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Chicago Warehouse Fire Update

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Rekindle, Audio, Video and More

WE HAVE MORE TO REPORT on yesterday's vacant warehouse fire that the Chicago FD called their "largest fire in several years." See yesterday's Firegeezer report HERE.  The spectacular sub-freezing incident has generated nationwide interest not only for its size, but for the fascinating views of a large fire building shrouded in ice.

Many of the units are still on the scene and earlier this morning there was a large rekindle in the center of the building.  WMAQ-TV tells us:

The fire that lit up Chicago skies Tuesday night and consumed a third of the city's fire department rekindled Thursday morning.

Sky 5 images of the abandoned warehouse at 37th Street and Ashland Avenue in Bridgeport showed flames again shooting through the roof and smoke pouring south as fire equipment gathered at the building. The flames began again just before 6 a.m.

Chicago Fire officials called it a "significant rekindle" that they were expecting with crews already on the scene. Because the fire rekindled at the center of the building, firefighters are defensively battling the blaze at the perimeter. A rarely used "deluge unit" was brought in to help douse the fire.

WMAQ-TV filed this raw video taken this morning:

 

View more videos at: http://nbcchicago.com.

ChicagoAreaFire / Redick

As you have come to expect,  the best photographs of the incident are those found at the ChicagoAreaFire website.  Master photogs. Steve Reddick, Tim Olk, Josh Boyajian, Jeff Rudolph, and Larry Shapiro have posted a great collection of pics that you will want to view. 

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Click on the six parts posted so far HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE (all audio), HERE, and HERE.  Later this evening check back to their WEBSITE HERE for any additions that will be posted during the day.  Just in:  Larry Shapiro's 149-image gallery HERE.

Chicago's Radioman, Dave Weaver has posted the complete radio traffic from the CFD.  Follow these links for some dispatch report:

5-11 Order http://www.justin.tv/radioman911/b/359905432
Fireground Radio http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pi5Bdd5sE_w
Photos/Video http://www.facebook.com/Radioman911

Real Time Recording
Part 1 http://www.justin.tv/radioman911/b/359874615
Part 2 http://www.justin.tv/radioman911/b/359872478
Part 3 http://www.justin.tv/radioman911/b/359871889
Part 4 http://www.justin.tv/radioman911/b/359870848
Part 5 http://www.justin.tv/radioman911/b/359870273
Part 6 http://www.justin.tv/radioman911/b/359869430
Part 7 http://www.justin.tv/radioman911/b/359868058
Part 8 http://www.justin.tv/radioman911/b/359867255

Tower 5's Basket Frozen In Place
Part 9 http://www.justin.tv/radioman911/b/359865499

5-11 + 2 Specials Struck Out By Orders of 2-1-4
Part 10 http://www.justin.tv/radioman911/b/359864414

Dave the Radioman also takes some darn good video:

 

Larry Shapiro posted a video also:

 

Thanks to Mark D. for assistance.

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Posted by on January 24, 2013 • Filed under: dispatch, Dispatch & Communications, fire, Fire Rescue Topics, Fires, photography, Videos • Tagged: ,

“Twitter 9-9-9, What is Your Emergency (in 140 Characters or Less)?”

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London Fire Brigade Wants to Tweet With You

The Deputy Commissioner of the London Fire Brigade, Rita Dexter thinks there is a Tweet in your future if you need help. Quoting that there are a billion people worldwide using Facebook and a half-billion connected to Twitter, she wants to look at ways to introduce them to the emergency dispatch system.

"When it was first set up in 1935, people said that dialling 999 to report emergencies would never work. Today BT handles over 30 million emergency calls each year," she said. "It’s time to look at new ways for people to report emergencies quickly and efficiently and social media could provide the answer in the future."

In a news release issued yesterday, the LFB went on to say:

The Brigade would be the first emergency service in the UK to look into how apps, social media and micro-blogging sites, like Twitter, could be used by the public to report emergencies. It said it aims to work with the Government and other blue light services, such as the Met Police and London Ambulance Service, to establish whether the idea could become a reality and the extent to which social media might be used to report emergencies.

Earlier this year a report from Ofcom suggested that:

  • For the first time text-based communications are surpassing traditional phone calls or meeting face to face as the most frequent ways of keeping in touch for UK adults.
  • Traditional forms of communication are declining in popularity, with the overall time people spend talking on the phone falling by five per cent in 2011.
  • One in five adults in the UK now uses a smart phone.

TNW News writes further:

Reporting incidents using short messaging services appears to be a plan that many emergency services all over the world are looking to offer. In the US, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced that the four major US mobile operators – AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile – have all agreed to roll out text-to-911 technology in 2013, making it available to all by May 15, 2014.

With BT handling over 30 million emergency calls a year, the London Fire Brigade believes it is "time to look at new ways for people to report emergencies quickly and efficiently and social media could provide the answer in the future."

The firefighters union is skeptical.  Ian Leahair a spokesman for the Fire Brigades Union, told the press: "It is a ludicrous idea. It will inevitably lead to more hoax calls."

TNW

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Posted by on December 19, 2012 • Filed under: dispatch, Dispatch & Communications • Tagged: ,

Newtown Radio Traffic

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Police / Fire / State Police Channels

By now everyone has been exposed to the full tv coverage of
today's horrific tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut. 
There is nothing more to be said or added to it, at least by this blogger.

Dave Weaver, aka Radioman911 has sent us this unedited transcription of the
police and fire radio frequencies of the first two hours of the incident.  Many will find it
to be educational from a rescuer's viewpoint or an officer's size-up observation.

 

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Posted by on December 14, 2012 • Filed under: dispatch, Dispatch & Communications

Looking Back

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Fire Engineering – November 1953

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Posted by on November 22, 2012 • Filed under: dispatch, Dispatch & Communications, Looking Back • Tagged: ,

Gas Fumes Dump Detroit Dispatch Center

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Found to Have Come From an Outside Source

THE DETROIT, MICHIGAN, EMERGENCY DISPATCH CENTER was evacuated just before noon today as the building was filling up with "natural gas" fumes.  The employees inside where the city's police, fire, and EMS dispatchers and call-takers work, suddenly began feeling nauseous and light-headed.

