Saturday, August 2, 2008

911--What's your emergency?

Have you ever actually heard this sentence? From a 911 operator?

It is 6am on Saturday morning. I just got home from my route. I ran 15 minutes late today...because as I approached an intersection where I normally make a U-turn and proceed I saw a van ON FIRE!!!

Can you believe it? My stomach got all nervous...I got out my phone...I called 911, and I felt like I was about to get into trouble or something!!!

As I was talking to the operator, I struggled to re-orient myself with where I actually was to give her an address. After 3 years of papers, 1 1/2 years on this route, I pretty much drive around in a memorized daze. I came up with the address and sat on the line with her til she told me I could go.

Anyways...right when I got off the phone I saw one of the "regulars" walking through the neighborhood...(There are several regular walkers, bikers, joggers, drivers, etc. I see them every single day, often at the same time in the same place. Weird, how we are completely unconnected but still a far-off part of each others' routines. Tangent, I know...) I know the "regulars" only as far as we wave at each other every morning. Well, he ran up to the door and started knocking but no one answered. This house used to be a subscriber, so I quickly shuffled through some paperwork to see if I still had their phone number. (I didn't...looks like cleaning things out didn't pay off in this situation!!!)

The van was next to a fence, and I was just afraid it was going to leap over and catch the fence, then maybe the house on fire! Well, luckily it didn't...the fire truck and police car got there in only a few minutes and took care of it...and I went on my way...

I just got home, and still have the smell of burning rubber stuck in my nose. I still can't believe I actually had to call 911!!!
Have you ever called 911?

5 comments:

Jason said...

Wow! I've called 911 a couple of times in my life, but never to report a van on fire! That's crazy.

I'm assuming no one was injured. Thank goodness.

Jamey said...

I've never had to call 911. I wonder what caused it; where the people were, etc.? I think I'd be left with an empty feeling not knowing the story. Glad everyone was ok.

THE MORROW FAMILY said...

Wow! What an eventful early start to your day! That's scary! I wonder what happened. I'm glad nobody was hurt and I'm glad you were there to call for help. No, I've never had to call 911 and hope and pray that I never will.

Sunny said...

What a crazy way to start your day! I can only imagine how fast your heart was pumping.

I've called 911 on several different occasions, none of which were life threatening. Several years ago when Jason and I were living in Kingsport, we headed home from Nashville in a snow storm. It took us 7 hours to make it home, when it normally only took 4 hours. Along the way, there were LOTS of wrecks. While driving through Knoxville, we came upon this wreck that had just happened and Jason and I called 911 to report it. The operator kindly thanked us, but told us that due to the volume of accidents, they were only taking the ones with injuries. We felt really badly, but there were SO MANY wrecks that day!!!

Just a couple of weeks ago in Birmingham, I called 911 to report reckless driving. I was going through downtown in the far right hand lane and I had an 18 wheeler barreling right down on me. I seriously thought the guy was going to hit us. He even accelerated to jerk over into the left hand lane cutting off the car that was right beside him. I pushed down on my gas pedal just to avoid getting crushed by him. The operator took down all of my information and asked if I wanted them to call me back when they had caught him.

This was not the first time that I had called to report reckless driving to 911. Before I begin telling the operator about whatever it is that I am calling about, I always ask if there is another number that I need to dial to report reckless driving. I don't want to tie up the phone lines when someone else might be trying to get through because of health reasons.

My voice ALWAYS quivers when I call too!

Oh, one more story... this past Thanksgiving Jason and I were headed up to Nashville. Right as soon as we got on 65, we saw this car pull off on the shoulder and a woman jump out of the passenger side while a man got out of the driver side. The woman ran straight into the lanes of oncoming traffic. I don't know what was going on, but we called 911! Kinda scary!

Okay, this has turned out to be a little too long. I hope that everything is okay and I am so glad that you were there this morning!

Ashley @ pure and lovely said...

Hey Stacy! This is Ashley..Jamey's shelf friend! yes, I have called 911 before. Twice. The first time was because Aiden pulled the iron down on himself when he was nine months old and I was FREAKING out, (second degree burns on his leg and hand-never felt so bad in my entire life...) and second time it was because (womp womp) Aiden had a febrile seizure out of nowhere. WHEW the joys of parenting! Our address is really long, so I was SCREAMING it over the phone for the ambulance to come get him the second time around...good story. good story. drama