Here is how AMR Irwindale (San Gabriel Valley) works:
Their main station is located on Vincent Avenue just north of Arrow Highway. It is from this station that all of the non-24 hour guys work from, all CCT (Critical Care Transport), all Paramedic units (which really only provide CCT-type services) and all sup’s work from.
There is 1 24 hour station that serves Walnut and Diamond Bar. This station is located just off Brea Canyon, behind the Farmer Boys restaurant. This station became active in 2004. There used to be 3 24 hour stations (Monrovia, Claremont and Diamond Bar/Walnut) however, Monrovia and Claremont closed down in 2005 when AMR lost the majority of their “FIRE” contracts to Schaefer.
For the non-24 guys, they usually work 9 or 11.5 hour shifts, 5 and 4 days respectively. All sup’s work 24 hour schedules.
The non-24 hour guys “go available” from Irwindale station and are sent to “posts” by dispatch. A “post” is literally just a street corner and is NOT attached to any specific fire station. The “post” is intended to cover a certain range. For instance, “Santa Anita and the 10 freeway” is intended to cover all of El Monte, Rosemead and Temple City. There is a “post” at Rosemead and the 10 freeway however, it is only used for “high levels”, meaning there are an abundance of units available.
The “posts” are strategic and dependent on the number of units available. As the levels decrease, the remaining available units move around to lower level “posts” which are designed to cover even more areas. For example, prior to losing most of their contracts to Schaefer, a popular “low level post” was “Grand and Arrow Highway”. This post would literally cover everything between the 57 and 605 freeway’s, north of the 10 freeway. So, that pretty much covered stations 32, 97, 151, 152,153, 154, 48, 85, 86, 141 and 64. Another one was "Valley Blvd and the 605" freeway, covering ALL of Industry, La Puente, Baldwin Park, El Monte, Hacienda Heights, Rosemead, Duarte, etc. This was a truly "low level" post and if a unit was posted there, the chances were high that that particular unit was the only one available. With this type of system, units are constantly on the move and rarely spend a whole lot of time at one place. In fact, it is not unusual to start your day somewhere like El Monte and end it in San Dimas, having run a call with pretty much every squad between those two cities.
With the exception of the Antelope Valley, dispatch is on 47 mhz and the MDT’s work off of Nextel/Sprint cell sites. Also, units are equipped with a Nextel that allows them to talk to dispatch, unit-to-unit and the sup’s.
All San Gabriel Valley units are 8xxxx, with “xxx” being a unit ID. So, a general BLS unit posting on the street corner would be “83xx” or “8301”, “8302”, etc. The CCT guys are 81xx. The sup’s are ALWAYS “FS801”, as there is only ever 1 supervisor on at a time.
Contrary to popular belief, AMR units do NOT have the ability to talk directly to L.A. County Fire. They are not equipped with UHF or VHF radios. So, if they need to pass information to a responding squad or engine, they do so via dispatch and dispatch relays the info to LAcoFD Dispatch, who then relays the info to the responding unit. Also, units are not equipped with portable radios. Every employee is issued an alphanumeric pager. When a call is dispatched, basic information is simultaneously sent to the pagers of the 2 employees assigned to that specific ambulance. So, if they are out of the ambulance eating and receive a call, their pagers alert them. They also receive new "post" assignments, overtime slots, etc. from this pager. In fact, every morning around 0630, a page goes out notifying off-duty people of available overtime for that particular day.
Dispatch used to be located in the Toyota building off the 110 and 91 freeways however, they moved to Antelope Valley in 2005, after AMR lost the contracts.
Hope this info helps!