WDIV-TV

Fire, EMS, and utility crews were dispatched to the scene and within a half-hour they had traced the source back to a nearby electric substation.  They have not yet disclosed what was generating the fumes, but a favorable wind was directing them to the roof of the dispatch center where the intake for the air-handling system was picking them up and sending the fumes throughout the building.

Dispatch operations were interrupted for about ten minutes before being rerouted to another site in the east side of the city where the 3-1-1 calls are handled.  At the time of this post the employees were still not allowed back inside while it is being aired out.

WXYZ-TV has MORE plus this video report:

 

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Posted by on October 9, 2012 • Filed under: dispatch, Dispatch & Communications, Emergency Communications, EMS Dispatch, Videos • Tagged: ,

Four Firefighters Disciplined For Not Responding To A 9-1-1 Call

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Not Deliberate, But a Mistake in Communications

FOUR MEDFORD, MASSACHUSETTS, FIREFIGHTERS have been given disciplinary actions for their parts in a dispatching error on July 13 in which a medical patient died.

The call was received shortly after midnight while the station crew was asleep.  The fire alarm operator should have toned out the engine company, but instead he only dispatched them over the radio.  In Medford each onduty FF has their own radio that, according to the FD Rules, "….serves as a fail-safe in the event other forms of communication are off line."  However in this incident, the radios were turned down too low to be heard.

The police and the city's ambulance service Armstrong Ambulance responded and were on the scene.  For some reason, the fire alarm operator logged in that the FD was also on the scene when they weren't.

It was announced by the fire chief's office yesterday that the alarm operator has been suspended without pay for two weeks.  The three firefighters were given written reprimands. 

The president of the firefighters Local issued a statement that said, "The Medford firefighters take this issue very seriously. The firefighters involved are devastated. We are committed to working with the department to ensure this never happens again."

WHDH-TV posted this video report:

 WHDH-TV –

The Boston Globe has the full STORY.

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Posted by on August 18, 2012 • Filed under: communications, dispatch, Dispatch & Communications, EMS Topics, Fire Rescue Topics, Videos

Radioman “Outs” Himself

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"Just Call Me Dave"

FAMED DISPATCH SCANNER AND RECORDIST "RADIOMAN" has shed his anonymnity.  After 3+ years of monitoring and live-streaming fire activity in the greater Chicago area, he has decided to let the masses know his real moniker is Dave Weaver.

Dave has a great service set up for anybody interested in emergency incidents by webcasting the dispatch and working channels of fire incidents.  He's very efficient, too.  When you log on to http://justin.tv/radioman911 you will notice right away that there are separate channels coming out of each of your computer stereo speakers.  More coverage for you that way.  From his website he tells us:

The feed is based in Chicago and uses a combination of remote receive sites to enhance our range and provide the best wide area coverage possible. We monitor fire dispatches from all across Chicagoland. Site supporters volunteer their time to the listener community by posting info and updates about major fires and incidents.

Radioman911.com is a live stereo mix monitoring the Chicago Fire Department and every FD within 36 neighboring counties across 4 states. (Except Aurora, Hammond, and Naperville) We cover all mutual aid and interop channels including IFERN and all firegrounds.

The feed consists of 5 radios located in downtown Chicago and 3 located in the far suburbs. Incident information is provided on the incident board in CAD style by volunteer supporters of the site.

Radioman911.com streams high quality 128k stereo audio along with a 200k video display that shows 6 of the 8 radios that make up the mix. Radios and scanners in the mix full time are located in 5 locations; Radioman911 HQ in Chicago's West Town neighborhood, 1000ft up in the John Hancock Center, 250ft up on towers in both DeKalb and Joliet, and from rooftops in Lansing and St. Charles. Additional rooftop receive sites are located in Summit and Midlothian. A special thank you goes to our remote feed hosts who improve our reception and extend our coverage area.

Now you know that he's not some dweeb with a couple of Radio Shack portable scanners duct-taped to a board.  He was featured on a Channel 7, WLS-TV news report last week covering the violent NATO protests in downtown Chicago.

Dave's first 15 minutes of fame are shown in this tv report and he makes his appearance at the 0:58 mark.  Go ahead and watch the entire 4:13 of the video, it's a good report:

 

 

Chicago Police/Fire NATO Protest Recordings

Day 1 justin.tv/radioman911/b/318782926
Day 2 justin.tv/radioman911/b/318784224
Day 3 http://www.justin.tv/radioman911/b/319129026
Day 4 justin.tv/radioman911/b/319056029

He tells us:  All 4 days are great listening and many include video to reference the activities being handled. But day 3 is some of the most incredible audio that we have ever streamed on Radioman911.com and was featured on the ABC7 Chicago 10 PM News.

So get your popcorn, sit back and listen, and say "Hi" to Dave.  (just click on the links)

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Posted by on May 26, 2012 • Filed under: communications, dispatch, Dispatch & Communications, Videos • Tagged: ,

Dispatcher Falls Asleep While Taking Call – Starts Snoring on the Phone

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Time For a Break

A MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MARYLAND, FIRE and Rescue dispatcher had to be relieved on the job last month when he fell asleep during an emergency call.  The unidentified Communications Clerk was reportedly 17 hours into a 24-hour overtime shift when his fatigue took over.

Montgomery County Emergency Communications Center  (photo by Bordon)

NBC4 is reporting the story and tells us:

Just after midnight on April 4, a Montgomery County woman called 911 because her husband was having trouble breathing and was starting to turn blue.

Following protocol, a 911 call-taker answers and quickly transfers the woman to a dispatcher. He was supposed to send an ambulance.

But in the 911 recording call obtained by the News4 I-Team, all you can hear is silence in response to the woman’s repeated hellos. Caller: "Hello? Hello? Hello?"

Realizing something isn't right, the original call-taker breaks in. 911 Call-Taker: "OK, hold on one second ma'am. Let me try to get them on the line again."

Caller: "OK. Oh."

