The first responders’ biggest fear was realized one night in December when someone called 911 for help in rural Erie County and nobody came.
The first dispatch went to Union City Fire Co. When Union City couldn’t crew its ambulance, the call rolled over to neighboring Waterford Volunteer Fire Department.
Waterford couldn’t raise an ambulance crew either, so the call went to nearby Mill Village Volunteer Fire Department. Again, no answer.
Fifty-one minutes later, the county 911 center canceled the alarm, saying the caller was going to the hospital in a private vehicle.
“It’s here,” a somber Union City Fire Chief Isaiah Edwards told his firefighters a week later at a station meeting. “We’re dropping a ton of calls. It’s going to be a mess. I don’t have answers.”