Published: June 25, 2006 07:47 pm         

Minutes count

DOYLE — An issue with communications here could mean the difference between life and death and may already have been the case a few times.

Members of the Fire Department can recite a list of names representing people who were seriously injured or even died in situations made worse by communication problems.

The most recent incident was a car accident on Oklahoma Highway 29 a couple of weeks ago.

Joel Henderson and Doyle Condit, members of the Doyle Volunteer Fire Department, say those situations could be avoided if people learn where they are and give clear directions to the emergency.

The problem, they say, is due to a couple of separate situations unique to the community of Doyle.

The one that could be fixed immediately is if residents and visitors use the proper name of the community, Doyle, when reporting an incident.

“Our main concern is for people to give correct directions to the dispatcher,” Condit said.

“It is essential that the EMT (emergency medical technician) gets to the right place quickly.

They don’t need to drive an extra 30 minutes to try to find the emergency. Every minute counts.”

A couple of factors have contributed to the confusion associated with location.

For one thing, some residents of the area have a Foster mailing address.

Henderson said that while longtime residents know perfectly well that they live in Doyle and know the roads and landmarks, residents who are new to the area tend to use Foster to describe where they live.

That spells potential disaster when talking to a dispatcher in another city because the actual town of Foster sits several miles to the east.

“People in the northeast corner of the county have a Route 1 Foster address, but the actual town of Foster is seven miles east and a mile south in Garvin County,” Henderson said.

Adding to the confusion is that a highly visible landmark in Doyle, right off the highway, is called the Foster General Store. The store is about a mile west of the Fire Department.

“We’ve had a problem with people reporting an emergency in Foster when what they mean is the Foster store,” Condit said.



FIRE DEPARTMENT SERVES AS GOOD REFERENCE POINT

The difference from the Fire Department is a question of polar opposites. If an emergency is near the store, responders would go west, while if the emergency is in Foster the town, they would need to head east.

He recommended that people use the Doyle Fire Station as a reference point when reporting emergencies.

Another problem is a lack of markings at major intersections.

The firefighters said that most roads are marked according to county numbers but not by how the roads are commonly known. Some roads are not even marked at all.

Yet another situation deals with cell phones, as callers often get the wrong dispatcher.

In this part of the county, cell phone calls can get bounced to Pauls Valley or Ardmore instead of the preferred dispatch offices in Marlow or Duncan.

“They (outside county dispatchers) do a good job of trying to get the right people to the right places, but they don’t know the area as much as Marlow units do, so that’s extra time,” Condit said.

He recommends people call either Marlow dispatch or the county dispatch based in Duncan to report emergencies in the Doyle area.

Also, cell phone coverage in the area is limited and some phones might not get a signal at all.

“Sometimes a tin can and string would be better than what we have now,” Henderson said.

BEHIND THE TIMES

The answer to almost all of the problems would be to establish an enhanced 911 service in the county.

Stephens County is one of only two counties in the state that do not have the enhanced 911 coverage.

Doyle and other rural fire departments, along with most sheriff’s departments, are big supporters of the system.

“I would gladly pay an extra 50 cents a month for that extra safety,” Condit said. “Jimmie Bruner (Stephens County sheriff) has been promoting it, too, because it would really help deputies when they’re out in the rural areas.”

But voters in larger cities outnumbered rural residents and largely voted against the service when it was on the ballot in September.

By approving the service, Condit said it would help in a variety of safety-related ways including global position mapping of roads, marking the roads with signs and proper routing of emergency calls.

Condit said he plans to promote the issue to get it back on the ballot again soon.

Despite the communication problems, Henderson and Condit say that their department has been working hard under the leadership of Fire Chief Earl Henderson to make Doyle a safer community.

Condit was one of the original founders of the department and said he saw a need for one in the area after a fire broke out on his own land.

The fire station opened for service a few years ago and is already at full strength with 21 members.

“The chief has done a great job getting us ready for emergencies,” Joel Henderson said.

“We just need to get people aware of where they are and who to call when they’re reporting them.”

     

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