In recovery homes, chasing sobriety, responsibility

New video appears to show moments before Smith's death

ALTOONA, Pa. (AP) — Sometimes considered the "first" first responders, 911 dispatchers help connect callers with fire companies, police or an ambulance and will stay with someone on the phone until help arrives. Dispatchers, also called telecommunicators, have no idea when the phone rings whether the caller is concerned about a cat stuck in a tree or a man with a gun. But they are trained to handle both, along with many other emergency scenarios. But unlike police, firefighters or paramedics, dispatchers have no idea how a scenario ends for the caller once they hang up. "You just have to do your job," said Blair 911 telecommunicator Gerard Gamber. "When it's over with, you get it out of your system (and process it) however you want." Handling someone's worst day Sue Ammerman, Blair County's 911 coordinator, said most people who call 911 are frustrated, and the emergency workers talking to them on the other end have to know how to handle that. "When somebody typically dials 911, they're having their worst day. And for us, it's just an average, normal day," she said. The most important information required when dialing 911 is location, a telephone number and the type of emergency. Ammerman said sometimes people become frustrated by the string of questions they're being asked, but dispatchers need to get the most information possible. Robbin Melnyk, Cambria County's 911 coordinator, said people working at 911 rely on prewritten guidelines and procedures when handling calls to make sure they get all the information they need. And situations are always changing, she said. A woman who calls in to report her husband is bleeding from a head wound might then tell 911 operators that he's bleeding because he was hit in the head by a baseball bat. That call would be updated from a hemorrhage to a traumatic injury, she said; if the woman then says a neighbor struck her husband with the bat, the call is reclassified as an assault to better prepare police and paramedics to make sure they take safety precautions before arriving on scene. Telecommunicators plug in the information provided by a caller into a computer log, which is then passed on to emergency responders. All the while, they keep asking questions. "We need to prepare first responders that there's a possible police issue," Melnyk said. "There's a safety potential in every single call that we take." Despite improvements in technology, landline phones are still more reliable than cellphones because the number is connected to a fixed address. With cellphones, dispatchers could receive a call that was misrouted from another county, or the call could drop or be hard to understand because of poor reception. Dispatchers' jobs also can be made more difficult when someone calls while driving. In many cases, the caller has passed through multiple fire and police jurisdictions, or worse: They don't know where they are. "100 Church Street may have 16 municipalities come up," Melnyk said. "The locations are the biggest challenge for us." If cellphone users aren't on the phone long enough or they're moving, it can be difficult to pin down their location. Chris Meyers, a supervisor at Cambria County's 911 center, picked up one call last week as his computer calculated the location. It registered an address and said it was accurate to within 10,000 meters — or more than 6 miles. Other calls are more accurate, calculating location to within 50 meters (about half the length of a football field). Meyers said while 50 meters might be OK for a rural area with fewer houses, the same call in a city could incorrectly show an emergency blocks away, requiring responders to waste precious time trying to find the right address. Like many dispatchers, Meyers also is a firefighter, serving with Richland's fire department. He said after taking thousands of calls, his responses have become muscle memory. Within an hour, calls to Cambria's 911 center last Thursday afternoon included a woman having difficulty breathing, a dog attack, an abandoned child and a car collision on Route 219. Some dispatchers said they considered that a slow hour and wondered whether it would be "the calm before a storm." Staying prepared Most emergency services officials will tell you the job has changed significantly over the years. More than 20 years ago, Melnyk started working for one of Cambria County's 911 centers. There were three at the time, one each in Richland, Johnstown and Ebensburg, the last of which was called Mainline Police and had offices in the basement of the county courthouse. The first year Cambria 911 implemented its computer system, five dispatchers quit because they thought the system was too complicated, Melnyk said. "Change is a big word that comes with 911," Melnyk said. Now, computers are so much a part of what 911 does, and there's always newer and better technology, which also becomes obsolete quickly, she said. One situation that continues to pose a problem is 911 hang-up calls, with each center handling hundreds of them every year. "Those are scary," Melnyk said. "You answer, and no one is on the line." Even if a caller hangs up before the call rings, a 911 center has received the call, she said. Dispatchers then have to consider whether the person called but has a medical condition and can't speak or call back, or if someone is being held against their will. "We're thinking of the worst-case scenario and listening for clues to see if they're actually in danger," Melnyk said, and police are notified of every 911 hang-up since they might know more about the caller. Doing what the average person doesn't Unlike other first responders, 911 operators never go to the scene of an incident. Their job is a rote performance of answering calls, gathering information and moving on. Because most work together in teams on the same rotating shifts, they have some of the same stories to share, many of which underscore the sobering reality of the job. The people they are calling need help or are in danger, and the outcomes aren't always good no matter how quickly they send help or how skilled an officer or paramedic might be. Some told of being on the phone with homeowners as their houses burned down around them. Not everyone always makes it out. Another said he was on the phone with a woman who had locked herself in a closet to escape a man with a gun. She stayed on the phone with 911. The dispatcher said he heard the closet door open and several shots ring out as the woman screamed. She died there. He said that recorded call is used in training new telecommunicators, to let them know that they, too, might pick up the same kind of call. "It's a challenge for us," Melnyk said. Many dispatchers can identify "almost every news story in the paper and on the news at 6 o'clock." She said they might watch footage or read an article and say, "'Oh, that's that house,' or 'Oh that's that crash.' ... Average people don't deal with that." Still, many dispatchers thrive on the unknowns that come with the job. "Our stress comes from being at a state of readiness at all times ... going from zero to 90 in a minute's notice. It's like jumping off a cliff," Melnyk said. Many, like Gamber of Blair 911, said there's no such thing as a standard day at the office. Dispatchers are continually rotating from covering police, fire and ambulance calls to stay prepared and keep their skills fresh. "It's like a team effort," he said. "That's what the people need to know. There's more than one person in the room. One person can be dispatching an ambulance while I'm (on the call). ... We just want to get people the help they need. I feel good about what I do." ___ Online: http://bit.ly/1S0UVjv ___ Information from: Altoona Mirror, http://www.altoonamirror.com

Dispatchers handle the 'worst' days