Abdul Razak Bin Abdul Raheem, Senior Assistant Commissioner, Director Volunteer and Community Partnership Department at Singapore Civil Defence Force, outlines myResponder’s alerting model, CFR roles, AED access and responder safety
Each year, more than 3,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrest emergencies occur in Singapore.
Without immediate intervention, a patient’s chances of survival diminish significantly with each passing minute.
Similarly, minor fires, such as those involving discarded items or a refuse chute, can quickly escalate into large fires without early intervention.
To address these challenges, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) launched the Save-A-Life Initiative in 2015.
The initiative focuses on three key areas: equipping citizens with lifesaving skills, building a nationwide network of Community First Responders (CFRs), and expanding the availability and access to automated external defibrillators (AEDs) and fire extinguishers across Singapore.
Through online lessons or hands-on training at SCDF establishments, members of the public can learn cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), and how to use an AED and a fire extinguisher.
This hybrid approach ensures that the community is prepared to utilise lifesaving equipment placed across Singapore and render assistance when emergencies arise.
Building a community-centric emergency response
While members of the public are trained in lifesaving skills and able to utilise publicly accessible AEDs and fire extinguishers, these capabilities can only be effective if the public is aware of emergencies around them.
To address this, the myResponder mobile application was launched in 2015 to alert nearby CFRs, bridging the critical gap between the onset of an incident and the arrival of emergency responders.
Highly accessible to the public, anyone – students, office workers, retirees, or parents – can register and join as a CFR on myResponder.
Registration is voluntary, and SCDF consistently reminds CFRs to prioritise their personal safety when responding to an emergency.
The first version of myResponder provided two core functions.
It alerts CFRs to nearby cardiac arrest emergencies and provides a live map of publicly accessible AEDs.
When a cardiac arrest incident is reported via SCDF’s “995” emergency hotline, SCDF dispatches emergency resources, and alerts CFRs within a 400-metre radius of the incident through myResponder.
Responding CFRs are guided to the nearest AED via the Registry for AED Integration, a national registry managed by SCDF and the Singapore Heart Foundation.
With this data integrated into myResponder, CFRs can view real-time AED locations, supporting early defibrillation to improve the chances of survival for cardiac arrest patients before the arrival of SCDF’s emergency responders.
In conjunction with the launch of myResponder, SCDF and its partners have over the years been conducting public outreach and education drives to encourage more members of the public to learn lifesaving skills and build their awareness and confidence on the use of AED.
In 2018, myResponder was enhanced to include alerts for minor fires, enabling CFRs to mitigate small fires before they escalate.
An upgraded myResponder
In 2024, SCDF collaborated with the Home Team Science & Technology Agency (HTX) to upgrade myResponder.
With an improved user interface and new functions, the latest version of myResponder strengthens the coordination of community response while ensuring CFRs’ safety.
CFRs can now select their preferred mode of transport, either on foot, by bicycle, or by vehicle.
The alert radius is expanded to 800 metres for cyclists and up to 1.5 kilometres for drivers, helping faster-moving responders cover a wider area, while those on foot will receive alerts for areas that they can realistically reach in time.
To further improve coordination during emergencies, the upgraded app includes a “Respond Together” function.
This enables CFRs to see others who are responding to the same incident and view each other’s location on the map.
Through the in-app chat function and media-sharing features, CFRs can communicate with each other to allocate tasks such as performing CPR and retrieving an AED.
They can also share photos and videos with SCDF’s Operations Centre, giving dispatchers real-time situational awareness of the incident and allowing emergency resources to be more effectively deployed.
A growing network of community first responders
Since 2015, myResponder has grown from 3,000 registered CFRs to over 250,000 as of December 2025.
Collectively, CFRs have responded to over 52,000 cardiac arrest cases and minor fires, contributing to the survival of over 157 individuals who had suffered cardiac arrest.
Beyond operational outcomes, myResponder has encouraged a significant shift in public mindset.
By enabling members of the public to play an active role during emergencies, it has strengthened emergency preparedness and proactive response within the community.
SCDF formally recognises the contributions of CFRs through several awards.
The Community First Responder Award is presented to individuals who have rendered assistance during emergencies, while those who have helped save lives receive the Community Lifesaver Award.
The myResponder Award recognises CFRs who responded to the most myResponder activations in a year.
Recipients are acknowledged in myResponder’s Hall of Fame and at the annual Responders, Partners, and Volunteers Appreciation Event.
In recognition of myResponder’s impact on mobilising the public to respond to emergencies, SCDF received the Singapore Good Design (SG) Mark Gold Award on 25 November 2025.
The award was presented to Commissioner SCDF, COMR Eric Yap, by the President of the Republic of Singapore, Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, and the President of the Design Business Chamber Singapore, Mr Hong Khai Seng.
Looking ahead
Future developments for myResponder include video-call support, enabling dispatchers to provide real-time guidance to CFRs during emergencies.
This will further improve community response during complex situations, while continuing to ensure CFRs’ safety during an emergency.
From its humble beginnings in 2015 to a growing nationwide network of CFRs in 2025, myResponder shows how technology and community spirit can be integrated to complement SCDF’s emergency response.
By empowering citizens to become CFRs, it strengthens national resilience and fosters a more caring community where help is always within reach.
Real-world use of myResponder
Real-world callouts through Singapore’s myResponder app show how ordinary members of the public are increasingly becoming part of the city-state’s emergency response, often arriving before professional crews and buying critical minutes for patients and bystanders.
In Whampoa, a 20-year-old psychology student has described how a late-night alert prompted her to run down 14 storeys to a suspected cardiac arrest outside her own block.
When she arrived, she found a man unconscious while passers-by attempted chest compressions with inconsistent technique.
Working alongside another community responder, she took over CPR, directed bystanders, and helped deploy a nearby automated external defibrillator.
The device delivered a shock, and the patient regained a pulse shortly before Singapore Civil Defence Force paramedics reached the scene.
In another widely reported case, a young volunteer named Darryl responded to an alert close to his home and found a man in cardiac arrest with only his son present.
Darryl joined them in performing CPR and applying an AED until SCDF crews took over.
The patient later recovered sufficiently to be seen eating in a neighbourhood coffeeshop.
Darryl has since attended more than 60 myResponder activations.
The app has also been used in non-medical incidents.
On one occasion, a member of the Singapore Civil Defence Auxiliary Unit left myResponder active while at work and was alerted to a small rubbish bin fire nearby.
With no firefighting equipment immediately available, he organised people attending a nearby funeral wake to pass buckets of water, containing the blaze until firefighters arrived.
In each case, the decisive factor was not technology alone but what happened in the minutes after the alert landed on a phone, when strangers chose to act and stay with a patient until professionals arrived.