This paper develops a (constructive) critique of the potential of ambient intelligence technologies in emergency response. We explore some difficulties in, and successful practices of, inter-agency collaboration in emergency response, revealed in ethnographic field studies and collaborative design workshops with first responders undertaken in the frame of the Bridge project. We describe four challenges with reference to literature and our own fieldwork in Emergency Management Information Systems (EMIS) design: data transparency, interpretation/intuition, flexible working and information overload. We posit that ambient intelligence has a great deal to offer in the creation of emergency management information systems but that these offerings should be guided by ‘modesty’ and an ongoing entanglement with emergency practitioners.