Newtown Dispatchers Commended For Service To Bridgeport Colleagues

By John Voket

The Board of Selectmen learned September 20 that a group of local emergency dispatchers were able to lend critical aid to some of their own following the recent deaths of two Bridgeport firefighters in the line of duty. And the Newtown officials voted unanimously to recognize those local workers for answering the call.

During this week’s regular selectmen’s meeting, First Selectman Pat Llodra presented a memo from Maureen Will, Newtown’s emergency dispatch center director. In that memo, Ms Will said she was “proud to know that when a city the size of Bridgeport needed help, they could call on us in Newtown to lend a hand.”

According to the memo, on July 24, a call came in from Bridgeport dispatch director Doree Price officially reporting the tragedy that two of their own had lost their lives in a fire, and informing Ms Will that the Bridgeport fire dispatch personnel “felt the loss.”

As a result, Ms Will was asked to coordinate a Telecommunications Emergency Response Taskforce or TERT to respond to help cover emergency dispatch duties at the Bridgeport communications center.

Enlisting the help of Ms Will’s colleague Michael Boucher, the pair helped schedule coverage and all the backup necessary so Bridgeport’s dispatchers could get through the difficult period.

During the seven-day period of activation, the TERT coordinated dispatchers from across Connecticut who came to help. At the same time, Ms Will also depended on her own staff to maintain necessary coverage in Newtown, as well as supplementing when required in the Park City.

“This was the first time in the history of the Newtown Emergency Dispatch Center that a TERT callout was activated,” Ms Will stated in her memo. And she said three staff members, Michael Easter, Thomas Ramsdell, and Christopher Campbell, headed to Bridgeport to help in handling both fire and police traffic, as well as the reported outpouring of messages from fire officials and concerned members of the public calling in to offer support.

At the same time, dispatchers Jennifer Barosci and John Facto made themselves available to cover extra shifts so their own three colleagues could continue to support Bridgeport’s dispatch operations.

“Their staff members are examples of the true professionals emergency telecommunication dispatcher,” Mrs Llodra related from the memo. “The TERT lasted one week, and there was no overtime cost to the [Newtown] center or the town.”

Ms Will said all the dispatchers’ time was either donated or volunteered during regular uncompensated days off.

“Much media attention was centered on the tragic loss of those firefighters... however, no one commented on the on-duty telecommunicators who were staffing those phones and radios, who heard the calls for help and immediately responded,” Ms Will observed. “They too were in crisis and in need.”

Ms Will related, however, that dispatchers are often the forgotten first responders.

“But when we hear the call for help, we gather our forces and quickly and quietly get the job done,” Ms Will concluded.

Ms Will has built the network of fellow professionals, and has helped expose the good work of her local staff through her involvement on the board of the Northwest Connecticut Public Safety agency, as well as the Managers of Emergency Communications Association (MECCA).

But ultimately, Ms Will had to hand it to her crew for their efforts.

“I saw firsthand all the hard work we put into training, procedures, and practices come together and work,” she said.

Following the presentation of the memo, Ms Llodra sought and received immediate support from Selectmen Will Rodgers and William Furrier to also provide letters of recognition for the files of all the Newtown emergency dispatch staff who helped with the effort when their colleagues were suffering under their most recent and darkest days.