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THE BRUNSWICIC&WACON
THURSDAY. JULY 22, 1993
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AMR UIANCE driver and EMT Gayther Simmons maintains radio contact as he races across the Ocean Isle Reach bridge in response to
an elderly heart patient with chest pains.
A HANK of lights, buttons, telephones, keyboards, microphones,
log books and video screens commands the constant attention of
911 telecommunicators.
MEDICAL TECHNICIAN Terri Davis checks the flow of intravenous fluids into the patient on the
way to the emergency room.
It's All In
A Day's Work...
On The Hotseat With Brunswick 9 1 1
TEXT AND PHOTOS
BY ERIC CARLSON
Brunswick County 911. ..Do you have an emer
gency?" Hour alter hour, day after day, night after
night, those words echo through the twinkling
hall -darkness of the Emergency Communications Ser
vices (911) nerve center.
In a scene reminiscent of the Starship Enterprise,
crew members in high-backed swivel chairs move pur
posefully along a crescent-shaped wall of video screens,
keyboards, microphones, tiny red and green diodes and
hundreds upon hundreds of color-coded switches.
Outside, beyond the cool twilight of central commu
nications (C-Com), an insistent morning sun burns
through the haze and into the bays where emergency
medical vehicles stand ready, their doors left open to
vent the heat.
It is the third day of a July 4th weekend that has
brought a record number of calls for Brunswick Coun
ty's Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel.
Today they expect more of the same? temperatures near
100 degrees, crowds of sun-baked visitors taking to the
highways, too much celebrating, not enough caution.
In C-Com, the previous night's shift supervisor, Debra
Somerset!, leans across the top of a tclccommun-cator's
work station sipping a soft drink, watching the new crew
at work, finally beginning to unwind.
"This is a job you have to want to do," she says. "If
you're in it for glory, you're in it for the wrong reason.
Most tclecommunicators have a background as emer
gency medical technicians (EMTs) or with rescue
squads, so we know what it's like to be out there."
Somerset! is a volunteer EMT for Calabash Emer
gency Medical Service. She worked with ihe Brunswick
County Sheriff's Department for three years before
coming to the 91 1 center.
Her replacement on this shift, supervisor Wayne
Covington, is a former sheriffs deputy and Burlington
police officer who served as a military air traffic con
troller on Guam during the Vietnam War.
The fire and rescue dispatcher is Anna (Catherine Hill,
another emergency volunteer who joined the 911 staff
after working as an auxiliary police officer for the town
of Sunset Beach.
Susan Allen is the daughter of a deputy and the wife
of an Ocean Isle Beach Police officer. Today she is in
the "hot seal," handling the constant barrage of law en
forcement radio traffic from sheriff's deputies and a
half-do/cn town police departments. In addition to an
swering 911 calls and dispatching police and emergency
units, Allen must maintain a written record of each offi
cer's location and activities.
After closing out her log sheets and briefing the in
coming shift regarding any pending traffic or ongoing
situations, Somersett is ready to go home.
"Some days this job is very stressful. And some days
it's fun," she says. "But you can't bring your personal
life in here and expect to stand it. You leave what hap
pens here in here and you leave what happens at home at
home."
Rrrriiiinng!
"Brunswick County 911. ..Do you have an emci
gcncy?"
Hill has received a call reporting a dead body on
Morgan Road in Supply.
"How should 1 dispatch this?" she asks Covington,
not wanting to transmit too much information over the
radio. He suggests referring to the body as "an unre
sponsive subject."
Hill pushes the button that sets off the pagers of the
appropriate emergency units. Then she radios Coastline
Rescue and Brunswick County Emergency Medical
Services (EMS). Allen calls the sheriff's department.
Covington telephones the person who gave the report.
He learns that an elderly woman who lived alone has
apparently died in her sleep. The body appears to have
been lying on a bed for several days in 90-degrce heat.
Rescue workers may need breathing apparatus to re
move it.
"Nice way to start a Monday morning," he remarks.
Allen broadcasts a deputy's request that everyone stay
back unul police can assess the situation. She picks up a
ringing phone and takes a report of a burglary in
progress. She dispatches a deputy.
Covington takes a call from a woman who says her
husband is threatening to kill her. The line goes dead. He
reads her address off the video screen, dispatches a
deputy and attempts to call her back.
"Has he been drinking?" Covington asks. She says he
has not.
"Does he have a weapon?" he asks.
"Not yet.. .but I'm scared," she replies. A man's voice
can be heard in the background, yelling and cursing.
(See TEAM EFFORT, Page 3-1$)
h 1
TELECOM MU NIC ATOR Susan Allen sits in the "hot seat," dispatching law enforcement personnel
throughout the county and carefully maintaining a record of each officer's activities and location.
SHIFT SUPERVISOR Wayne Covington answers a 911 call and watches the video screen that displays
the caller's name, address, telephone number, fire and rescue districts and other information that
might be useful in an emergency.