9-1-1 fire dispatch

[thefarnz]

HI, my name is Brian Farnsworth. I am working for a company in Salt Lake City to develop a protocol system for responding to fire/rescue emergencies. I will be resonsible for training the dispatchers on how to use these protocols. As part of that, I would like to know from actual fire fighters, what fire terminology they feel dispatchers should know and what information fire fighters would like when going on certain calls.

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Brian Farnsworth
Instructional Designer
Medical Priority
139 East South Temple Suite 500
Salt Lake City, UT 84111
(801) 363-9127

[Bob Snyder]

<< Original Post Removed >>

Brian, I'm glad to hear (from your email) that you have people in the field researching the issues. In that case, this forum could be useful for you. Still, you may get more out of this inquiry if you can focus it a bit. As it stands, this is an incredibly broad question.

As far as terminology goes, there really are no standards actually in use (although there are written standards somewhere, I'm sure). If you were to listen to the fire dispatch frequencies for the six counties around my residence, for example, you'd hear six distinct systems of unit designations, terminology, general procedure, etc. This is a very difficult issue to address as things stand in the field today.

In terms of what we need to know, there are some common threads:

Clear, accurate locations, with addresses and cross-streets
Clear, accurate and concise description of the incident
Clear, accurate and concise relay of information from the scene or from aditional callers telling us how the incident is evolving as we travel to the scene
Ability to effectively prioritize and react to multiple, sometimes overlapping, transmissions to make sure that apparatus get to where they need to be with the proper instructions
Dispatchers with an understanding of what's going on in the field...they don't need to be firefighters, but they should know what the units they are talking to actually do in the field
There are more, I'm sure.


Thing is, most fire scenes aren't like most EMS scenes...there are a lot more units coming from a lot more places with a lot of different things to do in a very short period of time. I'm not suggesting that the functions of EMS are less critical or less technical, just that they are much more compact.

I hope that this gets the discussion started for you. I'll add to this as I think of things that may be relevant.


[This message has been edited by Bob Snyder (edited September 17, 1999).]

[Ledbelly]

Brian,
Though I agree with Ed...I was also going to suggest you get with Salt Lake City FD; I have found that departments all use different, tho' similar, terms to describe various actions/functions/etc. (make a lay, catch a hyrant, wrap a hydrant, etc.) It would probably be best to learn the terms/lingo of SLC FD if that's where your dispatchers will work.
Lee