Greetings once again Theodore and Dawes Communities and all others who may happen across our website.
So, I have always been told when August arrives so does the Dog Days of Summer. I don’t know about you all, but I think those dog days have been here all summer long. It has been hot, and beyond hot on many days already this summer. We ask that everyone remain vigilant about the heat and their activities in this heat. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate, if you must work in the heat. If we have readers from the Dawes North area, I want you to know that we are still moving forward with your part of the community joining our fire district. The Probate Court has advised that we must attain signatures from two thirds of your area, roughly 1800, before we can put the question to a vote. Attaining those signatures is proving to be a tough process. In the coming weeks we will be putting together plans to get out in the area and try to get signatures. I encourage neighborhood groups to reach out to us anytime, I am ready, willing and able to meet with any of you.
Each month as I think about a topic to expand on in this article, I usually focus my efforts and expound on something relevant and make it somewhat educational and/or informative for the readers. The next couple of months I will talk about “911,” the emergency number that has been taught to millions of citizens across this country. Even here in South Mobile County, every year we teach it to our young and old alike, “If you have an emergency, call 911.” The whole idea behind 911 was a single, easy to remember number for everyone to use to receive emergency personnel to an incident faster. To quote a former 911 Director, “The operators/dispatchers are the first, first responders in the emergency response chain.” In recent weeks we have received multiple calls to our department administrative office’s phone number to report an emergency of some sort, from automobile accidents, trash fires, medical calls, to structure fires. While we want to applaud those people who show their concern for others and make those calls, we also want to pass along to you all a simpler method. Call 911! In the emergency service world, time is a critical factor in many of our calls. In serious medical cases, such as a cardiac arrest, the critical time is 6 minutes. Without adequate blood flow, after 6minutes brain cells will start to die. In the case of a free burning structure fire, it will double in size every 30 seconds. So, you can see how crucial time is. Most of us do not have our local fire department phone numbers saved in our phones, heck, I’m the Chief and I don’t have our number in my phone. Regardless, the point I’m trying to make is that there is no need for you to take the time to look up a number, simply dial 911 to report your emergency. Something else you should be aware of is that it does not matter if you’re in a city, such as Mobile, Saraland, Prichard, Chickasaw, Satsuma, Semmes, or you are served by a volunteer fire department, all of us are dispatched by 911. Next time you look at your phone bill, check out the different taxes and fees, we all pay a tax/fee for 911, it’s used to support that service. We most recently received a call about a trailer on fire that was not even in our area and the caller said he could not find the area department’s number but found ours. Don’t waste time attempting to find a department phone number, many times you probably won’t even get an answer, you might get a machine that says hang up and call 911 for an emergency. Folks, let me make this as clear as possible, the phone number for any fire department in Mobile County, paid or volunteer, for an emergency or what you deem to be an emergency is 911. Next month I hope to bring to light some ideas on emergent needs vs. non-emergent needs and how our 911 system is getting used.
Until then, be safe, and thank you all for allowing us the opportunity to be your emergency service provider in the Theodore Dawes area.
Chief Byrd