Answering 911: Life In The Hot Seat by Caroline Burau

The only content warning is this is not for the faint of heart!

This book was definitely a 5 star read for me on so many different levels. It takes you into the heart of the most unsung heroes in the emergency services world.

I want to start this out by telling you that I was once in this position and did not handle it with the grace and dignity that Caroline does. Although it did validate the problems I had as a 911 dispatcher and left me feeling better about my stab at being a dispatcher myself! I could totally relate to much of this book.

This books starts with the author feeling that she needed to help people but could not handle the sight of blood when in college to become a nurse. Then she becomes a newspaper writer working the crime beat and the 911 job falls into her lap.

This book is full of the ups and downs that come along with the job. The way people treat you when you are as she calls it a “phleb” or “newbie” by police, firefighters, and your coworkers when you first start. Then the way the callers treat you and the horrific sounds you sometimes hear as a 911 operator and so on.

This job is very intense and leaves you wiped out at the end of a shift. She talks about balancing work and the drain of the job and the eventual burnout that turns you into a red hot mess.

This is a must read for everyone. These people do terrific work that lives with them the rest of their lives. I know it does mine. It is also the kind of job that sucks you in and becomes almost like an addiction. At least it did for me and her as well. I would go back to being a 911 dispatcher in a nanosecond.

I cannot wait to read her follow up book called Tell Me Exactly What Happened: Dispatches from 911!!