Chief Tirrell received the following e-mail complimenting our operation and our dispatchers. Great job Monday morning by Lt. David Whipple and Dispatcher Virginia Gilman. Chief,

I happened to be standing by at a business waiting for recall for a sprinkler system malfunction this morning (one of many that thawed out last night) and had an occasion to listen to the dispatch of this fire. All was otherwise quiet this side of the mountain so it gave me something to do at the end of a very long 24.

After hearing the 1st alarm dispatch, I turned up the radio and disabled the scan then I heard something interesting. "Any Dummerston unit from 415"... "Any Dummerston unit from 415"..."Any Dummerston unit from 415". I don't recall if it was 2 or three times but I do remember that it was in relatively rapid fire succession. I heard no abnormal inflection, no trepidation or irritation in her voice but I'm thinking to myself, "dang, give them a moment to get out of bed". For those very short moments I was thinking that this was the normal "is anyone responding" type check-in that your organization does. Then I heard the following 2nd alarm dispatch...persons reported trapped.

I don't know if this is standard protocol for your center or if this was "dispatcher discretion" or a combination of both. Either way, I wanted to say that listening to this side, the dispatch was spot on. 4AM. Apparent advanced fire. Life Safety threatened. Those first few minutes were exactly, in my opinion, the right way to do things and it showed more than dispatcher competency but also organizational competency. Those actions proved that your dispatcher and center are part of a larger public safety system and you clearly had the backs of those firefighters and officers. From one professional to another, thanks for all the efforts and for leading by example - it does show. Please extend my comments to your team.

Best Regards,

/Jeff

Jeff Marshall, Captain Milford Fire Department 39 School St. Milford, NH 03055