Sleeping Dispatcher: ((Snore))

The snores get louder as a new dispatcher tries to help the woman.

2nd Dispatcher: "Put one hand on his forehand, the other hand underneath his neck and tilt his head back."

Caller: "Yes."

Sleeping Dispatcher: ((Snore))

In the recording, the second dispatcher and the woman he was trying to help are both confused by the snoring. The second dispatcher repeatedly asked if the woman’s husband was making the noise.

Listen to the tape recording of the call:

 

The original tape has at least 18 snores recorded on it.  The dispatcher was immediately relieved from duty and put on paid admin. leave.

Read the entire transcript and story from NBC4 HERE.

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Posted by on May 22, 2012 • Filed under: dispatch, Dispatch & Communications • Tagged: ,

LAFD Response Times Dip After Station Shutdowns …. (No! Really?)

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Anybody Besides the Fire Chief and Mayor Surprised at This?

THE LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, CONTROLLER Wendy Greul released the report yesterday of an audit her department conducted into the Fire Department's response times.  Using a 2-year baseline from June 2007 to July 2009, the auditors found that after the fire station closings and rotating brownouts took place in July of last year, the response times for ambulance calls increased an average 12 seconds citywide and as much as 20 seconds in certain areas including the San Fernando Valley.  The Daily News reports:

The report found response times for emergency medical calls increased an average of 12 seconds to four minutes, 57 seconds. However, the response time to fires and non-medical emergencies dropped about 21 seconds — also to four minutes, 57 seconds.

Pat McOsker, president of the United Firefighters of Los Angeles City, said the audit confirms his warnings over the past several years.

"You cannot cut the department by the 15 percent it has been cut and not have an impact," McOsker said. "In emergencies, seconds count and we have a system that delays the response."

Not to be overlooked in the report is this observation by the Controller:

She also expressed concern about the quality of the department's response time data, noting that about one-third of the incidents reviewed were not coded properly and it was unclear whether they were emergency or non-emergency calls.

"It's unacceptable that the LAFD has not been able to accurately track its emergency response times," Greuel said, adding she hoped the audit would lay the groundwork for city officials to make improvements.

In her report Greuel also pointed out that 650,000 of the 1.9 million incident reports they reviewed were coded "unclearly" rendering their study unable to be compared with the NFPA response standards.

KNBC-TV Ch. 4 tells more in this video report:

 

View more videos at: http://nbclosangeles.com.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, left, and Fire Chief Brian Cummings
discuss response times and deployment at a March 13 news conference.
(Barbara Davidson, Los Angeles Times / March 13, 2012)

It has been pointed out that part of the problem is created at the dispatch center where calls are taking longer to be processed before the alarm is dispatched. Again from the Daily News:

(Local President) McOsker said part of the problem is dispatchers are required to go through a list of more than 20 questions before an emergency call is placed with paramedics. The protocol was developed to try to reduce the number of calls made for nonemergencies.

"There was a time that once they determined the nature of the emergency, they could send a unit out," McOsker said. "Now, they have to go through the entire list of questions before they send anyone to the call."

Using their own resources to analyze the raw data, the Los Angeles Times has concluded:

(Times staff writer Ben) Welsh crunched data from more than 1 million dispatches from the department's database and found that the Fire Department falls far short of the standard that rescue units be alerted within one minute on 90% of 911 calls. And average call-processing time has increased, most notably for medical calls, which account for the overwhelming majority of responses.

Five years ago firefighters were dispatched to medical calls within a minute 38% of time, the analysis found. By 2011, that number dropped to 15%.

The Times also found that in the more than 250,000 medical dispatches last year, the department took 75% longer, on average, than the national standard.

You can read the entire 46-page Controller's report (.pdf file) HERE.

On March 18 Firegeezer reported on the surprising announcement that LAFD had been using phony numbers to calculate their response times.  Read that posting HERE where we also addressed the vehicle maintenance problems that are affecting the response times as well.

It was also last March when McOsker opined:  "This department is being held together with bubble gum, baling wire and duct tape."

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Posted by on May 19, 2012 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, dispatch, Dispatch & Communications, EMS Topics, Fire Rescue Topics, Response times, Videos • Tagged: , , ,

Fire Department Says “No” to Sore Fingers

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Oswego County FD Reduces Response Obligation

THE CITY OF FULTON, NEW YORK, has sent a letter to the Oswego County E-911 Administrator asking them to remove the city's fire department from responding to non-emergency medical calls.  All ambulance calls are currently handled by a private firm, Mentor Ambulance.

The FFD will continue to respond to citizen requests for assistance and requests by Mentor for help on calls, but will not be included on the first response to what they classify as Alpha Level EMS, or non-emergency dispatches.

WSYR-TV Ch. 9 Syracuse filed this video report:

 

OswegoCountyToday writes:

(Mayor Ron)Woodward believes many of the non-emergency calls are unnecessary. "We live in the ‘you owe me’ generation. The people who don’t have to pay for services are the ones that use them as much as they can," he said. "Some of these ambulance calls are a free ride to Syracuse, then they deny (getting) medical service and go shopping."

He doesn’t believe the change will put people at risk, because Menter Ambulance is located in Fulton and can respond about as quickly as the fire department can.

Woodward doesn’t yet know how much money the change will save, but he knows it makes sense. "what’s it cost to take a hundred foot tower ladder into a neighborhood for someone who doesn’t have an emergency? How smart is that," he asked. "Why would we drag a million dollar piece of equipment to something that wasn’t an emergency?"

Read the entire ARTICLE HERE.

