Dear editor,

I wanted to register my concern about the lack of police notification while the Mattapoisett boat yard was on fire.

Twice earlier that day, we received automated “emergency calls" from the police indicating first that they were looking for a man wearing only one shoe, and later a call indicating that they had found him. But we never received a call that there was a major five-alarm fire raging in our town, and only learned about the fire when relatives from out of town called us at 5 in the afternoon after they had heard about the fire, wanting to know if we were all right.

Why didn’t the police use their automated calling system to contact all town residents about the fire, even if only to keep us away from the involved streets and to stay alert for any developing events? We never did learn about the emergency presented by the shoeless man.

Michael Scott
Mattapoisett