'Bull' needs your help

I am really excited and happy to be here to serve you, however, as I have driven my crews to medical responses, I have found a big problem that you, and only you, can help us with. I wanted to take this opportunity to educate you on something that would help us serve you better - the proper way to make a 9-1-1 emergency phone call.

The fire department has certain time limits in which to respond to an emergency, so if we do not have the proper information on where the actual emergency is, it makes it real hard for us to find you. When you phone in an emergency there are a few important things for us to know prior to leaving our stations. Our dispatcher needs to know what the emergency is, where it is, who is involved and how long the emergency has been going on.

The first thing to know before calling 9-1-1, is what the emergency is or what the nature of the problem is. For example, there is a man/woman feeling sick, dizzy or having chest pain. Or maybe an event such as a dumpster on the south side of a building on fire, a car in the parking lot on the north side is leaking gasoline from the bottom rear of the car, the office on the east side has a burning smell in it.

The next thing to know is what building the emergency is happening in. You would be surprised at the number of people who don't know where they work. Sometimes it's caused by the excitement of just making a 9-1-1 call to help your shipmates. We recommend you write it on your phone. This is very important so we can respond to the correct location in an efficient and timely manner.

The next thing to report is who you are and what is a good phone number you can be reached at. This is in case we have to call back for more details about the emergency. And lastly, how long the incident has been going on since it started.

Once you have finished making your emergency call, please have someone outside to direct the fire department personnel to the emergency.

Your location in a building is also very important. Be sure to let the dispatcher know exactly where you are located, such as what deck and a room number. If you know where you are in reference to north, south, east or west that will help.

At NAS Jax, it's relatively easy. The St. Johns River is east, the airfield is north, the main gate is west and the Buckman Bridge is south. Many of the buildings here are very large and to relocate a truck once we stop means we have to go back to where we got off. In many cases a patient with a heart attack only has six to eight minutes to live without life support. That is very valuable time that we need not waste.

As you can see, there are some very important things we need to know in order to respond quicker and to be more prepared for your emergencies. Having this information before you call would be a great help to us and would certainly benefit you from our speedy response. Take a deep breath before picking up the phone and know where you are, what your emergency is, who you are and how we can reach you and how long has the emergency been occurring.

"Jax," "Quint" and me, "Bull," will quickly come to your aid carrying our firefighters and emergency medical technicians after you give us the proper information. Thanks and hopefully I will not have to see you out there. One final thing, please pull over for us when you see us coming with lights and sirens, it makes it safer for all of us and it's the law.