North Carolina Fire Dispatcher Receives Threats

[PVFD233 68]

From Firehouse.com

STEVE JONES

The Sun News (Myrtle Beach, South Carolina)

Oct. 31--The 911 dispatcher who fielded the first reports of the house fire that claimed the lives of seven college students is now receiving threatening calls for her handling of the blaze, her supervisor said Tuesday.

Tom Rogers, deputy director of the county's Emergency Services who oversees the call center, said he does not believe the call was mishandled.

He declined to name the dispatcher, but said she'd been with the department for three or four years.

The dispatcher asked several times for a specific address on Scotland Street on Ocean Isle Beach, saying once that she was not familiar with the area.

A fuzzy cell phone transmission or ambient noise in the call center from a sudden heavy volume of calls about the fire may have made it hard for the dispatcher to understand the address the caller was trying to give her, Rogers said.

That call came 50 seconds after 7 a.m. Sunday: The Ocean Isle Beach Fire Department was dispatched about 30 seconds later.

The dispatcher began entering information about the fire in the call center's computer within a second of answering the first call, according to records of activity that morning.

Within a couple of minutes, 19 more calls came in about the fire, several of them about people believed trapped in the burning house and one telling of people in the house screaming.

Four fire departments and several rescue squads were dispatched within five minutes, with a fifth unit called two minutes later.

The call volume was so heavy that all five dispatchers were answering the calls, Rogers said. While one was answering a call, another was dispatching units.

People who read the transcripts or heard the tape have called the dispatcher at work to tell her she is incompetent and shouldn't have a job, he said. "She's very upset."

Rogers has only had time to briefly review the call logs because of the number of local, regional and national media calling for information, he said. But from what he's seen, he's confident things were handled as they should have been.

On Sunday, the dispatchers started their shifts at 6 a.m., and all worked their normal 12 hours.

Brunswick's 911 center employees get 47 hours of training developed by the N.C. Justice Academy before they start their first shift as dispatchers, Rogers said.

According to the academy's Web site, the employees are probationary for a year while they take another 60 hours of training to become certified.

Keeping the certification takes 16 hours of annual training.

While dispatchers are trained to remain dispassionate during emergency calls, those calls can be hard to handle and will sometimes cause dispatchers to break down after the stress of the incident has passed.

That has not happened with the crew on the job Sunday, he said, and all have refused offers of counseling.

Still, Rogers said that getting calls about people screaming in a burning house is not easy.

"Those are hard calls when you're in the center," he said. "Those [dispatchers] are strong individuals."

If people only knew what it takes to do a job like that.

[DOC22 1]

From Firehouse.com

If people only knew what it takes to do a job like that.

My first question is, does this area have an Enhanced 911 system, because if I'm not mistaken, E911 gives more vital info automatically.

Dispatching is not an easy job, it takes a special kimd of people to work in these call centers.

[jayhalsey 6]

My first question is, does this area have an Enhanced 911 system, because if I'm not mistaken, E911 gives more vital info automatically.

Dispatching is not an easy job, it takes a special kimd of people to work in these call centers.

Doesn't that require a land line though? I'm not sure how it works if you call 911 from a cellphone. They use the gps in the phone to route the call? Anyone able to enlighten me?

[EJS1810 7]

Doesn't that require a land line though? I'm not sure how it works if you call 911 from a cellphone. They use the gps in the phone to route the call? Anyone able to enlighten me?

If they had an "Enhanced" or E-911 system, and they called from a landline, the Dispatcher should get the callers address and the information on the proper emergency responders. That should get them the correct department to diapatch. If the call was from a neighbor they could be dispatched IAO (in Area Of) 123 Main St.

If the caller was calling from thier cell phone it depends if the 911 Center is Phase 2 compliant or not. Phase 1 gives you the address of the cell tower which could be miles away from the incident. At Putnam 911 we get many cell calls on the Mahopac Tower at 51 Crest Dr that are from Lewisboro in Westchester or ridgefield in CT. If the center is Phase 2, you can triangulate the GPS coordinates of the calling cell phone to get a better location.

[Monty 35]

If they had an "Enhanced" or E-911 system, and they called from a landline, the Dispatcher should get the callers address and the information on the proper emergency responders. That should get them the correct department to diapatch. If the call was from a neighbor they could be dispatched IAO (in Area Of) 123 Main St.

If the caller was calling from thier cell phone it depends if the 911 Center is Phase 2 compliant or not. Phase 1 gives you the address of the cell tower which could be miles away from the incident. At Putnam 911 we get many cell calls on the Mahopac Tower at 51 Crest Dr that are from Lewisboro in Westchester or ridgefield in CT. If the center is Phase 2, you can triangulate the GPS coordinates of the calling cell phone to get a better location.

Also, using voip may impact the features of E-911. I have an internet phone company, I registered my address but I know the call does not go through to my local 911 answering center - I believe it goes to the NYSP. For this case, I bet most students were using cell phones and don't have a land line.

As for the case, it sounds like the dispatchers did their job - and the supervisors are standing by them. Job well done.

[cas2383 22]

From the reference in the article there was a mere 40-60 seconds from the time someone called in until the FD's were dispatched, I can't see how people can be angry with that, in this case sadly from the videos made public a firehouse 1 block away may not have made a difference.

[Future Fireman 4]

Since college students died in the fire, were these threats made by their booze addled friends?????

If so, then I say to them "SHUT UP!" If it's their angry parents I say "I'm sorry for your loss" and if it's another dumb@$$ taxpayer, I say "STFU!"

Mike

[Guest]

Enhanced 911 for cell phones gives you they billing adress and the tower they are calling from, so often not a great help, and they way some people carry on, its any wonder they can get anything at all. I have had some doozies over the last 6 years, you try your best.

[ltjay157 10]

I haven't had a chance to read the transcripts on this call. Only land lines have advanced 911 which gives you the ANI (Automatic Number Information) and ALI (Automatic Location Identification). Phase 1 cell phones will give you the location of the tower which can be in another town & the cell phone number. Phase II will give you the cell number and will show where the cell caller is within 100 yards or closer roughly. So if you call 911 from a phase II cell phone while standing in the street, the 911 screen will show an X in the street but there are no street numbers shown. You will be shown a nearest cross street if there is one. People call all the time from cell phones and don't know where they are. If you're getting multiple cell 911 calls, you have to make sure everyone is calling in about the same incident because when the stuff hits the fan, it usually hits all at once. Over the summer, I had a lady get into a car accident but didn't know where she was. It was the phase 1 technology. I had to break out the street atlas and trace all of the roads she thought she went down. I finally narrowed it down to a general area that wasn't even in my town. I passed the info along to Danbury PD so they could get to her (thankfully, no injuries). I was on the 911 line with this person for over 10 min just tracking her whereabouts. I don't know if South Carolina does county dispatching like in NY, but if that's the case, I wouldn't expect the dispatcher to know every detail of the area. That's why I love how each town in CT has their own 911 center. I know as soon as a cell caller gives me a location, whether or not it's in my town or not. It's soo easy to pick on dispatchers until you have walked in their shoes. I say take all of the complainers and sit them down in the 911 center so they can see what actually goes on in there. I think I'm done with my rant now.