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Posted by on March 22, 2012 • Filed under: dispatch, EMS Topics • Tagged: ,

LAFD Woes Continue

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It's All Starting to Come Out Now

THE VIGOROUS CAMPAIGN FOR MAYOR of Los Angeles (California) is exposing more failures of the City Council and the Mayor.  Among the agencies which are coming up short is the Fire Department.  That fine agency has been undermined by the current mayor who has slashed the FD budget by 16% in recent years, instituted rotating station brown-outs, and eliminated units from one-fourth of the city's 106 fire stations.  All this time the mayor and Fire Chief Brian Cummings have been saying that the department is doing okay despite the large cuts.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, left, and Fire Chief Brian Cummings
discuss response times and deployment at a March 13 news conference.
(Barbara Davidson, Los Angeles Times / March 13, 2012)

But one of their "proofs" of success, the average response times were found to be based on jiggered numbers and are really noticably slower than they had admitted to.  (See the Firegeezer article from March 11, LAFD Admits Inflating Response Times Favorably HERE.)  As more people from the political opposition and reporters from the local press start looking behind the facade, even more deception is being exposed.  Yesterday (Saturday) a columnist for the Los Angeles Times unloaded on the mayor and fire chief for the deterioration of the FD since they have taken control.  Some quotes from Stephen Lopez's detailed commentary indicate that all might not be well in the city:

Nobody was lying, we're told. But the Fire Department has now switched to a more accurate formula for tracking response times.

How hard can this be?  Your house is on fire, you call the Fire Department, and they show up in either four minutes, five, six, 10, whatever. Does it have to be more complicated than that?

It was on the basis of the rosier information that the mayor and council agreed to big cuts. Now Fire Chief Brian Cummings admits the department should have made clear that it had switched to a different formula, and both he and Villaraigosa tell us both formulas were accurate.

Huh?

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They also said public safety hasn't been compromised by the mothballing of equipment as part of a plan to save $200 million over three years. How could it not be compromised?

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"This department is being held together with bubble gum, baling wire and duct tape," says Pat McOsker, president of United Firefighters of Los Angeles City.

"Forty percent of the time we are not getting there in time to prevent brain death," said McOsker, referring to the length of time it generally takes for someone who's not breathing to suffer lasting injury.

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Mid-City resident Mike Eveloff has been doing his own spade work, demanding Fire Department records and crunching numbers. When you remove equipment from service and shutter or partially shutter fire stations, you're playing a game of Russian roulette, said Eveloff.

"You see them on longer and longer runs because they don't have as many firefighters. As an example, my station, 92, they were sent 14 miles away to the eastern part of Hollywood with red lights and siren. It's happening all the time," said Eveloff.

"If you look into the eyes of these guys, they are beat to death."

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"When I first came on, retirement was a sad day for the retiree. Now it seems like the retiree can't leave soon enough."

Apparently the shell game has extended into the maintenance division.  A combination of harder usage on the trucks coupled with a 30% reduction in the number of mechanics has left the fleet shaky and unreliable as more reserve apparatus are being used while normal repairs are backlogged as much as a month.  Now the reserve fleet is failing from the excess work.

Read Steve Lopez's entire commentary HERE.

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The LA Times has followed up with a separate article about the falling-apart of the emergency dispatch center.  They tell about a day recently where a woman had her hand mangled in a piece of machinery and had to wait 45 minutes before any help arrived because the dispatch system had just failed:

The dismemberment occurred March 7, when a brief equipment failure left dispatchers unable to alert fire stations. At a firehouse in Harbor Gateway near Torrance, just a mile from the bleeding woman, the alarms never rang, according to firefighters.

"I was in horrible, horrible pain," said Wafer, 36, who was later told by a doctor that too much time had elapsed to reattach her finger.

Firegeezer comments:  I find it amazing that nobody in that huge dispatch center had the presence of mind to call the nearest station by land line and get a unit started right away.  Don't you have to take a test or something in order to work there?

Read the detailed article on problems at the 9-1-1 center HERE.

Firegeezer adds further:  Having observed the LA Times' past behavior which includes dubious reporting by partial disclosure of facts and events, I recommend that we pause and give the FD time to get back to work on Monday and see if they address these charges.

Hat tip to:  Mike T.

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Posted by on March 18, 2012 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, apparatus, commentary, dispatch, Dispatch & Communications, Fire Rescue Topics, Funding & Staffing • Tagged: , , ,

Dispatcher Creates 90-Minute Delay on Working House Fire

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"Call Us Back if You See a Fire…."

THE DENVER, COLORADO, FIRE DEPARTMENT is in damage-control after a call-taker in the emergency dispatch center decided to disregard a 9-1-1 call for a "smell of smoke" in a neighborhood.  When the fire creating the smokey smell in a vacant house broke through sending flames skyward, calls started pouring in to the dispatchers and they had no choice then but to dispatch it.

KDVR-TV image

KMGH-TV relates the first caller's story:

Denver resident Torry Hughes told 7NEWS he received a call from his adult son around 4 a.m. The son, who lives a block away from Hughes, told him that he was getting ready for work when he smelled smoke in the neighborhood.

Hughes said he went out to walk the dog around 5:30 a.m. when he, too, smelled the smoke. He said it was dark so he couldn't see it.

"I smelled this heavy smoke. It smelled like something burning and I knew it was not a fireplace… It smelled like a house burning, so I immediately went and called the fire department," Hughes said.

He said he told the fire dispatcher that he smelled a house burning but he didn't know where it (was) coming from.

"He told me I was the only one that had called and that they got no other calls and if I saw anything like a fire to call back," Hughes said.

It was around 7 am after daylight when people in the neighborhood noticed the fire and started calling it in.  When the FD arrived they found a single-family dwelling fully involved.  The house had been vacant since it had been foreclosed by a mortgage-holder, however that had been only a few days ago.

Lt. Phil Champagne, a Denver Fire Department spokesman, told Ch. 9 News "There is an investigation underway to determine the cause of the fire and also whether firefighters should have been dispatched after the 5:30 a.m. call." Champaign says the caller could not identify where the smoke was coming from.  "In our defense, we get a lot of those calls," Champaign said. "It's discretionary whether we send a truck."

"Had firefighters been dispatched, it is uncertain if they would have located the building anyway," Champaign said.

Channel 9 also filed this video report:

 

The DFD announced that a thorough investigation will be held and corrective actions will be taken.  Interestingly, the FD spokesman also told the press that the dispatchers normally decline to dispatch fire units on about 10% of their call-ins.

KMGH-TV has more information HERE.

