Orange 911 paging

[sc800]

Has there been a policy shift in how Orange 911 pages out fire agencies?

It used to be something like "Attention Anytown Fire, respond to 123 Main Street for a reported structure fire, repeating to Anytown Fire Department, respond 123 Main Street, Railroad Ave and Smith street on the cross for a reported structure fire...fire in the basement"

Now its:


"Anytown, MVA with injuries, Smith and Main...repeating...Anytown MVA with injuries, Smith Road and Main Street"

The new one gets the information out quicker, but it sounds very rushed, especially when the dispatcher is speaking a mile a minute, and a volunteer who has their pager turned low, or who is talking to some one else might miss half of the page before they realize it

 

[GTR8000]

Good, it's about time they streamlined the dispatching. Keep it short and sweet, there is no need for all that other BS like "attention". Yes, you sounded our tones, we know you want our attention.

Now they just need to stop classifying everything as a "Possible structure fire", it's getting ridiculous. "Burnt toast" is not a structural fire.

PS - The pagers have a playback function for a reason. If your pager is too low to hear the tones and/or dispatch message...either pay more attention or listen to the playback of the message.

 

[sc800]

I think the structure fire thing comes from the CAD, as at one time, the only two codes for anything to do with a structure were STR -structure fire and APPSTR- appliance in a structure. Now I've been seeing a new code FIRE, which is a general fire and should hopefully cut down on structure fire calls.

For example Warwick had a deck fire that was paged out as a deck fire, not a structure fire, but that is Warwick PD and not OC911.

Anyway, I like it better how they do it in Maryland where I split my time. They have a separate CAD calltype for appliance fires, investigate electrical (sparking outlets), investigate fire out (fires that homeowners put out themselves), smoke inside building, and odor of smoke inside building...all getting a reduced response from actual structure fires

 

[PJH]

We had a similar problem in a nearby NY county - although there was a specified format some would give out more information than the standard. I ran an experiment (EMS was prone to this) about initial information on calls.

It seemed like the more information (usually non-relevant information) the more questions would be coming from the field. Gave basic information - the quieter the radio was.

For example, on a medical call if "ABC EMS respond to 123 Main St for a sick person, alpha response" you got a "call received, responding" and that was the end of it.

Those dispatchers who acknowledged the EMS response and added "Medic 123 its a 23 year old female who doesn't feel good, had a hangnail last week and has rosy cheeks" would get from the field "EMS, did they go to the doctor, what was the outcome and has the patient expressed any discomfort in her right knee lately?" BS like that would go on and on until EMS was at the front door.

Fire chiefs were just as bad.

Now with all that out of the way - many CAD vendors have added the capability to dispatch the call as text messages and emails with the basic call type and location as part of the notification process. Typically its done as a secondary means of notification. The better dispatch centers will have a faxed run sheet (via CAD) sent to the FD that includes some call details. Being that many departments in the area are volunteer with limited funding and thought processes of the 1950's quite a few even lack a fax machine - never mind an answering machine.

The county I am in now has a combined communications center ran by someone who doesn't appear to be well rounded. Police/Fire/EMS dispatchers are done by call type and the dispatchers are not allowed to think outside the box. When you are dispatched for a "miscellaneous fire" at 123 Main street and that's it - I have concerns. Its really not all that hard to dispatch out "ABC Fire Department respond for a trash can fire at 123 Main Street".

But, this is all getting off on tangent.

 

[DaveNF2G]

Two of my pet peeves about dispatch protocols.

1) Dispatchers talk too fast. Nobody worries because "pagers have playback" or they rely on printouts anyway.

2) Too much information on minor calls, but not enough information on dangerous situations - mainly because of a misplaced fear of alerting the media.

 

[PJH]

Those are protocols, those are people not following them or just need to slow down.

Never once did my dispatchers thing about "playback" as many pagers did not have that option.

Number 2 that you point out could be a concern, and again, could be placed on not following protocol. Follow the same format, every time for every call and life was as good as it was going to get.

 

[DaveNF2G]

When I was a dispatcher back in the early 1980s, we were forbidden to use the words "explosion" or "bomb" on the fire radio.

Explosion = fire, type unknown

To me, that endangered responding firefighters unnecessarily. An explosion is far different from something that could turn out to be a trash can fire. And this was in the days before "terrorism" and secondary devices.

 

[APX8000]

When I dispatched at MLSS, I used to hit the tones and then announce the Unit, Locality and Type of Call (Medical or Trauma). For example, "256, City of Newburgh, Medical."

When I got a response from the unit....response was "256, 10-8"

Then I would give the basic info....Unit number again (to acknowledge that I was talking to him/her), address, what cross street and type of "medical." For example, "256, number 110 Liberty Street between Ann and Washington for difficulty breathing."

Simple, effective. I never gave street, road, way, lane, etc on cross streets...too confusing. That was given only for the address of the call. Otherwise it can sound like "110 Liberty Steet, your cross streets are Anywhere Place and Washington Road for an 85 year old female complaining of shortness of breath, has a history of blah..." By the time that is done, the unit usually says "repeat the numeric" or they go to 110 Anywhere Place.

K.I.S.S. and now with text messages, rip and runs, etc. you shouldn't even have to give cross streets (I gave them back in the Rand McNally days). Better yet, anyone remember when they used to give the old map page and grid...

My biggest pet peeve is the repeating of the entire call information when a unit is just trying to call enroute.