FIRE DEPARTMENT DISPATCHING

[Thunderbolt]

I used to live in a town with a volunteer fire dept.
The house across the street from the fire dept. burned to the ground...

Many years ago near Sikeston, Missouri a house burned to the ground as the volunteer fire company stood around and watched it burn from the road. Apparently, the owners of the house did not pay a fee of some kind to the FD, and since it was not endangering the neighboring property, they just let go up in flames. The tone-outs when off just fine and everyone responded per their department's protocol, but when they confirmed the address as being "non-payers" the chief decided that since everyone was out of the house, just to let it burn.

I am sure that would not go over too well in other states?

73's

Ron

 

[Colin9690]

Geez. I've never heard anything about a fire department as bizzarre as that.

 

[LEH]

Actually, it's not all that uncommon. I'm not sure of things now, but in the mid 70's when I was stationed at Davis Monthan AFB in Tucson, the county fire dept was (and still is, for the MOST part) Rural Metro. Rural is a privately owned company that contracted with individual home owners. If you didn't subscribe, Rural had no obligation to put out your fire. They would respond to protect surrounding residences who did subscribe if need be.

This may have changed over the past thirty years as the areas where Rural had primary response have grown significantly. I know the number of stations has grown.

Please keep on thing in mind. Rural Metro is a large company now and how they respond may differ from area to area. The city of Scottsdale has a contract with Rural for fire protection. When I was living in Tucson, Pima County did not have a contract with Rural for anything other than medic response.

So don't start flaming because things have changed or aren't done that way in your area of Rural support.

Merry Christmas

 

[johnvassel]

I have another question for you guys. When i am listening to a rural dept on my scanner, after they are dispatched, they say things like liutenant 361, or Captain 441 is responding. Why dont they say Ladder, Engine, or whetever responding? Does this mean they are respond in their personal vehicle to the station, then get in the fire trucks?

Thanks Again

When we are toned, first radio call is to let dispatch know we're clear on the call (it's been heard, and somone is doing something about it).
Often times, this will just be a unit #. We will then let dispatch know the unit number of the first rig enroute. Our county dispatch only tracks first rig out, so additional rigs will 'check in' but get no acknowledgement from dispatch. All of our county depts follow a standardized (somewhat) numbering sequence, and each dept submits a roster to dispatch.
711, for example, would be our engine. 911 would be our neighboring depts engine.

john

 

[BoxAlarm187]

We will then let dispatch know the unit number of the first rig enroute. Our county dispatch only tracks first rig out, so additional rigs will 'check in' but get no acknowledgement from dispatch.

I'v heard of departments doing this, and it bothers me. What happens if a rig is involved in an MVA enroute to the call, and the personnel on board are not able to call for help, how is the dispatcher going to know which rig it might be? Not too silly - it's happened in my arera.

Furthermore, if the IC misses a unit marking enroute, it's going to be tough for him to call the dispatcher for a list of the apparatus responding, if the dispatcher doesn't keep record of it.

Not trying to bash you or your department/county's way of doing things, it's just a real pet peeve of mine.

 

[johnvassel]

We will then let dispatch know the unit number of the first rig enroute. Our county dispatch only tracks first rig out, so additional rigs will 'check in' but get no acknowledgement from dispatch.

I'v heard of departments doing this, and it bothers me. What happens if a rig is involved in an MVA enroute to the call, and the personnel on board are not able to call for help, how is the dispatcher going to know which rig it might be? Not too silly - it's happened in my arera.

Furthermore, if the IC misses a unit marking enroute, it's going to be tough for him to call the dispatcher for a list of the apparatus responding, if the dispatcher doesn't keep record of it.

Not trying to bash you or your department/county's way of doing things, it's just a real pet peeve of mine.

I dont consider it bashing. It's not our departments idea of how to run things, but county dispatch runs the dispatch show. Some area departments will man their station, and have someone inhouse dispatch after the initial call. However county dispatch is still needed for mutual aide toneouts, utilities, etc. Most of the depts manning thier stations on runs have retires or fire groupies, who are happy to do what they can.
As far as a rig wrecking, first out is tracked, following units are just tracked by our IC on the first out, via radio. Not a perfect system, but if we roll 'all we have' we're only talking about 5 vehicles anyways.
We do allright. Unfortunately dispatch seems to be a necessary evil far more than they seem to be a helpful entity. More than one incident in our county at a time, and rudeness seems to become the norm

john

 

[fire4456]

HELLO I would like to add to this being a former dispatcher in St. Joe county Indiana and a current FF/EMT-P with the city of elkhart and also a volunteer with cleveland twp. I used to be in st. joe co also as a ff and they had gone through and eliminated the individual departments id's and issued a standard numbering system. This eliminated any confusion to the dispatcher as to who it was since many departments would have engine 1 and so on. Elkhart county has this problem now for the county departments since dispatch tones out all but 3 departments in this county(goshen, elkhart, nappanee). All chiefs are 101 and there are numerous runovers for numbers to top it off this county has several private channels and the dispatchers get confused as wee as 2 different bands uhf-vhf. If you all would like to see how it really works or listen you can scan st joe county if you are in the area. 154.250 pl of 123. Go to their page and look for the numbering assignment at the bottom of the page. This is how it should be cause it does work. :shock:

BOXALARM NICE LOGO

EVERYBODY HAVE A SAFE HOLIDAY

 

[ashcake327]

I am a firefighter/EMT and in my local county we have paid staff from 6am-6pm Mon-Fri. Volunteers have the rest of the time. We have assigned duty crews so that there is always somebody there. We have a CAD system which tells the dispatcher who, and what specialty units to dispatch. (We have 12 fire stations, and 4 rescue squads) For instance We have 4 trucks in our county and my station is one of them. On a working hous fire in our first due our station woyuld be dispatched followed by the 2nd due etc. etc. and then the specialty pieces would be dispatched so it would be dispatched like this. "Station 6, 10, 7, Truck 6, Air Utiliy, and Fire Admin for working Residential..." Every station then has 5 minutes to get a unit out, and this goes for the speciallty pieces to. We always have an on duty Battalion Chief. After 5 minutes the station is toned out for a second time and so is there replacement. If there is a working house fire then units from other fire houses will be dispatched to stage at the fire houses whose units are on the fire and will be tied up for a long time, the same holds true for a bad car accident/extrication. We have a tradition at my fire house and it is that every christmas day we have a working house fire and it has not been broken yet.