The Seneca County Emergency Services department is located at the Public Safety Building, 126 Hopewell Ave.

The office encompasses Emergency Medical Services, Emergency Management Agency, the countywide 9-1-1 system, radio communications and local emergency planning.

Check out the department’s website here.

EMS

The Emergency Medical Services system features seven squads out of five different joint ambulance districts. The department supplies all hardware, equipment, medical direction, protocol, administrative details, training and oversight for the districts. Personnel includes about 120 people, mostly volunteers.

The squads see about 1,500 runs annually, transporting about 1,000 patients. Areas covered include 10 townships and five villages.

EMA

The Emergency Management Agency is responsible for disaster management, planning, mitigation, training and hardening of infrastructure to make people more resilient to emergencies or disasters. The organization focuses on disaster management. The entity responds to floods, tornadoes, power outages, terrorism etc.

EMA manages the Wireless Emergency Notification System, or WENS, which is used to notify the public in case of an emergency. To sign up for those notifications, click here.

9-1-1 system

The emergency services department manages the public safety answering points for the 9-1-1 system, of which there are three in the county (Tiffin Police Department, Fostoria Police Department and Seneca County Sheriff’s Office). This duty involves the call management for landline and wireless 9-1-1 calls. The department manages the hardware, infrastructure and software the 9-1-1 runs on. The dispatchers work directly with the system, while the department makes sure that it works.

Radio communications

The emergency services office handles the radio communications for dispatching police, fire and EMS. There are four radio tower sites throughout the county (in Tiffin, Bascom, Republic and Attica). The department manages those sites by doing everything from cutting the weeds to going inside and making sure the temperature is appropriate for the equipment. Regular inspections and testing of all equipment are done monthly.

The department also administers and tests the outdoor warning sirens in the county. These are tested monthly.

Links to recent stories related to the department:

Bloomville family recognized for bravery

Emergency notification system launched

County EMS receives funding to help children