Raleigh County first responders and emergency personnel had a very busy year.
Richard Filipek, of the Raleigh County Emergency Operations Center (EOC), provided Raleigh County Commissioners with the annual EOC activities report during their Dec. 7 meeting.
According to Filipek, a total of 135,163 calls were received by the EOC. 53,979 calls were through 911 and 81,184 calls were administrative.
The total calls dispatched for service stands at 76,306 and includes the following:
-Raleigh County Sheriff’s Department: 21,924;
-West Virginia State Police: 2,132;
-Beckley Police Department: 30,802;
-Sophia Police Department: 3,251;
-Lester Police Department: 257;
-Mabscott Police Department: 521.
The Raleigh County Sheriff’s Department responded to a total of 2,825 traffic stop calls and 512 extra patrol calls. The Beckley Police Department responded to 5,314 traffic stop calls and 7,443 extra patrol calls, Filipek said. In addition to law enforcement calls, the 911 center dispatched Raleigh County Animal Control 1,973 times.
Emergency Management Service (EMS) calls total 15,024, county fire department calls total 5,774 and city of Beckley Fire Department calls total 2,921.
Filipek added that EMS continues to work with those at the Raleigh County Health Department to provide assistance regarding the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We have coordinated, throughout the year, 20 vaccine clinics,” Filipek said. Those clinics were conducted at the Raleigh County Armory and Convention Center.
Raleigh County EOC has also provided training exercises to ensure that first responders are ready should a disaster happen.
“We developed several exercises, including a full-scale disaster exercise at the Raleigh County Memorial Airport in which a plane crash was simulated with multiple injuries,” he continued.
Lastly, Filipek said that they continue to operate the Southern West Virginia Deployment Center–a statewide and federal resource to manage and deploy first responders to the nine counties in West Virginia Homeland Security Region 5. Those counties include Raleigh, Fayette, Greenbrier, McDowell, Mercer, Monroe, Nicholas, Summers and Wyoming.
“So, as you can see, we have been very busy,” Filipek told commissioners.
Raleigh County Commission President Dave Tolliver responded “I’d say that mildly.”
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