On Wednesday evening, the volunteers of the Glen Moore Fire Company traveled to the county's 9-1-1 dispatch center in West Chester, PA.

Amy Amer, Community Outreach Coordinator, welcomed the crew members and talked about how the center operates on a daily basis and during large scale events. She reviewed the differences between call takers and dispatchers as well as how the center functions during large scale emergencies. Members were offered the opportunity to ask questions about the center and how it is operated.

After the information session, members toured the call center. They had the ability to interact with the call takers and dispatchers. Both shared how they take calls, route calls, and gather all the necessary information from the callers. Members had to opportunity to observe calls being taken and fire dispatchers then dispatch the calls to the appropriate companies.

Per the www.chesco.org website, the 9-1-1 Communication Center is staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to provide the citizens of Chester County with emergency call receipt, interim assistance, response coordination and responder dispatch. The Communications Center staff handles over 900 emergency calls each day. The Center has a translation service for over 200 languages and is equipped to expeditiously handle calls from hearing impaired citizens. The dispatchers in the 9-1-1 Communication Center receive training on how to notify and coordinate police, fire, rescue and ambulance responses in a variety of situations from routine to major disaster.

The Glen Moore Fire Company would like to thank Amy, the call takers, and the dispatchers for providing us with the tour and a great educational experience.