Category: Public Safety

Have you ever wondered what happens when you call 9-1-1 in a time of need?

Santa Barbara City Fire Chief Chris Mailles told an incredible story today about what used to happen when he was a 9-1-1 dispatcher some years ago. Dispatchers had to take the calls of those in distress, write furious notes, thumb through filing cabinet drawers to locate an address, carefully read maps, and then decide which department to hand off the dispatch request to based on where the emergency was taking place.

While today computers have made this process faster, the closest ambulance or fire truck is not always the one sent to your emergency. Which side of a boundary your emergency is at still determines which department responds, costing precious seconds of time that can make the difference between saving lives or being too late.

Now all that is changing. This Wednesday we celebrated the graduation of the first-ever class of emergency dispatchers from the County’s Regional Fire Communications Center Dispatch Academy.

This impressive group of 18 graduates is well-trained to the highest emergency standards.

They can provide life-saving instructions over the phone, including CPR and cardiac arrest procedures while emergency personnel are en route.

We all owe a great thanks to the Fire Chiefs of our local departments and districts, who have taken the lead to improve this system. In doing so, they are showing us that regional cooperation is the answer.
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