PAW PAW, W.Va. — The Paw Paw Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company will be dispatched solely by Morgan County 911 beginning at 12 a.m. on Friday, May 1, 2009. All calls for emergencies-only should be requested by dialing 911.

Emergencies are defined as events needing immediate response by Emergency Medical Services (EMS) ambulances, fire department services, or law enforcement officers. If a citizen does not need an immediate response, then they should use a non-emergency telephone number for the respective EMS, fire, or law enforcement agency.

Telephone numbers for non-emergencies include (304) 258-1067 for the sheriff’s office; 258-0305 to report controlled burns; 258-0000 for the West Virginia State Police, and (304) 947-7644 for the Paw Paw Volunteer Fire & Rescue Company station offices. All of the non-emergency numbers are listed in the first pages of the telephone directories.

Cellular telephone users in Morgan County should preprogram their cell phones with the emergency telephone number (304) 258-9911 to ensure that their calls for emergency events within Morgan County are routed to the Morgan County 911 Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) in Berkeley Springs. Cell phone users who dial 911 often connect with a cell tower site outside of Morgan County, and those calls are usually directed to other 911 PSAPs, which can cause timely delays for dispatching the quickest appropriate response agencies.

Hampshire County citizens on the Paw Paw 947 telephone exchange already have their 911 calls routed directly to the Hampshire County 911 PSAP. Hampshire County has already authorized Paw Paw Volunteer Fire & Rescue Company 32 as the first due fire and EMS agency in extreme northeastern Hampshire County, including areas near Largent, Pin Oak, Okonoko and Woodrow.

While Morgan County 911 has been dispatching the Paw Paw Police Department since 2001, the Paw Paw Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company has been dual dispatched by both Allegany County, Md., and Morgan County 911.

The emergency dispatching duties of Allegany County Civil Defense later became Allegany County 911 in the 1970s. They once provided emergency dispatching services for Allegany County, and significant parts of Bedford County, Pa., Garrett County, Md., Hampshire and Mineral counties in West Virginia and Paw Paw Volunteer Fire & Rescue Company 32 in Morgan County.

Although an old 947-5911 emergency telephone line to Allegany County 911 will be kept in service until Dec. 31, 2009, citizens using landlines should dial 911 for emergencies, and citizens using cell phones for emergencies within Morgan County should use (304) 258-9911 to ensure that their emergency call is properly routed to Morgan County 911, although cell phone callers can dial 911 also.

The citizens of Morgan County wish to thank Allegany County 911 for their unwavering support and services over the last three decades, a Morgan County 911 spokesman said.