Justin Dole’s SWNH Alerts & Info Facebook page is a go-to site to learn about fires, car accidents or similar events in the Monadnock region, as he is frequently on the scene of incidents taking pictures or publishing scanner alerts.

“He just spends his whole life helping people, and he loves it,” said his sister Katie Warner, who nominated the 38-year-old Peterborough resident and ConVal graduate as the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript Hometown Hero for November.

Dole said he got started with a group of people in 2013 before going on his own in 2014. At first, he said it was a getaway because he was working so much.

“It just turned into something people liked,” he said.

Between a cancer diagnosis in 2019 and COVID the next year, Dole was unable to work, so he threw himself even more into the site.

“It gave me a way to get up and move around and have a purpose,” he said, adding that he is now cancer-free. “I took my hobby during the pandemic and made it my job.”

Although he gets some help – and Warner said he refers to “we” a lot when talking about the site – Dole mostly runs SWNH Alerts & Info solo. He uses a scanner given to him by one of the local fire departments to keep abreast of local fire and police news. Scanner items get posted via text alerts that post to Facebook automatically, and Dole said he spends 10 to 15 hours a week working on the site.

“Sometimes you hear something interesting, and sometimes you don’t,” he said.

As an example of how he decides what incidents to go to, he said at this time of year, a report of smoke coming out of a building is often a furnace problem, so he keeps listening to see if there is anything more to it. If he hears a call for mutual aid, he will head to the scene – which he said he typically does three times a week – and if there’s nothing there, he goes home. 

Dole said he has relationships with the Bennington, Greenfield and Peterborough fire departments that allow him to work on the scene of an incident. Peterborough Fire Chief Ed Walker said the department has developed a good rapport with Dole, and that he knows what is safe and not safe and to  avoid taking pictures of injured people or driver’s license plates.

“He has a great love for the fire service,” Walker said, adding that Dole’s work shows the department in a good light and that, “He’s just got a heart of gold. He’s a really good guy. Everything he’s doing, he’s doing for the sake of the community.”

In the other towns, Dole said, “I don’t go out wandering in towns that haven’t invited me,” but at incidents such as the tractor-trailer fire in Jaffrey earlier this month, he knows where he can go to take photos.

Recent posts on SWNH Alerts & Info include scanner calls from Milford, Acworth and Jaffrey, a thank-you post from the Winchester Fire Department for a good Samaritan who assisted on a call and the latest arrests from Operation Granite Shield Arrests. The site also includes a link to a GoFundMe to support a Hillsborough resident who had been in a car accident, along with Dole’s latest endeavor, the “Monadnock Strong” campaign.

Monadnock Strong began in September, after three motor vehicle crashes within 16 hours killed four people 21 and younger and injured three others. Dole posted a picture of a candle on Facebook, which led to a suggestion to do a T-shirt campaign for the victims’ families. Since then, the program has expanded, and Dole is working with Monadnock Print & Embroidery to raise funds for others in need.

“I wanted to give back, and I just didn’t have a platform for a while, and now I do,” he said.