KINGWOOD — Most emergency service providers in Preston County are volunteers, and they appreciate those who spot emergencies and call 911.
But they also urge people to check before dialing.
The Preston 911 center gets “third-party calls” around the clock. Those are calls made by people who aren’t part of the situation or first responders.
Newburg Volunteer Fire Department Chief Bill Larew said first responders would appreciate it if callers would check out the situation before calling.
He listed two recent examples. At the end of January, Reedsville and Newburg volunteer fire departments were paged out for a vehicle accident with patient ejection in the Browns Mill area.
The two departments, with four pieces of equipment and 16 personnel; an ambulance with two crew members; a deputy and a state trooper responded. The caller hadn’t been specific about the location, so they searched the W.Va. 92 and Gladesville Road area.
The accident turned out to be a water company truck pulled to the side of the road and an employee lying prone on the ground to read a meter.
The second example occurred early this month, when Fellowsville, Newburg and Tunnelton VFDs were called to a structure fire. Tunnelton’s truck and about 20 volunteers found a homeowner with a small, controlled brush fire.
At about 9 p.m. the same day, Tunnelton was again paged for a structure fire that turned out to be someone burning brush.
“First, let me say that we appreciate those who spot emergencies and call them in,” Larew said. But, “in these three incidents almost 50 personnel risked their safety to help someone in need, needlessly, because someone couldn’t spend a minute to verify the situation.”
Cell phones and safety
More third-party calls started coming in when cell phones became more popular and widely used, Preston Emergency Management/911 Director Duane Hamilton said.
“Used to be people stopped and checked on things,” he said. “Now they just pick up their phone and call and keep right on driving for the most part.”
In some instances he understands that, Hamilton said. “People anymore are scared to stop. You’re out in the middle of nowhere and you see somebody on the ground, you don’t know if he’s on drugs.”
Dispatchers at 911 who take the calls get as much information from the caller as they can, Hamilton said, but often that’s not much. “But when we get a call like that, we have no choice but to react to it,” Hamilton said.
The times when volunteers are responding to calls are among the most hazardous on the job, Larew and Hamilton said.
The National Fire Protection Association said in a 2017 report that among firefighters, “non-fireground injuries included 4,150 injuries while responding to, or returning from an incident. …”
And, “In 2018, an estimated 14,425 collisions involved fire department emergency vehicles responding to or returning from incidents,” were documented.
“We volunteer firefighters will get up in the middle of the night, leave in the middle of a meal, leave in the middle of a church service or whatever, to give our time and talent to help someone that is having a bad day, but we have a life, too,” Larew said. “We like spending time with our families, we work, we have things we need to be doing or would like to be doing.”
They do it because, “we love what we do — helping people — but the next time you see something and start to call 911, take a minute to be sure what you see before you put a bunch of volunteer firefighters at risk for no reason.”
TWEET@DominionPostWV
