Anyone in the business of responding to emergencies knows that seven minutes can literally mean the difference between life and death.
This week we applaud Lincoln County Emergency Management Agency director Tim Pellerin for opening his office up to review following complaints regarding the delay between the call and the response to an emergency in Southport last month.
In fact there was a screw-up after a fashion.
Although the ball was not outright dropped, it was at least juggled a bit as dispatchers outside Lincoln County tried to figure out where the Southport bridge was and who would be responsible for it.
As it happened, events in Lincoln County eliminated the indecisiveness pretty quickly this time. Thing is, in the emergency business there is almost never a second chance and real lives are almost always at stake.
For a house fire, a critical injury accident, seven minutes could have meant all the difference in the world.
LC EMA Director Tim Pellerin knows this as well as anybody. Having covered Pellerin, and the way he runs his office, we are inclined to believe he was probably confident his department would shake out well in any investigation but he is still to be credited for opening himself up to the possibility.
By the same token, knowing how the state runs things, we are just going to have to take the Dept. of Public Safety at its word that they will figure out what happened on their end, and get back to us – very helpful, especially when the intent of the call is to find the problems, not to assign blame.
