The Brentwood Board of Aldermen may decide to move the city’s emergency dispatching from the city to the shared East Central Dispatch Center (ECDC) at a future meeting. Some say the shared service wouldn’t serve Brentwood as well.
Charlie Green, owner of the home in the 3600 block of Commonwealth Avenue who called for the Maplewood Fire Department Tuesday night, actually called the ECDC, and was happy with the response.
“After speaking with my wife we are pretty certain it was around 4 minutes for them to arrive,” Green said on Wednesday.
Green said he Googled the non-emergency number for Maplewood Fire Department and got 314-645-3000. The number goes to East Central Dispatch.
“I’m not sure who I spoke to. It was a lady but don’t recall her name,” he said. “It was a very quick response because we could hear the sirens a minute after I called. I would give the Maplewood dispatch an A+.”
He and his wife have lived there about five years, and squirrels had made a nest in the chimney, blocking the water heater vent.
The heater overheated, and an owner’s manual sitting on top caught on fire. Fortunately, Green said, the small fire melted the water supply pipe directly above it. Water escaped from the pipe and put out the fire.
Green was aware of what had happened but still kept smelling smoke, so at 10:46 p.m. he called what he thought was a non-emergency Maplewood FD number.
Green, his wife and child were unhurt.
“You can’t fix stupid”….Jim White KMOX. If you think something is on fire call 911.
For everybody’s future reference: When you smell smoke, call 911. Let the firefighters figure out if you really have an emergency. That’s why they’re there. They are sitting in their firehouse or in their trucks waiting for your call. Most of the firefighters I’ve known would rather come to your house and have it be a false alarm, than to have to rescue you from a burning building later.
I don’t think it’s about the critics trying to refute someones experience. We could all tell our storys as to who is “better” or “faster”…I think a lot of us are just confused as to WHY this is being pushed so hard. We have wonderful dispatchers, they know our officers, fire men and residents very well. Things are working at the dispatch center and as far as I know there are no problems other than some training that they are all willing and happy to receive. Some of us just don’t understand why these fantastic men and women have to be uprooted and/or lose their jobs. We know the officers ALL want them to stay…and I think that speaks volumes. We have also seen several communties in the last few weeks expressing their unhappiness with these call centers. And I believe Kirkwood just had this come up the other day and there was a significent public presence opposing the proposal. We are a small tight knit community and I think our own dispatchers add to that small town feeling. We have been told several times that this move wouldn’t be about saving money, it’s about what is best for the residents and our public servants. It seems to me they’ve given their opinion. I don’t know…a lot of us are just scratching our heads, wondering what the big picture is here. And I think many residents just want to feel heard and have questions answered. I love my town and just want to see big decisions and changes like this made for the right reasons.
Well said!
Not only do our police officers oppose this change but our firemen REFUSED to sign a letter drafted by their fire chief in support of moving the dispatchers to ECDC.
Smokey – Green Googled for a non-emergency number. He didn’t feel like he had an emergency. That’s been added to the article.
googled the number for the fire department. you’re kidding me. 9-1-1 !
Waiting for one of the critics to find a way to refute this account, lol.