BY JESSIE BURCHETTE
SALISBURY POST

A coating of ice on roads early Thursday morning swamped the county’s 911 center, delaying the dispatch of firefighters to a reported fire at the South Rowan YMCA.

Calls about why schools were operating and dozens of minor fender-benders came close to overwhelming the 911 system.

Sherry Chestnut, an employee of the South Rowan YMCA, called 911 Thursday morning while others were evacuating the building. The smell of smoke was filling the building.

Shortly after 8:05 a.m., Chestnut told the 911 operator she was calling from the South Rowan YMCA to report the possible fire.

She said the man answered, “Would you please hold?”

She waited, and waited, and waited.

The phone system at the YMCA shows a digital display of time. At 7 minutes and 59 seconds, she hung up.

At that point, another employee called the Landis Municipal Building. Staffers there tried to contact Fire Chief Reid Linn by radio.

About the same time, another call was placed to the China Grove Municipal Building.

China Grove Fire Chief Wayne Mishak happened to be there and he got the Landis chief on the radio. Linn was working with a Fire Department unit at a wreck scene at nearby South Rowan High School.

Linn called the 911 center on his radio and asked dispatchers to send the Fire Department to the YMCA.

Linn estimated the Fire Department was delayed at least 10 minutes because of the mix-up at the 911 center.

As it turned out, there was no fire. A motor that operates the heating and air-conditioning system had malfunctioned after the power had been knocked off briefly.

Regular activities at the YMCA resumed after firefighters discovered the problem.

A day later, Chestnut was still stunned at what happened to her call.

“I was surprised that 911 would put you on hold, period,” she said. “I thought they took emergency calls and let it go at that.”

The problem was that a lot of the “emergency calls” early Thursday weren’t really emergencies.

There were a lot of fender-benders as drivers went slip-sliding off roads.

And there were a lot of folks wanting to know why their children were having school.

The center got 171 calls from 7 to 9 a.m., according to 911 Communications Director Frank Thomason. Add to that 3,800 radio transmissions dealing with the dispatching of law enforcement and other emergency personnel during the same two-hour period.

Thomason joined the four 911 operators on duty, trying to help, but he admits it was more than they could handle.

Thomason took some of the school calls. When he told the callers that they should call the Rowan-Salisbury Schools office, he was quickly told that the school line was busy.

Amid the mishaps on the icy roads were at least two calls reporting school bus accidents.

After dispatching emergency personnel, operators were told there were no injuries.

The center also got lots of repetitive calls on the same accidents from folks with cellular phones passing by an accident scene.

With as many as 50 minor accidents reported within a short time, law enforcement officers were also overwhelmed. Many of those involved in the accidents kept calling back to 911 asking when a policeman or patrolman would arrive.

“It was like Hurricane Hugo,” said Thomason, adding that it was one of the busiest times the center has had since it began operations in 1987.

Fire Chief Linn acknowledged that the center was very busy. But he also believes the report of a possible fire should have taken priority over minor accidents.

The delay still worries Linn. Had it been a real fire, a seven- to 10-minute delay could have made the difference between life and death.

Linn said he had talked with Thomason about the delay and also with town officials.

“I know they prioritize calls. It looks like there was a lapse in prioritizing,” said Linn.

Thomason said the 911 operator put the YMCA call on hold with the intention of starting the dispatch of a Fire Department and then getting back to her. He said Linn called on the radio about the time operators were starting to dispatch.

In retrospect, Thomason said dispatchers could have handled the situation better if more people would have been there to help. However, they had evaluated the weather forecasts and didn’t anticipate a need.

At 6 a.m. Wednesday, when the shift started, there was no ice and very few calls. An hour later, there was still very little 911 traffic.

“The light turned on at 7:15.” said Thomason. For the next two hours, there was no break.

Thomason said dispatchers need to work on getting the public to call 911 only with real emergencies.

And 911 personnel will continue to review and work to improve handling of calls, he said.

“Given everything that was going on, the system worked the best it could,” said Thomason. “This was a very isolated situation. This may not recur.”

During the past year, the 911 center added four additional operators aimed at getting calls answered more quickly.

Thomason said the additional staff has dramatically reduced the turnaround time for 911 calls and dispatching.