A Morton resident said a brush fire started 200 feet from her house on U.S. Highway 12 on Thursday evening, but when she dialed 911 about the fire, nobody answered her call.
Shannon Craig posted on Facebook on Thursday evening that when a fire started near the highway, six drivers stopped to see what was going on before citizens used water bottles to douse the flames and floor mats from their vehicles to stomp out the fire as it grew in the over 90-degree heat.
“I tried to call 9-1-1, BUT NO ONE ANSWERED!!! I called Morton fire department and thankfully they answered their phone!” Craig wrote in the Facebook post.
Erik Martin, Lewis County manager, said on Friday morning that dispatch was aware of the post and staff were going back through call logs to determine what had gone wrong. He said Thursday evening was a chaotic time at the dispatch center as staff were “absolutely slammed” with calls, but that the center was fully staffed at the time when the call would have been placed.
Martin said the 911 Supervisor, Elizabeth Casteel, was in the process of “trying to pinpoint the call” on Friday.
“We weren’t short-handed (on Thursday evening),” Martin said. “It was just very busy.”
In general, the center has had difficulty training and retaining staff as many people begin the job as a dispatcher and find that it’s not for them due to the high stress, fast-paced atmosphere and the quick learning required to memorize jargon and controls, Martin said.
“We are very short handed. There are times that we have less-than-optimal (staff levels),” he said. “What typically happens is they’re working overtime. They’re really working hard and being troopers about it but … it’s a really tough job.”
Some of the folks they train at the center, he said, make it all the way through the training and reading the manual just to find out the job isn’t for them once they start taking calls. He said some consider it an emotional drain to stay calm and helpful in emergencies time and time again.
The Lewis County 911 Communications Center, according to its website, has a staff of 18 officers serving the county, dispatching all the various fire stations and law enforcement agencies within municipalities and in unincorporated parts of the county. The center also dispatches the coroner’s office, public works, the U.S. Forest Service and other agencies when necessary.
Martin said on Friday that the department just hired a new manager with “a ton of experience in 911 communications and radio. We’re really lucky to have her, I think she’s going to make a huge difference,” but that she just started this week and is “getting her feet under her.”
Martin said he would encourage anyone to apply for work as a dispatcher if they are interested, adding the job is tough training but does not require a lot to get in the door.
For more information on 911 communications with Lewis County and career opportunities, visit https://lewiscountywa.gov/departments/911-communications/.
