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aren’t working (a not infrequent occurrence), know how to access medevac helicopters from various agencies, be able to locate the medical examiner, contact Hazardous Material teams, interface with surrounding counties for mutual aid, keep track of responding units —and sometimes to do this for two or three unrelated calls at one time. And all of this has to be documented. , In the meantime, the sheriff’s department’s calls need to be dispatched and the female prisoners at the jail still need to be cared for.
Now I’ll grant you, Rappahannock does not handle the volume of calls (yet) of, say, Fauquier or Culpeper, but calls do tend to come in clusters and each dispatcher has had the opportunity to be on duty when all hell has broken loose.
I know I personally appreciate no end having a competent dispatcher on the radio. It’s so much easier to concentrate on the medical problem or to plan an attack on a fire if you’re not worrying about finding the site to begin with and if you have a good idea of what you’ll find when you get there.
Embarrassing and potentially tragic situations such as showing up at a fire with the brush truck only to find a house fully involved, or being on the wrong section of one of the many local roads with numerous route numbers while someone is breathing their last on another section, can be avoided with able, knowledgable, caring dispatchers.
I’ll be more than happy to lend my pager or monitor to anyone who would like to listen for a week to hear what goes on. Or to drag anyone out of bed who wants to share the "excitement’’ of spending their sleeping hours helping their neighbors instead.
I would also suggest that the best way for Mr. Lane to gain appreciation for the dispatchers would be to try it himself. If he does, I hope that I have no need of fire and rescue services for that period and that I don’t have to run Mila dispatched at that time!
Let mte close by applauding the job Rappahannock’s dispatchers do and expressing my appreciation. It isn’t a job that I would willingly take, even given my familiarity with the system. Thank you, ladies, for your help time and time again.
SHERRY HAMILL
Flint Hill
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