"If I panic, he doesn't live." That's what Amy Blair, a Blount County E-911 dispatcher, kept thinking on Jan. 28 when she helped save a man who was trapped in a burning house on Old Niles Ferry Road.

While Blount County firefighters and deputies were trying to find the man in the burning house, Blair kept the man on the line and told him to bang on the wall so that emergency personnel could find him.

Blair "kept him calm the best she could" and "kept him on the phone for 13 minutes," said Jeff Caylor, Blount County Communications Center director.

"One minute seems like 10 minutes" in that type of situation, Caylor said. "Amy was very calm -- she did an outstanding job on that."

Blair said the man "was hysterical," but once he realized the critical situation he was in, he listened to every word as she told him "step by step" how to keep himself alive in the burning house. She said she was nervous for the man, but remained calm so she could help him.

Blair's efforts were recognized Thursday when she received the Lifesaving Award in celebration of National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week.