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9-1-1 dispatcher coordinates rescue of elderly couple trapped in burning home

It was a frigid night on Jan. 22 when Coffee County Communication Center dispatcher Angela Cook took a call from an elderly couple trapped on the second floor of their burning house on Roberts Ridge Road.

The caller was senior citizen, Donna Slipher, who was confined to a Hover Round wheelchair.

Working a graveyard shift that snowy night, Cook knew that responding emergency personnel would be slow getting to the scene due to icy roads. She had to help the lady find a way outside the fire.

“The husband (Darrell Slipher), was trying to put the fire out,” Cook said. “I stayed on the phone with the wife, and then the house, it went fast.”

According the couple’s daughter Holly Slipher, herself a dispatcher, the parents were awakened by the family pet, a Chihuahua named Baby Bear. Holly Slipher wrote 9-1-1 Director Scott LeDuc a letter praising the Cook for her efforts during the fire.

Cook, unfamiliar with the layout of the home, listened as the elderly women explained the situation.

“I had to stay on the phone with her, encouraged her to go down the stairs,” Cook recalled. “At one point she had to crawl through flames to get out. While their pets were passing away.”

“It was a pretty hard call,” Cook confided.

Cooks said once outside Darrell worked to get his injured wife off the porch and away from their burning home. They then had to stand in the bone-numbing cold until rescuers arrived.

“The roads were really bad. First responders were sliding off the roads in diches everywhere trying to get out there,” Cook said.

“She was an elderly woman, I believe in her 80s, they didn’t have cell phones,” Cook said. “I just told her to put the (house) phone in her pocket and scoot. “She went down two flights of stairs like that.”

In a letter commemorating the efforts of Cook in saving her parents’ lives, the couple’s daughter recognizes her fellow dispatcher for keeping calm and insisting that her mother stay on the line.

Cook said that she was the 9-1-1 dispatch that night, so while on the line with the Slipher, she was coordinating getting volunteer fire departments, EMS and sheriff department to the scene.

“We also had to set up an LZ (landing zone) for Lifeflight. I was sitting 9-1-1 that night, so whoever has to pretty much dispatch everything,” Cook said.

“We actually had to set up multiple LZs that night,” she said. “They were going to set up on a boat ramp, but it was too icy. They had to move two or three times to land and pick her up,” she said.

“You never know what you’re going to get when you answer that phone,” Cook said. “It’s call by call.”

Some callers are frantic when the situation is mundane, yet others the caller can be seemingly when the situation is dire. It’s the dispatcher experience that helps them through.

“We are the original first responders,” she said. “A lot of the information that gets out in the public is when someone messes up. We don’t really get recognized for the good that we do.”

Dispatchers talk to people when they are their worst. Frantic voices on the line, shouts and screams — pleas for help, but what goes out on the radio out must be clear, quick and correct assessment in order for the right help to get there.

“I always tell them I need you to calm down so you can help me help you,” Cook said. “I encourage them to take deep breaths and then give me the information.”

“The biggest thing is to stay calm, your calmness bleeds through,” she added.

“Angela’s quick thinking and decisive actions undoubtedly saved lives that night,” said 911 Director Scott LeDuc. “Her exemplary performance under pressure epitomizes the dedication and professionalism of our telecommunicators, who are often the unsung heroes behind the scenes of emergencies.”

Cook said that dispatchers replay calls, analyzing the what-ifs to see what else they could have done.

“Afterwards, it was just an adrenaline dump,” she said. “I knew she made it out, but I knew the house was fully engulfed. I know they lost all their pets and all their belongings. Their whole life just went up.”

“Three generations of a home is gone in seconds and you just have to sit there. Especially when someone is begging you to help them, all you can do is encourage them that help is on the way. And stay calm. You’re the calm voice on the phone,” Cook said.

A Go Fund Me has been setup to help the family at www.gofundme.com/f/relief-fund-for-holly-slipher.