By Tom Markland, The Journal
MARTINSBURG – The Berkeley County Commission celebrated the addition of 21 new first responders — 12 firefighters and nine emergency telecommunicators — during its regular meeting on Thursday.
Jennifer Swisher, Berkeley County’s emergency communications director, said the addition of nine emergency telecommunicators to her team will be a huge help going forward. The class is one of the largest in the county’s history.
“Those people will pretty much get us almost to where we need to be, minus a few, so it will help us tremendously in that environment,” Swisher said.
The new telecommunicators are set to finish their training and start taking calls around April 25. Throughout their training, they will have taken classes on what to do in emergency medical, police and fire situations.
According to Swisher, the few weeks they have left in training will be spent finalizing many of the things they’ve already learned, as well as learning more about Berkeley County’s geography, so they can better instruct responders on where to go for a call.
