The neighbors who ran toward the Milwaukee duplex fire
The fire department got there in a little over four minutes, which is a good response time in any city. Three people were already out of the building by then, and none of them got…
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How 911 dispatchers deescalate emergency calls
The first thing you learn is that a panicking caller is not being difficult. They are doing exactly what a human being does when something terrible is happening, and your job is…
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How a Wisconsin towing operator handles the aftermath of a highway crash
By the time the tow truck arrives, the ambulance has usually gone. What is left is a piece of road that has to be returned to use, and a vehicle that has to be removed from it,…
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Surviving a carbon monoxide leak in a rental home
The calls come in the first cold week. Every year, without fail, the first week people turn the heat on.
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The volunteer divers who search Wisconsin rivers for lost belongings
They are not looking for bodies. That work belongs to the sheriff’s dive teams and it is a different thing entirely, done by different people under different rules.
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What happens to pets left behind during emergency hospital visits
Somebody collapses at home. An ambulance takes them. The door is locked and there is a dog inside, and nobody at the hospital knows.
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Why Milwaukee dispatchers are learning sign language and text protocols
For most of the history of the emergency number, if you could not speak on a telephone you could not reach help directly. That is a remarkable sentence and it was true until very…
