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By Jeanne Spath
Rappahannock News Staff Writer
Very few people must deal with life or death on a daily basis, and in most occupations rarely do other’s lives depend on decisions made in a split second.
For the dispatchers working at the Rappahannock County Sheriffs Office, a basically normal day can come to an end in a moment with a telephone call requiring that a crucial decision be made.
A call comes in, and a code goes out to police cruisers and fire and rescue departments. Emergency responders know by that code what type of situation they are entering.
On Dec. 16, a call came into the Rappahannock Sheriffs Office from Marsha Nichols.
She frantically told the dispatcher that her husband, Curtis Nichols, was covered with blood. She did not know if her husband had been shot, had been in a fight, or was cut.
The code went out by the dispatcher: a nondescript injury.
According to J.B. Carter, Jr., chief of the Amissville Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company, his unit had been dispatched and was en route to the Nichols’ place on Rollings Ford Road before they received the call that told them the scene would need to be staged outside of the house — law enforcement officials would have to assess the scene before they could enter the home —and to wait for law enforcement to arrive.
The call came shortly that fire and rescue Was cleared to enter first.
Due to those instructions, the fire and rescue unit was uncertain what was going on at the scene. Upon approaching the victim, they found he had been stabbed.
Immediately the unit was concerned if the assailant was still at the scene, putting volunteer members at risk.
“I would not want the job of dis
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