- Dispatch centers in Utah face call surges during wildfire season, overwhelming staff.
- Box Elder County dispatchers saw a 400%-500% call increase due to the Perry Fire, while notices and messages abounded.
- Officials urge checking social media before calling 911 to avoid redundant fire reports.
BRIGHAM CITY — With more wildfires flaring up Friday, dispatch centers have been inundated with calls.
Early Friday morning, a new fire sparked in Box Elder County, the Perry Fire. The next three hours, dispatchers received a 400% to 500% increase in calls, according to Capt. Travis Trotta with the Utah Department of Public Safety Communications.
He said, of the 240 calls dispatchers took between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m., 115 were about the Perry fire.
"If every one of those was just one minute, that's 115 minutes that our guys aren't talking to officers on the radio," Trotta said.
There are two dispatchers in Box Elder County on shift. They don't just take the call; they connect people to first responders.
"We see it from the beginning to when the units are on scene," said Nickie Richards, communications manager for the Department of Public Safety Box Elder Communication Center. "It just doesn't stop with one."
That's why it gets complicated when people call repeatedly about one fire. Richards said it distracts their dispatchers from responding to other emergencies.
"It can be a CPR call, it could be a childbirth, it could be anything," Richards said. "You get so many of them that it takes away from helping out on another emergency, saving a life."
Trotta agreed, emphasizing how important it is for folks to call 911.
"We don't want to miss a 911 call. We know how important every one of those are," Trotta said. "I also don't want to have a 911 call messed up because of a fire we already knew about."
It's not just dispatchers in Box Elder County who are overwhelmed. The Department of Public Safety has seven dispatch centers, and Trotta has seen each one be inundated with calls during fire season.
Even in Richfield, where the Monroe Fire still burns, dispatchers are still getting calls about it.
"There are signs up, there's still smoke up there and how long has that been in the media?" Trotta said. "And we're still getting 911 calls on that."
To help notify the public, Trotta said the agency posts notifications on its apps, social media accounts and even on screens across the state, asking people to stop calling dispatch centers about the fires.
As soon as signs were posted in Box Elder, on Friday, Richards said the calls went from 30 per hour to less than 10.
Both agreed that if you truly think it's an emergency, they don't want to discourage anyone from calling, but if you have a minute before you call, they advise checking social media and apps to see if it's already been called in.
