Look inside Sacramento County’s fire dispatch center ahead of July 4 fireworks surge
As revelers stock up on beer, grill charcoal and fireworks — many of them illegal — for the nation’s 250th Independence Day celebration Friday, dispatchers at the Sacramento Regional Fire/EMS Communications Center are preparing for their busiest shift of the year.
Every July 4, the communications center in Rancho Cordova handles its highest call volume. On a typical day, dispatchers, who cover a 1,000-square-mile area of Sacramento County for 10 fire departments, receive about 1,000 calls. On July 4, they expect to receive roughly that many 911 calls alone between 9 p.m. and 1 a.m., deputy director Marissa Shmatovich said.
“We call it our Super Bowl,” Shmatovich said.
This year, the 14 dispatchers scheduled to work Friday night are bracing for an especially busy holiday because of heightened celebrations marking the nation’s 250th anniversary and because the holiday falls on a weekend.
While alcohol, crowded waterways and heavy holiday traffic all contribute to an increase in emergency calls, fireworks generate the largest share of responses, according to authorities. Those calls typically involve vegetation or structure fires, as well as burns and other fireworks-related injuries.
Shmatovich offered several safety tips to help people avoid becoming part of the holiday’s emergency statistics:
- If you choose to use fireworks, avoid igniting them in dry grass or near vegetation.
- Keep a bucket of water, a hose or both nearby to douse spent fireworks
- Call 911 only for emergencies, since dispatchers will be handling a high volume of calls
- If you do call, be prepared to provide an accurate location; although modern dispatch systems can use smartphone location data, the information often is not precise enough for first responders to respond faster