Firegeezer interrupts with a comment:  When I was on the job, if we could smell smoke or something burning, we NEVER left until we found out where it was coming from.  To brush somebody off because there was only one call (at 5 am!!) is simply inexcusable.  An engine should have been sent.

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Posted by on February 11, 2012 • Filed under: dispatch, Dispatch & Communications, fire, Fires, Videos • Tagged: , ,

Another Street Box System to be Discontinued.

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City Has Nobody to Work On System After Layoffs

BLOOMFIELD, NEW JERSEY, FIRE CHIEF Joseph McCarthy told the Town Council yesterday (Monday) that the city's 120-yr.-old Gamewell Telegraph fire alarm system will be discontinued soon after the "proper notifications" can be made.  The system was installed in 1890 and had until recently 190 boxes on street corners and inside high-risk facililties.

Bloomfield box 5595 with a police call box
attached to the back of it.  (Backtaps.com photo)

NorthJersey.com reports this morning:

The devices are "sound," but the infrastructure is worn out, McCarthy said at the Bloomfield Township Council's conference meeting on Monday.  "It creates a system of false protection," he said.

The township will begin removing and covering up the system in June or July, after proper notice, the fire chief said.

It would cost the township too much money to fix, and parts are already limited. Maintaining the system was easier when the township's electrical department had five employees. It has since been turned into a one-person department, McCarthy said.

Those buildings which are required to have additional fire precautions are urged to contact a private security firm, he said. (emphasis added by ed.)

Read the full article at NorthJersey.com HERE.

BackTaps.com, a fire telegraph fan page has a good history and description of the Bloomfield firebox system HERE.

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Great Offers on HDTV's From Amazon:

Many Models and Sizes Up to 42" for Less Than $500

CLICK HERE to view the choices and to order.

Firegeezer notes that he bought his HDTV from Amazon
and it was delivered in two days without having to worry
about how to fit it into the car.

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Posted by on January 24, 2012 • Filed under: dispatch, Dispatch & Communications, Fire Rescue Topics • Tagged: , , ,

Morning Lineup – December 16

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Friday Morning – Don't be Alarmed

One of our loyal readers, Mark Donovan came across an industry bulletin from the Alarm Industry Communications Committee, a group of monitored alarm businesses who make their living installing home and business fire and security alarm systems.  The bulletin (reprinted HERE) warns their members about a bill that is working its way through the U. S. Congress that will allow monitored alarm signals to bypass the alarm company's switchboards and go directly to the 9-1-1 dispatch center.

On the surface this looks like a pretty good idea and a pretty bad idea.  The good part is that alarm signals will go to the dispatch center in a lot more timely fashion.  During the year that I worked in dispatch, we were constantly confounded by alarm companies who repeatedly called the wrong fire departments to report alarms sounding, and in a high number of instances the report from the alarm company was delayed by several minutes.  And I'm talking about 15 minutes or more.

Univ. of Iowa photo

The bad part is that a high percentage of monitored alarms are not true emergencies or mistaken signals.  This new bill includes the so-called personal emergency devices that elderly and handicapped people wear ("I've fallen and I can't get up!").  An excerpt from the AICC bulletin reads:

The problem could well result in 9-1-1 operators being flooded with automatic sensor generated calls, from security devices, as well as Personnel Emergency Response System (PERS) calls. The alarm industry which currently screens these calls before they are forwarded to 9-1-1 centers knows from experience that the vast majority of these calls from burglar and fire alarm systems as (well as) from PERS systems do not require dispatch. The overwhelming majority of PERS calls (99%) do not require the dispatch of emergency services. In many cases the senior is seeking just to talk with someone or has inadvertently set off the alarm. Currently the alarm industry screens all these calls before they are sent to the 9-1-1 operator to determine whether emergency services need to be dispatched. On an annual basis we screen over a 100 million calls a year. Of that, the industry resolves in the high 90% without a referral to 9-1-1 operators.

There is a lot more to this issue than just that, however.  The bill does not mandate the signals to go directly to the dispatch centers, but allows the localities to require it if they want to.  I get the impression that the Congress is creating the legal process that will allow a variety of "new" communications, such as phone texts, videos, and other electronically-generated digital messages to be directed to 9-1-1 centers.  And of course, cynical me strongly suspects that the alarm companies are trying to protect their turf and keep their own alarm centers populated and operating.  My first response when I read this was to think that if they are getting 90% false calls, then they had better get their act together and either reduce the rate, or stop peddling them as "emergency" devices when they obviously aren't.

We had better get our own non-emergency response to the apparatus now and get it checked out.  I'm going to send a signal to the Bunn-O-Matic and get a fresh pot started.  See you back in the day room in a little while.

 

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Posted by on December 16, 2011 • Filed under: dispatch, Dispatch & Communications, morning lineup

Morning Lineup – October 17

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Monday Morning – Dispatch Readiness

We posted an interesting story about nine days ago where a man was had a life-threatening medical emergency at his home in Wales where he lived alone.  He had been awakened from an excruciating pain caused by a chronic back ailment that had resulted from a long-ago injury.  Unable to use his cellphone because the battery was dead, he saw his laptop across the room and began a hellish trip crawling across the floor, inch-by-inch for a half-hour, until he reached it…..without his glasses.  Barely able to see the screen and keyboard, he logged online to his Facebook page and typed out a garbled message calling for help.  Within minutes, his Facebook "Friends" in several different countries started placing phone calls to the Wales dispatch center and help was on the way.  See our story "Facebook is a Lifesaver" HERE.

That story got me to thinking (a sometimes dubious exercise) about just how prepared our call-takers and dispatchers are when it comes to this sort of communications.  By their nature, 9-1-1 people are pretty savvy when it comes to electronic communications and the like, even if their own dispatch center is a few years behind the times when it comes to digital equipment.  In fact, with the extremely fast upgrading and improving technology, almost every dispatch center is behind the times.  It just can't be avoided.  But our human components can be upgraded quickly and easily.

