MEDFORD, Ore. – While we hope you are enjoying your time with friends and family, this Christmas, we wanted to shed some light on emergency services who are still working this holiday.
Emergency Communications of Southern Oregon Supervisor, Sarah Leonard said,
“All of the 911 calls in Jackson County and Crater Lake come into this center and then from there we handle it or sometimes transfer it to Oregon State Police if it’s a traffic complaint on the freeway or something like that.”
The holidays don’t stop the work at the ECSO in Medford.
Leonard says that emergencies can happen anywhere, at any time and their job is to ensure that help is on the way.
Leonard said,
“We come to our shift and basically we’re just ready for whatever could happen, it could be you helping someone with CPR instructions, or it could be that we get into a multi- agency police allude, so we just kind of got to be ready for anything and luckily we’re trained well enough that we could handle any of that.”
The ECSO team work long shifts and take hundreds of calls per day.
Leonard says that this time of year can be dangerous on the road, based off of the calls they get.
She said,
“We do sometimes see an increase in motor vehicle crashes because of impaired driving, so that’s something we take into consideration and we’re more prepared for that and we have those frequently. But usually, the impaired driving happens during the holidays and so we’re ready for those.”
The team all work together to respond to callers, but still try to keep the holiday spirit alive in the building.
Leonard says that she’s proud of the team and the hard work they always put in, holiday or otherwise.
“The group of people in this building that I get to work with and I’m very honored to work with them, have servant’s hearts. And they are happy to be here on the holiday. They’ve made arrangements with their own families to have Christmas on a different day or to celebrate it on a different day.”
The ECSO lines are always open to respond to your emergencies.
For more information, you can go to their website.
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