or relevant information for governments. In addition, the tweets sent by governments were totally ‘snowed under’ in the huge stream of tweets from citizens. Consequently, the tweets sent by governments were very little re-tweeted by Twitter users. The authors conclude that the Moerdijk case does not show a need for a more proactive role of governments on Twitter.

Based on state-of-the-art scientific knowledge, this article reviews the physical aspects of firefighting in relation to physical safety. Firefighting is known to be one of the most demanding occupations. Based on the ‘Occupational Demands Model’ the (physical) strain of firefighting is described. The physical demands of firefighting are determined by a combination of firefighting-specific efforts, the use of personal protective equipment and enviromental and climatological conditions. The effects on the firefighter depend on his/her health and fitness status as well as on his/her hydration and nutrition status and influences the repressive job performance. If the demands and the effects are not in balance, personal safety, health and effectivity of the firefighter’s deployment are in jeopardy and hence his/her physical safety. In the second part of the paper, the relationship between the physical demands of firefighting and health, fitness and deployability of firefighters are described. Finally, a method of maintaining deployability prior to, during and post firefighting activities or training through active recovery is described to improve the preparedness of the individual firefighter.

In the Netherlands ‘Safety Houses’ have been established, in which partner organizations in the field of criminal justice, crime prevention, law enforcement, public administration and social services collaborate in order to reduce crime and recidivism, and to increase public safety. This article examines why some Safety Houses are better in achieving these goals than others. The effectiveness of 39 Safety Houses is analyzed by means of QCA (qualitative comparative analysis). Results show two different paths leading to effective outcomes. Effective Safety Houses have been in existence for at least three years, show a high degree of stability and a centrally integrated collaboration structure. In addition, they either have considerable resources at their disposal or have been set up with a network administrative organization, where a neutral coordinator governs the network.