Santa Maria Fire Department asks public not dial 911 for non-emergency calls

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - As the Coronavirus outbreak continues, 911 call centers are seeing more non-emergency calls tying up their phone lines.

The Santa Maria Fire and Police departments are asking people to refrain from calling 911 unless it’s an actual emergency.

“This means any life-threatening conditions, crime in progress, fire and cases like that, then that would help out immensely,” said Chief Tony Clayburg with the Santa Maria Fire Department.

The fire department stocks enough protective equipment such as masks gloves and eye protection, but with the increased call volume, those resources need to be restocked at a greater rate

“We would much rather that people be responsible when calling 911 so it helps us out with our resources as well as our supply of protective equipment that we currently have," said Clayburg.

Clayburg says some of the calls they’re getting are people who want to go straight to the ER out of fear that they might have the coronavirus.

"We don’t want to inundate the ER with people that are not severe. Start with your primary care physician. If you are going to go to the ER, call them first," said Clayburg.

"We urge people to stay home as much as possible, and if they really need to contact the police department we are taking police reports over the phone,' said Sgt. Jay Ruiz with the Santa Maria Police Department.

Clayburg notes that dispatch has a limited number of phone lines.

If they're clogged with non-emergency calls, others with more urgent issues will get a busy signal.