IN AN EMERGENCY, CALL 911

There’s no denying it—emergency services in Vermont are confusing to those not involved in the business of providing the services. Yet knowing who, what, when, where, and how emergency services are provided in this rural area is of utmost concern and importance to each and every one of us. Here’s how it works:

When you need emergency assistance, call 911 immediately. A trained emergency dispatcher will talk to you about the nature of the problem and your location. (All areas around Townshend have “Enhanced 911”, which means that the emergency dispatcher knows where you are calling from—unless you’re calling on a cell phone—but his or her job includes verifying that the emergency is at this exact location.) At the same time, the dispatcher will be “toning out” the First Response Squad that covers your location. The more information that you can have available for the dispatcher, the better he or she will be able to help you—the accuracy of the information you provide may even help to save a life, so try to stay as calm as possible.

Every town in southeastern Vermont is covered by a volunteer or paid First Response or Rescue squad. The First Response squads can do exactly what their name implies—because they are in or near the town in which the emergency has occurred, they can respond most quickly. Their job is to stabilize the patient. Whenever a First Response squad is called out, an ambulance is also called by the dispatcher. First Response squads are not permitted, by law, to transport patients from the scene of the emergency. Grace Cottage in the Townshend area, LeFevre in the Bellows Falls area and Rescue, Inc. in the Brattleboro area are all Transport Ambulance services. The Transport Ambulance will take the patient to the nearest appropriate facility for his or her condition—it may be Grace Cottage, Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, or even Dartmouth Hitchcock in Lebanon. In certain situations, the helicopter to Dartmouth will be called, and the ambulance will meet the helicopter in a designated location.

Emergency and ambulance services are regulated and overseen by the Vermont Department of Health, EMS Division. For more information on emergency service in your southeastern Vermont town, contact us via the website.