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Five provinces, with a total of almost 4 million inhabitants<\/span><\/b>, all served by a single emergency switchboard<\/b>. For about a month, the 112 emergency operating centre in Varese has served an area that includes the provinces of Monza and Brianza <\/b>(since 1 October), Como and Lecco <\/b>(since 23 October) and Bergamo<\/b>, since 6 November<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n Every day, operators respond to 6000 calls. <\/b>The trend is the same as what it was in Varese Province over the two years of testing; the calls are primarily for the Carabinieri and the Police, followed by the ambulance service and fire brigade<\/b>. “The requests for help from the fire brigade are unusual,” explained the head of the 112 single number service, Guido Garzena<\/b>, “because, usually, they occur over a limited period of time, in the case of a flood, for example, when the calls all come at the same time. In these cases, when the 112 lines are all engaged, the call is directed to the number dialled by the user, 115.”<\/span><\/p>\n