By Publisher Shari Johnson
”Is there even a protocol as to what agencies get’s dispatched when incidents are reported?” That’s a question county firefighters have been asking. With the levy at risk of failing a second time in the general election, now is not the time for firefighters to have to answer questions from the public as to why they were not on recent accident scenes. The only answer they have to give is ”They were not dispatched.” Insurance coverage is an issue if Departments are not dispatched and an accident of their involvement should happen on the way to scene. The question arrises as to why they were responding with lights and speed if they were not called to do so?
Chief David Johnson has addressed this issue before with 911, concerned that his department was not dispatched when accidents occurred. That creates two scenarios that place the community and his department at risk. An accident with an uncovered firefighter, or, while the accident may seem minimal by a callers description, circumstances could change quickly when impact to a vehicle has happened. Loss of fluids such as gas, oil or antifreeze could cause the scene to quickly escalate into needing fire departments to prevent or address fire, or other hazards.
Ridgeview News has covered EMS struggles on more than one occasion as to why ambulance calls were refused, Minnie Hamilton was needed for County Coverage and excessive time was taken for the ambulance to get on scene. Julie Sears, Director of both EMS and 911 has offered answers for those concerns, but the continuation of it creates questions as to why the issues don’t seem to get addressed at a deeper level.
A recent weekend coverage was needed by Minnie Hamilton due to Calhoun EMS crews reporting to have COVID. That would certainly warrant a reason of understanding for crews not to be on duty. But the question was brought to our attention as to why available crews were not called who did not have COVID and could have covered the County.
The failure of the Levy was a great concern at a recent Calhoun County Commission meeting. It had been assumed by the Commission and Calhoun EMS that the public would understand the logistics and need of the levy, Which may or may not have been true. But what should have definitely not been assumed was that the Community would pass coverage of an uncovered County where scanners are in many homes creating and the awareness of how emergency services are being operated.
For local Fire Departments that run exclusively on volunteers, the loss of the levy will not only cut into their ability to cover the costs of protecting property and lives, it’s not easy on the morale of dedicated men and women who put their lives at risk and appear unappreciated. They don’t do for the recognition, but with volunteerism at an all time low, now is not the time to cut a lifeline for one agency because another agency was living without regard.
