PSAP "Control" numbers?

[One13Truck]

I hope this has a quick and easy answer. Living in Pa I haven't been through NY State in ages. But over the next few weeks I'll be making a few trips in the State. I figured I'd do some preps and search the listings and wikis for the station numbers of the Counties I'll be in so I can know who I'm hearing going out. While doing this I see some places still refer to their PSAPs with a 2 digit number and "Control" (44 Control, 60 Control, etc....).

Can anybody explain this to someone from out of state? What was the significance of the numbers? How did they get them? Who assigned them? How many are still using them and how many used to but dropped them? I seem to remember more places used to but I don't see them listed as doing so now. Anybody have the info on this?

 

[k2hz]

This is based on the FDID (Fire Department ID) numbers assigned by the State Office of Fire Prevention & Control.

The first two digits represent the county and the remaining numbers represent the department within the county. For example - 60 is Westchester and 44 is Rockland.

NYS Division of Homeland Security & Emergency Services - OFPC

 

[GTR8000]

To expand on what Dick said: Very simply, the numbers are the 62 counties in alphabetical order. 1 for Albany through 62 for Yates.

Every fire dept in NYS has and uses an FDID when reporting to the state. As far as the county numbers being used by a PSAP, it depends on the individual county. In most cases it was used by the county fire dispatch center, or "Fire Control" as they are commonly referred to in NYS. More recently using "911" has come into fashion, such as Orange County switching from "36-Control" to "Orange 911" on the fire frequencies two years ago.

I don't have a complete list of who uses "##-Control" anymore, or who used to but doesn't, etc. I can tell you that in the lower Hudson Valley, the following are in effect:

Dutchess - Uses "Dutchess 911"
Orange - Uses "Orange 911" (stopped using "36-Control" two years ago)
Putnam - Uses "Putnam 911"
Rockland - Uses "44-Control"
Sullivan - Uses "53-Control"
Westchester - Uses "60-Control"

 

[k2hz]

The use of "## Control" seems to be mostly a downstate thing but some upstate counties used to use the ## prefix for their mobile units. While OFPC apparently uses FDID numbers for administrative purposes the use of these numbers "on the air" seems to the exception rather than the rule now.

 

[One13Truck]

I was figuring it was something along those lines but couldn't find anything to confirm. Thanks for the help!

 

[Rudy3145]

Nassau County uses Firecom

Suffolk County uses Firecom on the fire freqs and Medcom on the ems freqs.