Dennis Gabbert attended the Emergency Services Board meeting as a patron to discuss last weekend’s situation in which he called the Fire Department, who had trouble finding the fire at his pasture.
Gabbert said that he was burning brush that day when the fire got to the edge of a neighbor’s CRP land and got out of hand when it caught an old evergreen tree on fire. Gabbert told the board that he gave what he thought were explicit directions to the fire, only for fire crews to have trouble locating the fire.
Personnel from the 911 Call Center in Albany were on hand at the meeting; they explained that the best way for cell phone callers to get located was to stay on their cell phones until emergency service vehicles could locate them. This is because call center personnel can now ping peoples’ phones until they can get a positive location; this technology has advanced in the last few years. This is used now to locate missing persons as well. When Worth County first put in the 911 system, it was much more difficult for dispatchers to locate cell phone callers.
The location of the fire district was within Parnell’s district and there have been overlap issues over the years. But Sheridan Fire Chief Butch Thomas said that the Sheridan Fire Department was fine with handling such calls. The other issue that Gabbert had was that his cell phone locked up when he called 911 and he could not call his wife to flag down the fire trucks and direct them to the fire. That was an issue with the phone. Some Northwest Cell phones lock up during 911 calls to free up the line for the emergency.
Gabbert was on low ground when he placed his call; that creates another issue with cell phones. Sometimes, in that case, the service can be weak and you can hear only one word out of three. Sometimes, calls cannot go through at all. Both the dispatcher and Thomas tried to call Gabbert to get his location only to get no answer.
One of the main reasons dispatchers are reluctant to give out names is because of privacy laws; people can pick up names on the radio. On the other hand, current emergency protocol states that the first unit to arrive on the scene and then the local Fire Chief is in charge of an emergency situation, meaning that he can request the name of the person calling in the emergency. Thomas said that would not have done them any good in this situation since the fire was in his pasture and not at his home.
The 911 personnel will review the incident and see how they can improve their service. But most of the time, the system works fine; Board President David Hunt said that the Grant City Fire Department arrived in 10 minutes to a corn fire in his field last year. “If all we have is one concern raised per year, we’re doing pretty good,” said board member Dick VanVactor.
And one idea floating around in the legislature to consolidate a bunch of 911 call centers into regional call centers was universally declared a bad idea by everyone present. There are 147 call centers around the state and the rationale of some people in Jefferson City was that there were underserved areas. And some places, like Nodaway County, have three different 911 dispatch centers depending on the jurisdiction. But it was felt that the loss of personal service would outweigh any cost savings that could be achieved.
A new road reopened by Hunt’s place recently. Chris Spainhower requested that a formerly abandoned road be opened so that he could access landlocked pasture. It had been closed for 60 years and fenced off, but it had never been officially closed. The road has been ditched and graveled with CART gravel and will be put on the 911 map.
Tom Trullinger joined the board as a new member; he also serves as a deputy sheriff. There are 22 signs around the county that need to be fixed at a cost of around $440. The next meeting will be July 10th.
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