Headlines

Emergency Services Operations

The Richmond County Emergency Services Department is actually three different departments. Emergency Services consist of:

  • Addressing

  • E-9-1-1

  • Emergency Management

Addressing:

In 1992, the Richmond County Board of Commissioners decided to begin the process of implementing an enhanced 9-1-1 (E-9-1-1) system. What this meant is the county went away from using rural route addresses and the county began using a house number and street name. This re-addressing process took close to two years to complete. A database was created, along with a Master Street Address Guide (MSAG) and each address was assigned an Emergency Services Number (ESN). An ESN tells the 9-1-1 telecommunicator which police, fire or rescue squad serves this address. The Addressing Department is in the process of migrating to a Geographic Information System (GIS) based addressing.

E-9-1-1:

In April 1993, the Richmond County 9-1-1 Center came to life! Known as ECOMM, the center employs fourteen full time employees. There are ten (10) full time telecommunicators, two (2) part time telecommunicators, a Training Officer, and a QA/Addressing Assistant. The center is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week with a minimum of two telecommunicators on duty at a time. ECOMM dispatches fire and medical calls for service and transfers law enforcement calls to the appropriate agency.

ECOMM utilizes the latest technology to process emergency calls for service. Such technology as Phase II for wireless 9-1-1 calls, computer aided dispatch software to manage resources and an internationally recognized fire and medical protocol system for call processing. ECOMM also utilizes two different mapping systems to locate the caller: MDS mapping system and Pictometry.

Emergency Management:

Emergency Management is a local function, which is aligned with the State of North Carolina for the Planning, Preparation, Response to, and finally the recovery from catastrophic accident or natural disaster.

The primary function is the process of accessing the county for vulnerability and or its susceptibility to be stricken or impacted from either man-made/technological or natural disasters as well as planning for such events.

Richmond County has a Multi-hazard Plan for such events, which has potential to adversely affect our county, ranging from dam failure, winter storms, tornadoes, earthquakes to hazardous material accidents.

Also the plan provides by Ordinance, the mechanism for the Board of Commissioners to declare a State of Emergency, whereby they may prohibit or control certain activities within our county.

The plan further provides for the roles and responsibilities for the various county departments and agencies in service to its citizens during time of disaster.

The emergency planning function is participated by all emergency services staff and is an on-going work in progress.

However, the most important aspect is the cooperation and involvement between all agencies who may participate in a disaster both county agencies as well as outside and state resources, all who can and do play a role in both disaster response and recovery.

　

　

 　



Donna Wright
Dir. of Emergency Services

Phone:

 (910) 997-8238

Fax:

 (910) 997-8345
e-Mail: donna.wright@
     richmondnc.com