Ride along with a firefighter
Ride along with a firefighter
“For the people that are complaining about the fire department, they now have a ride along program to see what the firemen do or they don’t do. You can ride along for a 10- or 12-hour shift.
You can contact the fire department here at the main office in Gilroy, on Chestnut Street. They’ll set it up for you to ride along to see where your complaints go. You have no reason to complain because these people work just like soldiers and put their lives on the line everyday for us. So just think about it, take a ride and see.”
Red Phone:
Nice advice caller, a night spent in a firefighter’s boots could be a great way to get a complete hands-on experience in their world. Red Phone contacted Fire Chief Dale Foster about ride along opportunities.
“I don’t know that we can do a whole 10- to 12-hour shift, I think it just depends on what’s going on. They might not see much activity at certain times. We are pretty flexible, and we try and schedule these at times when people will see some action,” Foster said.
He said to call the Chestnut Station, 848-9031, or the Las Animas Station, 842-9645, for information and to schedule a night out with the crew.
“It’s a great experience, they meet the people and get to see what types of work these people do, what kinds of stress and how much they care about the community.”
Dialing 911
“I would like to get some information on 911 calls, specifically calls made from Gilroy.
The reason for my inquiry is because of a call made by me to 911, at midday, Thursday, Nov. 2. My concern for making the call was the outage of traffic lights at the intersection of Thomas Road and Santa Teresa Boulevard.
Upon giving this information to the 911 operator… I was told this was not in her jurisdiction.
I then expressed my concern that this seemed to be a dangerous situation.…
I then responded to her that I just wanted to make the situation known, my demeanor was polite and courteous throughout this exchange.
After I hung up the phone I realized what an obscene and absurd exchange this was…”
Red Phone:
Good caller Red Phone has been in touch with Linda Olmsted, the Enhanced 911 Coordinator at Monterey CHP which serves south Santa Clara County.
“We have checked our master tape recordings and cannot locate any phone call from a member of the public regarding the situation described. Our communications center did receive a call at 11:31am from Santa Clara County Communications regarding a power outage at Santa Teresa and Thomas. We listened to all incoming phone calls for an hour before and an hour after that time, in an attempt to find the described call. There were none.”
“Therefore, the caller must have spoken with another 911 Public Safety Answering Point, and not the CHP.”
So caller, unfortunately your call was not directed to a local dispatcher. This could be the status of your wireless carrier and their Enhanced 911 capabilities. A number of PSAPs could have answered your call, but there is good news. Wireless carriers are upgrading their services to route cellular 911 calls to the most appropriate municipality Olmsted said. With the new Enhanced 911 service, when a call is received, the caller’s phone number, and latitude and longitude of the actual caller, among other information, will be routed to CHP.
So caller, the lack of this service may have been why you encountered a confusing situation, but stay tuned for a story on this new service and what it can offer by means of safety.