But first they have to have a common baseline of knowledge that the entire center is operating with and that should include the familiarity with digital online communications.  Back to Facebook for example, everybody has heard of it by now and probably a high percentage of your console workers have experience with it.  But you can bet there will always be at least one call-taker who hasn't the foggiest of how the thing works.  And I'm sure the same situation is there for Twitter, Skype, and the cluster of other 21st-century communicating methods. 

By now all 9-1-1 centers should have held a basic familiarity drill on the so-called social media and online phone services, followed up with a clear, established S.O.P. on how they will be handled.  I'm referring to a structured, well researched, formal training session that covers these methods.  What they are, how they work, and just as importantly, the nomenclature and jargon that accompanies the various programs.  If a call-taker gets a 9-1-1 incoming and the caller start jabbering about a Facebook friend who is 8,000 miles away needing an ambulance, you want that communications clerk to be able to communicate right away without having figure out what this caller is talking about.  This is a major shift in personal communications and we are obliged to be shifting along with it.  So how is your emergency dispatch center measuring up?  If they're not, then do what you can to get the show on the road to upgrade their "baseline of knowledge."

Now let's get our 19th-century clipboards out and start checking out this equipment.  I'll see that the coffee pot gets refilled and then meet you back in the day room in a little while.

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Posted by on October 17, 2011 • Filed under: dispatch, morning lineup • Tagged:

Daft Dispatch Priorities Deny Apprehension of Drunk Driver

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"Sir, You're Not Allowed to Use Your Phone While Driving"

RETIRED CANADIAN MOUNTIE ROB LAIRD couldn't believe what he was hearing while he was reporting a drunk driver to dispatchers in Alberta.  Laird was driving one recent night when he saw a car weaving dangerously along the road.  He tells Canoe News:  "Completely over into the left-hand lane forcing vehicles to take the ditch and shoulder, then back again and down into the other ditch where I thought 'he'll end it here and roll it' but this went on for a long ways.  Finally we pulled up to a traffic light by Okotoks and stopped so I wrote the licence plate down and phoned 911."

He reported what he had observed along with the plate number and said that he was following the car.  But he wasn't ready for what he heard next from the dispatcher.  Canoe.ca continues:

Laird said he was told not to follow the vehicle any longer as he was breaking the law himself.

"She said 'are you on hands-free?' and I said 'no, I'm not' and she says 'sir, I want you to hang up because you are breaking the law and I want you to cease following that vehicle.'"

Laird didn't listen, however, and after hanging up, said he followed the SUV to Black Diamond. "I watched him get out and stagger and fall and grab his golf clubs out of the trunk and stagger into the house and basically get away with this crime," he said.

Given the gravity of the situation, Laird said the police should have been more worried about a potential drunk driver than his holding a cell phone to his ear.

Laird-the-Lawbreaker displays his cellphone.
(Wells / QMI photo)

No police ever did show up and Laird is befuddled.  Now that the incident is public, the police are doing some double-clutching and claiming that they have already "opened an investigation" into the incident.

Read the full STORY HERE.

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Posted by on September 24, 2011 • Filed under: dispatch, News • Tagged: , ,

London Ambulance Service goes back to manual call taking

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New 999 call taking system placed out of service

Updated at 10.10pm

To be attributed to a London Ambulance Service spokesperson:

"We are currently still using our manual system for managing 999 calls; this involves recording calls on paper and passing information to ambulance crews over the radio.

"We switched to this system earlier today (8 June) after we experienced technical issues with a new 999 computer system that we introduced last night.

"We have now decided that we will revert back to using our original computer system while the issues with the new system are being resolved; we will do this in the early hours of tomorrow morning.

“Our priority remains to answer all incoming 999 calls, giving priority to those patients with the most serious illnesses and injuries.

“We would ask people to use their ambulance service wisely at this time and consider where else they may be able to get medical help if it is not an emergency, for example NHS Direct, walk-in centres or minor injuries units.”

- Ends -

A similar problem occured in 1992.

From this University College London online course by Ian Sommerville:

The London Ambulance Service introduced a new computer-aided despatch system in 1992 which was intended to automate the system that despatched ambulances in response to calls from the public and the emergency services.

This new system was extremely inefficient and ambulance response times increased markedly.

Shortly after its introduction, it failed completely and LAS reverted to the previous manual system.

The systems failure was not just due to technical issues but to a failure to consider human and organisational factors in the design of the system.

Software Engineering 7 Case study: The London Ambulance Service Despatching System

Mike "FossilMedic" Ward

 

Posted by on June 8, 2011 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, ambulances, communications, dispatch, EMS Topics, News, Technology & Communications, Vehicle Operation & Ambulances • Tagged: , , , , ,

Dispatcher Tells Caller That He’s In a Place That Doesn’t Exist, Refuses to Dispatch an Ambualnce

1 comment

Who do you believe, me or your lying eyes?

THE VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA, AMBULANCE SERVICE has had to publicly apologize for failing to dispatch an ambulance promptly when the caller was told that he was in a non-existent location.  The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting:

Peter Rennie was driving along the Daylesford-Ballarat Road at Dean, about 20 kilometres north-east of Ballarat, when he came across a car that had smashed into a tree on May 23.  Another motorist stayed with the injured woman who was trapped inside the vehicle while Mr Rennie ran to the nearest corner – the intersection with Dean-Mollongghip Road – to call an ambulance.

He spelt out the road sign to the operator over his mobile phone, only to be told his location didn't exist.

"I didn't know how to pronounce it so I spelt it out right from the start," Mr Rennie told the Ballarat Courier. "When I spoke to an operator, I was told there was nowhere in Victoria called Dean.

"I couldn't believe it. I said the system had no idea, and then I was told to check my attitude. I said to them: 'What do we do? Do we leave this poor woman in the car to die?' "

Eventually the dispatcher "found" the location and sent the ambulance.

The Ambulance Victoria inquiry into a complaint filed about the call found out that the call-taker was "dismissive" of the caller and failed to follow the proper protocols.  She has been given a stern order to undergo remedial training.

Read the full story in the Sydney Morning Herald HERE.
Ambulance Victoria WEBSITE.

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Posted by on May 31, 2011 • Filed under: ambulances, dispatch, EMS Topics • Tagged: ,

Don’t They Have Street Drills Anymore?

