By Emma Seiwell, Leonard Greene
New York Daily News
NEW YORK 鈥� For every there鈥檚 a plucky FDNY dispatcher whose institutional knowledge of New York City鈥檚 neighborhoods saves the day.
Such was the case last week when a to a remote wooded area in on Staten Island where an 18-year-old got stuck in about 3 feet of mud while walking two dogs with his sister.
Although it was firefighters from that ultimately made the rescue, it was a pair of calm dispatchers that did the heavy lifting and got them to the right place.
鈥淚鈥檓 familiar with the area,鈥� said Fire Alarm Dispatcher Frank Festa, 32, who took the 911 call before getting help from his supervisor, Matt Scullin, 46.
The call came into their workstation across the street from the MetroTech in downtown Brooklyn . But, as luck would have it, both dispatchers just so happen to live on Staten Island.
鈥淚鈥檓 not as familiar with the area as Matt is,鈥� Festa said. 鈥淏ut I have been on the trail, yeah.鈥�
Under normal circumstances, Festa wouldn鈥檛 even have gotten the call.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a system to how it works,鈥� Festa explained at a news conference near the rescue site on Wednesday. 鈥淪o, basically, Staten Island has one call-taker. So, if that call-taker is busy, the calls can鈥檛 not go anywhere. They have to go somewhere. So they鈥檒l bounce to Brooklyn. So the call-taker on Staten Island happened to be on another call, so I was the Brooklyn call-taker. It bounced to me. The call always goes somewhere. That鈥檚 how it landed on my desk.鈥�
Festa said a woman on the other end of the line frantically described how they got lost on a trail while walking their dogs, and that her brother was stuck in mud at around 7:30 p.m. Thursday as darkness descended on the woods.
鈥淭hey tried to take a shortcut, and they got themselves in a situation,鈥� Scullin said. 鈥淛ust fortunately, the two of us, both of us being borough residents and using these areas, we knew exactly where they were.
鈥淢y sister-in-law, Leslie, actually just had us up there in the fall for a family hike,鈥� Scullin added. 鈥淪o we just took a walk up through those woods not too long ago.鈥�
The dispatchers managed to keep the caller and her brother calm while directing firefighters to a streetcorner that had easy access to the wooded area for one fire company to walk in through. The dispatchers could also hear the company鈥檚 sirens through the caller鈥檚 phone to let them know the rescue team was getting close.
When firefighters arrived, they found the teen stuck thigh-high in some deep, muddy water.
鈥淗e had his dog, and he couldn鈥檛 move,鈥� one of the rescuers, Firefighter Michael O鈥橦alloran, 50, said. 鈥淪o we had to go in there and help him out. He was very nervous. He was scared, and he was scared for his dog also. He didn鈥檛 want to let his dog go, but we had to take the dog from him to get him up. And he was stuck. He was stuck in there pretty good.鈥�
said he has a soft spot for Fire Department dispatchers. Tucker can trace his FDNY roots back to the early 1980s, when, during his first-ever job as a summer intern in the department, he fetched coffee and mapped fires across the five boroughs while working in the dispatchers鈥� office.
鈥淢ake no mistake about it,鈥� Tucker said, 鈥渙ur fire-alarm dispatchers are an integral part of the lifesaving missions of the FDNY, and often our unsung heroes don鈥檛 get the attention that they deserve. But I鈥檓 very proud of the work that they do.鈥�
The kudos were a nice contrast to recent hindering firefighting efforts.
Tucker said he relishes an emergency with a happy ending.
鈥淭his call is a great example of the amazing institutional knowledge that our fire-alarm dispatchers and fire companies have,鈥� Tucker said. 鈥淭he FDNY is in your communities every single day, and we cannot stress how important our community activity is when we are there. It literally saves lives.鈥�
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