# Gotta love rural dispatchers



## dadotwins (May 30, 2008)

One winter my partner and I were dispatched to respiratory call. Six inches of snow covered everything. Once in the neighborhood of the call, we were having trouble finding a house number,due to a thick snow that was falling.We called our dispatcher for better directions or a house identifier. Her response,(I swear this as truth!) " It's the one with the green roof! " 
 So what kinda goofy calls do you guys/girls get? let ole dadotwins know, til then peace and love to all!


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## BossyCow (May 30, 2008)

dadotwins said:


> One winter my partner and I were dispatched to respiratory call. Six inches of snow covered everything. Once in the neighborhood of the call, we were having trouble finding a house number,due to a thick snow that was falling.We called our dispatcher for better directions or a house identifier. Her response,(I swear this as truth!) " It's the one with the green roof! "
> So what kinda goofy calls do you guys/girls get? let ole dadotwins know, til then peace and love to all!



I once had a dispatcher I knew well away from work accidently call me by name on the radio.


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## KEVD18 (May 30, 2008)

BossyCow said:


> I once had a dispatcher I knew well away from work accidently call me by name on the radio.



like your real name(i.e. mellisa) or like a pet/bedroom name?

if its your real name, i struggle to see the significance in that. that happens all the time.


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## mikeylikesit (May 30, 2008)

Both the dispatcher and the girls at the ED flirt with me on air all the time. makes me feel special.^_^


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## BossyCow (May 30, 2008)

KEVD18 said:


> like your real name(i.e. mellisa) or like a pet/bedroom name?
> 
> if its your real name, i struggle to see the significance in that. that happens all the time.



The incident (and she was disciplined for it) was when the call ended, she replied "Okay, Bye Annie" like we were on the phone instead of the usual time and numbers. 

And yes my name is a challenge when teaching CPR classes "Annie Annie are you Okay?" I HATE that phrase!!!


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## KEVD18 (May 30, 2008)

seems like a perfect example of a foolish rule taken to ridiculous lengths.


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## BossyCow (May 30, 2008)

KEVD18 said:


> seems like a perfect example of a foolish rule taken to ridiculous lengths.



Wow! You seem more upset by this than her supervisor, her, or me! lol


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## KEVD18 (May 30, 2008)

it really bugs me when i see/hear about people(specifically management) losing sight of the big picture.

in the grand scheme of things, wheres the problem there? so she said your name. OH MY GOD, HOW WILL WE EVER SURVIVE.

i wasnt there, ive nver worked for your service, hell ive never even stepped foot in washington state and i still know that that was blown WAY out of proportion.


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## enjoynz (May 31, 2008)

OK...back on track!

I heard a good one a while back.

Child had their hand stuck in a vending machine...FD had to cut them out...
as it was the weekend, I guess it would have taken too long to find someone from the vending company.

EMT radio's into the Dispatcher, 'Child free...non injury...non transport...vending machine is terminal though'
Dispatcher reply 'So are you transporting it then?'


Cheers Enjoynz


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## mdtaylor (Jun 1, 2008)

This was a couple of years ago, during a fill in for a sick dispatcher....


(Me) Medic 7, cardiac, 123 Anystreet, Key map 369F... (repeat)

(Medic 7) Medic 7 enroute.

(Me) Medic 7 you are responding to a 55YOM 10 Delta 3.

Couple of minutes later.

(Medic 7) Comm Center, Medic 7. We've up and down Anystreet twice and there is only one house on the street and it has no numbers. Do you have any addidtional info?

(Me) Medic 7, calling party advises it is the only house on the street. The front door is open.

(Medic 7) Show us on location.


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## BossyCow (Jun 1, 2008)

KEVD18 said:


> i wasnt there, ive nver worked for your service, hell ive never even stepped foot in washington state and i still know that that was blown WAY out of proportion.




LOL.. okay.. so you admit total ignorance about all the details but still can form a conclusion.. good work!


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## LE-EMT (Jun 16, 2008)

LOL my response to that joy would have been as fallows...

Copy fire.  will you need a lift assist or a bari  unit for transport on that terminal PT.


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## mycrofft (Jun 19, 2008)

*And the classic...*

"I dunno, follow the smoke!".
(Heard it on tape at my FD).


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## Tincanfireman (Jun 20, 2008)

First person, true story: Responding to a reported structure fire at about three a.m. a few years back on a very long road with house numbers that jumped all over the place (don't ask, we can't figure it out either), we called back to dispatch to see if they could provide us with a cross street or other identifying information. Her reply: "Caller stated to keep going, it'll be the brick house with fire and smoke coming out of it". Darned if she wasn't right too; our destination address turned out to be the only house on that road with flames and smoke coming from the eaves...


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## Lyss (Jun 20, 2008)

Heard it on the radio from another station:

Ambulance and medic were dispatched to possible Code 0 on the side of the road pt lying in a snow bank at 4am.  A very tired medic responded--

(Medic)-- Be advised dispatch we have a DOA
(Dispatch)-- Alright, are you gonna need a tow at that location?
(Medic)-- He's dead, not fat!  The coroner is good enough.
_Several moments of silence_
(Dispatch)-- _laughing_ Ok, coroner notified, SP on their way ~10min out.  I was trying to ascertain if the patient had a vehicle.
(Medic)-- If the pt had a vehicle he wouldn't be lying in the snow bank!  Don't you listen to your own calls?! 
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This one was my partner shortly after we witnessed a small plane crash (Note: it was his first day):

(Driver)-- Uh... dispatch?  Something just fell out of the sky.
(Dispatch)-- Could you be a little more specific?
(Driver)-- Big.  On fire.  Not good.
(Dispatch)-- Ok so are you gonna need fire to your location?
(Driver)-- We HAVE fire at our location!  We need a fire TRUCK!
(Dispatch)-- Affirmative, are you gonna need any other units?  What situation do you have there?
(Driver)-- I think I see dead people.
(Dispatch)-- What is the nature of the situation?
(Driver)-- Yeah they're definetly dead.
(Dispatch)-- _Talking to police_ Car 9, please head to (location) we have an ambulance unit on the scene, unable to acsertain nature of incident but they had an object fall from the sky and think they see dead people.
(Car 9)-- _Laughing_ Uh, ok dispatch I'll be on my way and try to identify further.  

Needless to say, he wasn't allowed on the radio for a long long time after that.  And no, there were no dead people, just people knocked out.  Very LUCKY people knocked out.


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## mycrofft (Jun 20, 2008)

*Staying OUT of the Alarm Room*

One Sgt was literally mike-shy. Able to crewchief with the best of them, when handed a mike, he would look cross-eyed at it, start to stutter, and was occasionally relieved by his driver.
When he was an Airman and assigned to his turn in the Alarm Room, not only did this problem first come out, but, due to the station PA system and the crash net radio having near-identical G.E. mikes, he did one of his inadvertant 
Mel Tillis routines over the station PA with the Chief _et al_ present instead of on the radio.


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