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After the Computer Was Corrected, They Still Go the Wrong Way

"It’s totally ridiculous, totally ridiculous … It’s hard on the head. You’re standing there, you’re waiting and they go the other way. Three times, can’t they get it right?"

THOSE WERE THE PLAINTIVE WORDS of Art Gerard telling the local newspaper about a recent call for ambulance service for his wife when, for the third time, the ambulance crew went off in the wrong direction instead of directly to his house in the Prince Edward Island town of Summerside.

Prince Edward Island (P.E.I.) is Canada's smallest province with a population of 141,000 people.  So it is understandable to be puzzled when an emergency service can't find your house when there aren't that many addresses to begin with.  After the second incident where the ambulance got lost, Gerard had the information added onto the dispatch computer that his house was directly across from the Salvation Army center, a well-known landmark to everybody.  The primary 911 center for the island is in Charlottetown and there is a regional center in Summerside where the Gerards live.  But when he called for the ambulance, according to the guy assigned to explain all this, the "circuits were overloaded" and the call was redirected to Charlottetown.

An Island EMS ambulance  (CBC photo)

Apparently the updated information was not duplicated on Charlottestown's computer and the locals once again turned right instead of left, even though a map showing the location pops up on the ambulance computer terminal.  Street drills and map-reading skills are obviously low priority activities on P.E.I. 

The Summerside Journal Pioneer has the full story complete with excuses and finger-pointing HERE.
Island EMS WEBSITE.

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Posted by on May 24, 2011 • Filed under: ambulances, dispatch, EMS Topics, Vehicle Operation & Ambulances • Tagged: ,

A New Record For Prank 9-1-1 Calls

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Keeping the Keypad Humming….

Fayette County Public Service Building (Google Street View)

A FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, MAN is in jail after being arrested Tuesday night and charged with 2,760 counts relating to six charges involving 9-1-1 abuse.

Chad Everett Cooper, 21, was picked up by a Uniontown police detective after the supervisor of the county emergency dispatch center reported a series of abusive phone calls to 9-1-1 over a period of 17 days, April 14 to May 1.  The Tribune-Review reports:

Detective Donald Gmitter this morning said Cooper used a cell phone to make the calls. "He would call and ask the dispatchers what kind of panties they had on, whether they were thongs, and ask them questions about sex," Gmitter said. The police then used GPS tracking coordinates provided by the 911 center to narrow the caller`s location to a Masontown address. With that information, along with other details provided by the cell-phone manufacturer, police were able to identify Cooper.

When police confronted Cooper late Tuesday at his residence, Gmitter said Cooper had the cell phone in his pocket. Police used the phone to call 911, which confirmed it as the one used to make the calls, Gmitter said.

After questioning him, Cooper admitted that he had made the calls.  He was then arraigned on  445 counts each of stalking; harassment involving acts of lewd, lascivious, threatening or obscene language; harassment for making anonymous calls; harassment with intent to harass, annoy or alarm another person; obstructing the administration of law and disorderly conduct.

The Uniontown Herald-Standard has MORE.

Firegeezer calculates that to be just over 162 violations per day.  A busy boy, indeed.

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Posted by on May 4, 2011 • Filed under: communications, crime, dispatch, Fire Rescue Topics • Tagged: , , ,

Cleveland Call-Taker Mis-Codes Ambulance Emergency, Fails to Dispatch

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"It could be several hours…."

A CLEVELAND WOMAN, BETH GANGIDINE saw her son choking and was afraid that he was going to die right before her eyes on April 15.  The 21-yr.-old special needs lad has a variety of health problems and needs living assistance, but when he started gagging, his mother knew that he could not breathe and she called 9-1-1.

The call-taker took her information and you will hear the phone conversation on this video report.  The operator told her that no ambulances were available and it could be several hours before she could get one.  Gangadine and her husband bundled their choking son in the family car and rushed him to the hospital themselves where he was treated for a "reflux problem."  After things calmed down and they had all returned home, the Gangadines filed a complaint with the Cleveland Fire Department and they are currently investigating the incident.

WJW-TV Ch. 8 has a good, comprehensive report on the entire situation in this video:

 

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Posted by on April 27, 2011 • Filed under: ambulances, dispatch, EMS Topics, Videos • Tagged: , ,

Press “1″ for English

4 comments

"What'd she say?"

THE MOBILE, ALABAMA, FIRE DEPARTMENT is phasing in a dispatch system where the radio dispatch transmissions are being broadcast by an automated digital voice.

The new system has been utilized on a trial basis for the past month and is now being brought online for full operation.  The call-takers and dispatchers still function as always with the call-taker entering the info. into the computer, sending it to the fire dispatcher who reviews the call and initiates the proper response.  What's different is that instead of the dispatcher following up with a vocal over the radio, an automated voice takes over and announces the dispatch.

Fire Chief Stephen Dean indicates on this video report that the procedure does not eliminate any jobs, but instead assures a consistent tone and diction to the "radio voice."  Watch WALA-TV Ch. 10's report:

 

Firegeezer says:  Always cynical, especially when major expenditures are committed without any savings, I am wondering out loud.

1)  If the dispatchers' diction and "accents" are a problem, wouldn't hiring a tutor be a lot cheaper than purchasing this equipment and new software? 
2)  Is the City admitting that they are employing people to talk on the radio who are not qualified to talk on the radio?
3)  Surely a department with a dispatch system this sophisticated has computer terminals in the cabs of the apparatus that display the address and details in printed format.  If that's the case, then the "accent" problem is overriden.
4)  Saves time?  Come on…..
5)  I'll bet you that the vendor who sold Mobile on this system convinced them that this could lead to eventually eliminating positions and relying on the computer for more and more phases of the call-taking and dispatch functions.

There's probably more to this story that we haven't been told yet.

Mobile Fire and Rescue Department WEBSITE.

