Emergency call taking is a high-stake situation where errorless decisions must be made under ambiguous, emotionally volatile and time-critical conditions. The primary mean for communication, the telephone, restricts call takers to a single modality—their hearing—making information gathering difficult.  Through an in- situ study, using interviews, observations and archival records, we develop understanding of call takers every day decision practices. Emergency call takers emphasize the role of sociomaterial cues, such as background sounds of the context and emotional cues, referring to the state of the caller, when making sense of emergency calls. More specifically, they engage in matching and mismatching of non-verbal cues, facets that constitute building blocks for decoupled and coupled sensemaking processes. Theoretical and practical implications of such single modal sensemaking are further discussed.