When a 911 call came into Parma Regional Dispatch on an early morning, it was anything but routine. A mother and her young child were trapped in their home as flames spread through the building. Dispatcher Hillary Sakacs took the call just minutes before the end of her shift, while colleagues Keisha Krody and Jordan Mlady scrambled to verify the address and guide responders.
The caller, calm for her child’s sake, gave an address that mapping systems couldn’t verify. Without visible smoke to guide them, first responders searched the area while dispatchers worked to pinpoint the correct location.
That’s when RapidSOS made the difference.
Keisha Krody recalls:
For Keisha, the call hit even harder: “I’m a new mom, so when I heard a child was trapped, it got personal fast. You have to turn that off to stay calm, but it never leaves you.”
Working side by side, the team pieced together the caller’s descriptions with RapidSOS location data. Dispatchers relayed exact visuals — the business in front, the garage behind — guiding officers and firefighters to the right spot. Within moments of arriving at the correct window, crews made contact with the mother and child.
“Once units were on scene, it took about a minute to find them and get them out,” Hillary recalls. “Hearing her say, ‘They’re at my window’ — I felt so happy and relieved.”
For Jordan, who grew up in a firefighting family, the incident reinforced why RapidSOS is indispensable.
TJ Martin, manager of the center and a retired firefighter, was monitoring the dispatch floor from his office as the call unfolded. “There were no visible flames yet, no large smoke header to guide crews. Without RapidSOS, we would have been searching blind. With it, dispatchers pinpointed the house with pillar accuracy. Two people are alive today because of their quick actions and the technology in their hands.”
The teamwork was seamless. As Hillary kept the caller calm and relayed updates, Keisha and Jordan cross-referenced tools, and fire dispatch verified RapidSOS coordinates over the radio. The atmosphere in the room was tense but focused. “Everybody clicked into go-mode,” Keisha said. “It was intense, but cohesive. We all knew what needed to be done.”
In less than a minute after firefighters located the house, both victims were pulled to safety.
