Re: 911:: Attn volunteer fire dept dispatchers

[Guest guest]

Well, let me say that I'm not currently dispatching volunteers, but I know a

thing or two about it. First, I think we all know that thinking " everybody " is

doing " anything " in one standard way nationwide or even statewide can be a

stretch.

As far as using different pagers for different days, that;s a new one on me.

I've always used tone pairs from the same groups to selectively alert either

different stations or different functions (officers, EMS, etc.) within a

department to dispatch the resource needed without waking everyone else up.

If I read your post correctly, are there different volunteer shifts assigned on

different days? If that's the case, why not just turn your pager on when you're

on call? (The whole issue of notifications is one extra large can of worms.)

ly, being a former volly, I can see most people keeping their radios on

anyway, because nobody wants to miss the action!

Am I missing something in your description?

[Guest guest]

I've dispatched for volunteers at both my full-time and part-time agencies. I

have to say I have never heard of anyone dispatching which shift is to respond.

It would seem to me that that is something the firefighters should be

responsible for remembering. We simply dispatch the appropriate company and

those responsible for being " on-duty " know who they are and respond. As both a

paid and volunteer firefighter myself, I think it's pointless for the

dispatchers to announce which shift is working.

Just my two cents...

--

Firefighter Specialist/EMT-ST

Communications Support Group

Charlottesville, VA Fire Dept.

www.cfdonline.org

[Guest guest]

>Do you have anything like this at all? where you basically are waking

up everyone at 3am but only asking for a select few to respond?<

I've worked at places where this was done... not exactly

how you're stating it, but everyone toned, whether they

were going to take the run or not.

Never made any sense to me.

But I really didn't care. The way it was done, was no more

work for me, and if all those members didn't mind being woke

up for absolutely no reason... that's ok too.... I was already

up.

>Currently when there is a district call, it seems that a lot of

people from the opposit district responds and the chief seems to

think this new method will fix that problem.<

He's wrong there.

Only he can solve that problem, and changing the way

things are dispatched won't do that. It's a command

problem... not a dispatch problem...

Weintraut

[Guest guest]

Why doesn't he initiate a two tone system? One district gets one, the

other, the second. During the work day, all calls could be toned out with

both tones (one after the other), to get maximum number of responders.

During after hours times, tone out the specific district, and let the

person's on shift figure out who is on shift at the time. If tone 1 is put

out, and you don't get any responses after x minutes, tone #2 and get the

other department rolling. Or use three tones. #1 for both districts, #2

for district 1, #3 for district 2.

Less confusion, allows room for flexibility, and allows for pagers to pick

up ONLY the tones they need.

I'm on two department's, one in a county with 9 departments, the other in a

county with 1 department but 5 stations. I much prefer the individual tones

in the 9 dept county.

http://community.webshots.com/user/fish1552

> ----Original Message Follows----

> The fire chief wants to change this to incorporate 3 shifts

> of firefighters. A, B and C shifts. He wants us (dispatch)

> to use the same toning buttons as we currently are, but

> change how we air the call. Instead of saying " district 1

> respond to..... " he wants it to be " district 1 A shift

> respond to......). Nothing will change in the pagers, and it

> will be up to the fire fighters to know who is on A shift,

> and who is on B shift, etc,. And it will be up to us in

> dispatch to know which shift is on each day.

>

> Currently when there is a district call, it seems that a lot

> of people from the opposite district responds and the chief

> seems to think this new method will fix that problem.

>

> When asked why he thought this, his reply was " EVERYONE in

> the country is doing it this way " . Sooooo.. my fellow

> console members who dispatch volunteer fire departments, I'd

> like to hear from you.

> Do you have anything like this at all? where you basically

> are waking up everyone at 3am but only asking for a select

> few to respond?

>

> If you do have something like this, do you have seperate

> pagers for each shift?

>

> I appreciate your comments, if they apply to the question.

>

> Kathy