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Posted by on April 12, 2011 • Filed under: communications, dispatch, Fire Rescue Topics, Videos • Tagged: ,

Bureaucrats Bungle Another One

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Yet They Keep Getting Re-elected

THIS TIME IT’S FROM THE WORLD’S CAPITAL of bungling bureaucrats, Washington, D. C.  The D. C. City Council members, who use taxpayer dollars to buy $70,000 SUV’s for themselves to drive around town in, decided that they needed to offset those types of expenditures by furloughing the city’s employees for four days this year.  But they forgot to include one important amendment to the law.  The Washington Examiner reports:

In December, the D.C. Council approved four furlough days for District employees, leaving them without pay on national holidays to save the city $19 million. Police officers, and fire and rescue workers were exempt, but dispatchers at the 911 call center were required to take the time off. In the weeks before the first furlough day, the union representing the call-takers pleaded with members of the (Mayor) Vincent Gray administration to exempt them, too. Those pleas went unanswered.

When the city administrator ignored their warning, refusing to even respond to their communications, they tried to bring the impending problem to the attention of the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety, but he stiffed them, too.

D. C. Unified Communications Center

So when the first fulough day arrived on February 21-22, the city’s 9-1-1 call takers and dispatchers took their forced leave on the midnight-to-6 am shift.  Instead of the usual complement of 16 emergency communications technicians on duty, there were only three in the emergency center (and they were probably supervisors… Ed.).  During that night, despite their best desperate efforts to help the innocent victims of fires, heart attacks, and assorted crimes, at least 200 calls for help were never answered.

Last week, before they drove away in their custom Lincoln Navigators, the city council modified their furlough legislation to permit the communications clerks to spread out their furlough days over a lengthier period of time.

One of Councilman Kwame Brown’s two brand-new Navigators
(Examiner photo)

The Examiner has the STORY.

Posted by on March 5, 2011 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, dispatch, Funding & Staffing • Tagged:

Morning Lineup – February 17

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Thursday Morning Lineup

A bit of news from the Federal budget considerations that are going on in Congress right now.  The House of Representatives is working on a bill known as a “continuing resolution” that will continue fiscal activity for this current year that has never really been approved.  Last year Congress failed to pass a budget for the fiscal year that started on October 1, so they shirked their responsibilities and passed a series of these resolutions that continue the previous year’s budget until a new one can be passed.

The new Congress was seated last month and work began on still another continuance and this one had completely eliminated the SAFER grants and chopped the FIRE Act grants by 20%.  An amendment to the bill being considered was offered that calls for restoration of both programs in the current budget and it was scheduled for a vote yesterday.  The IAFF mounted an all-out lobbying effort supplemented by thousands of members phoning their congressmen’s offices to encourage a yes vote.  The vote to accept the ammendment passed handily in a broad, bi-partison approval, 318 – 113.  The final vote on the entire bill will come up next week and is expected to be approved and then sent on to the Senate for consideration.  There will still need to be some lobbying efforts by both the Union and the fire departments to make sure that the Senate retains this clause, but yesterday’s vote was the big one.  The fact that it was so overwhelmingly supported by both political parties will carry a lot of weight in the Senate’s considerations.

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It was a week ago today that we posted a story about a large fire in Verona, Italy, the burned out a large grocery distribution warehouse.  Since then, the National Vigili del Fuoco has posted an excellent 8-minute video of the fire and we added it to our posting last night.  I mention it now because I know a lot of our readers enjoy seeing the equipment and apparatus that the FD’s in other countries use, and this video gives many good views of the Italian fire apparatus.  So CLICK HERE and then scroll down to the updated video posted at the end of the article.

Italy’s national fire service does an excellent job with their video and photographic documentation of their major incidents and training operations.  We have posted articles on them several times here and I’m impressed with their productions.

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Did you know that yesterday was the 43rd anniversary of the U. S.’s first 9-1-1 call?  I didn’t either, but the Gnome Handler, Steve Marshall did and he posted a nice, informative article about it last evening.  If you missed it, then CLICK HERE to read about it.  He’s got some neat photos with it, too.  One of the biggest surprises is where the first 9-1-1 dispatch center was located.

We all know where our apparatus is located, though.  So let’s get started on our morning equipment check.  I’m going to get some more coffee started.

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Posted by on February 17, 2011 • Filed under: dispatch, morning lineup, News • Tagged: , ,

February 16 – A Day in Dispatching History

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America’s First 9-1-1 Call Commemorated

WHO WOULD HAVE GUESSED THAT 43 YEARS AGO, an Alabama town would be on the cutting edge of American emergency services?

On February 16th, 1968, tiny Haleyville Alabama, population 4,100 people, would throw the switch and enter a new era of emergency communications that would spread across the world….they were activating the very first 911 system in the U. S.

The Town Added the Small Sign to Remind
Everybody of the New Emergency Number

Haleyville was selected by Alabama Telephone Company engineers for a number of reasons, mostly dealing with the hardware available.  The 999 and other centralized emergency numbers had been tried in Canada and the UK but for various reasons, including eliminating possible dialing errors when dialing 999 with a rotary phone, the engineers went with 911.

In this photograph from the Feb. 9, 1968 issue of the “Daily Northwest Alabamian,” B.W. Gallagher (left),
president of the Alabama Telephone Co., displays the bright red telephone that was installed at the
Haleyville (Ala.) police station to receive the first 911 call. In the middle is Haleyville mayor James Whitt.

ATCs President, Bob Gallagher, had read an article in the New York Times about AT&Ts plan to try 911….and he was a very competitive man.  He rushed the arrangements through and got the first system up and running just 35 days after reading AT&Ts announcement.  That first call was made by Alabama State Speaker of the House, Rankin Fite, at the Haleyville City Hall, on the other end was US Rep. Tom Bevill at Haleyville’s Police Station.

State Rep. Rankin Fite placing the first-ever 911 call from the mayor’s office.

U.S. Rep. Tom Bevill answers the first 911 call at the
Haleyville police station with a ”Hello.”

The red dial phone that was used for the very first test call is now housed in a museum in Haleyville, with its identical mate still in use in the courthouse.

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Posted by on February 16, 2011 • Filed under: dispatch, history, Technology & Communications • Tagged: ,