I guess you've never heard of 911? Before 911 came along that is what you done,call the local fire department,ems or law enforcement agency direct.Fast forward to 2009. Brunswick county 911 is the PSAP for BSL...oh PSAP means "public safety answering point". We answer your call, enter in the address,phone number,name of caller and type of emergency into our cad system CAD "computer aided dispatch"..this is all done on an average of less that 40 seconds. The information is routed to all the computers in the room, the dispatcher who is working FIRE will immediatly dispatch BSL or Sunny Point or Southport fire or any other fire department needed; depending where you live to the location of the emergency.From beginning to end this takes on average less than 90 seconds. Why BSL fire told you to call 911; should've done that to start with...BSL is not a paid deparment, you just got lucky that someone was there to answer the phone. By calling 911 BSL has a log of the call, all the times needed for their report that is sent into the State..Could they have rolled an engine and told us what they were going to...yes but that would take up more time than you simply calling 911 to start with. 911 saves time and lives...never hesitate to call it. We are on the job 24/7/365, nights,weekends and holidays.