Date: Fri 14-Jul-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

a5-dispatch-tone-Mayhew

Full Text:

ANOTHER UNUSUAL DAY - AS USUAL

B Y K AAREN V ALENTA

Jim Crouch is fond of saying that if something unusual is going to happen, it

usually will happen in Newtown.

The chief of Newtown's 911 emergency dispatch center was proven right again

this week when an apparent power surge knocked out the computer program on the

dispatch console which controls the "tones" that summon the town's volunteer

fire and ambulance personnel.

Dispatcher Carol Mayhew was on duty at the time but didn't realize that

anything was wrong until she tried to tone out the Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire

and Rescue Company when an automatic fire alarm sounded at the high school

about 9 am on Tuesday.

"I had come on duty at 7 am and Lorribeth Lajoie (the night dispatcher) said

that all of town hall had gone dark momentarily during the lightening storm

during the night but that everything seemed to be okay," Carol said. "It

wasn't until I tried to tone out Sandy Hook that I realized something was

wrong."

Carol said she thought at first that she had done something incorrectly. "But

then I looked at the console where the numbers of the pagers should come up

and they weren't there. That's when I realized the whole computer program had

been wiped out."

She remembered, however, that "about five years ago" someone mentioned that

tuning forks were still stored in the dispatch center. She quickly rummaged

through cabinets until she found them, each identified with name tags bearing

the names of the individual fire departments and the ambulance corps. Sounding

the tone over the airwaves opens the beepers carried by the emergency services

personnel.

"I was petrified that the tuning fork wouldn't work, but it did," she said.

Sandy Hook Fire Chief Bill Halstead noticed the slight delay, however.

"He had headed for his truck as soon as he heard me announce, `Sandy Hook get

ready for dispatch' over the radio -- then nothing happened," she explained.

"I had to explain what was going on."

To Carol, it was just another example of what Jim Crouch always says.

"That's why I never get bored on this job," she said. "You never know from one

minute to the next what is going to happen."