2021 Report on Worcester Mass FD

[zerg901]

20210922ccm ( 43) : Worcester Mass : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

pg 196 of 258 - maybe mutual aid info is missing

132 MB

pg 219 of 258 - seek quiet stations - all stations hear all calls all day long

no mention of TRS nor portable radios

EOC is at PSAP

Fire Station 15 is backup PSAP - Sta 3 is backup EOC

10 stations - 13 engines + 7 ladders + 1 heavy rescue + 3 cross staffed units

very extensive info about the FD and city

dispatch time is just over 1 minute but turnout time is very bad at 3 minutes

 

[nikronzo]

interesting read, I listen to WFD every day on my scanner, and a lot of what was mentioned radio-wise is true from the listener's perspective.

On page 116 it discussed that firefighters were having trouble hearing info cause the chiefs may be on the wrong talkgroup. I've noticed that throughout the department radio comms, people are very often transmitting on the wrong TG and don't know until fire alarm notifies them. And even then, fire alarm has trouble raising the unit

Also, the issue regarding all the stations hearing the dispatch's are interesting because I believe when the EDACS system was in place, they had TG's that paged out the stations specifically assigned to the call, don't quote me on that.

I guess no mention of the TRS means it's working out well reliability-wise?

 

[jbella]

That consulting company made an awful lot of money without saying anything.

 

[zerg901]

The report was VERY interesting. Have never seen one quite like it. Worcester has a very very well funded FD; yet they have had multiple firefighter deaths in recent years. The city has large numbers of large hazardous structures (as documented in the report). But many cities have similar threats.

The report cost $1K iirc which would be approx 1/400th of the FD budget. That is a small sum relatively speaking.

Whenever we listen to Worcester FD via a scanner feed, it seems that the vast majority of radio messages are passed seamlessly. Apparently the 800 Mhz TRS does have very good coverage in the city.

Massachusetts Public Safety - Radio Ramblings May 2001 - wrote this in 2001 - zero attention in 20 years

 

[nikronzo]

Apparently the 800 Mhz TRS does have very good coverage in the city.

Yes, It does! The 800 trunk provides excellent coverage within the city limits, but a few mins out of the city to the north or west it gets spotty. However, you can travel all the way out east to berlin or Marlborough and the trunk comes in like you are in the middle of the city. Moto did a great buildout out for Worcester and it seems to be holding up very well after 5 years

 

[izzyj4]

3 minute turnout time bad? That is the national average for a career department after dispatch.

 

[garys]

That's what consultants do.

That consulting company made an awful lot of money without saying anything.

 

[BoxAlarm187]

3 minute turnout time bad? That is the national average for a career department after dispatch.

Good lord, my two departments would be investigating if you're taking longer than 1:30 to get out of the door during the day.

 

[nikronzo]

3 minute turnout time bad? That is the national average for a career department after dispatch.

i dont even know where they got the number from, I've seen WFD get out of quarters in 45 seconds for a structure

 

[garys]

I work with a number of departments (not Worcester) and have been there when they get called out. During the day 45 seconds is possible, but a minute+ is more likely. At night, it's likely to be two minutes or a bit more.

i dont even know where they got the number from, I've seen WFD get out of quarters in 45 seconds for a structure

 

[zerg901]

one of my alltime YouTube favorites ... just over 1 minute

 

[nikronzo]

this is a good one of Worcester responding, pretty good rollout time

 

[zerg901]

In regards to missed radio messages due to radios being on the wrong talkgroups -

Memphis TN possibly used dynamic regrouping to solve this problem

Boston Fire formerly had all portables on Channel 2 and all mobiles on Channel 1 circa 1984 to 1994

Some cities use their main radio channel as their fireground channel ; and tell the non responding units to go to a secondary channel

FDNY uses a single channel as the citywide primary fireground channel ; it is the home channel for all portable radios ; apparatus drivers and chiefs aides serve as relays between the fireground channel and the borough channel

Some dispatchers make multiple announcements when a fireground channel is assigned to an incident

 

[nikronzo]

so Worcester dispatches on TG4443 WFD dispatch and only that TG, sometimes fire alarm will call companies on fire admin TG as well. But the typical protocol is any incidents assigned to car 3 (northend) goes to TG OPS A, and car 4 (south division) goes to TG OPS B. There's also TG OPS C for single company responses and OPS D, TAC10, TAC11 are overflow/training. There's also TAC12 which is full encryption, they use this pretty rarely tho.

Essentially it comes down to companies and chiefs checking their portables/mobiles for the right TG assigned by fire alarm