Ill. Departments Eye Better Way to Share Resources

Feb. 16--BLOOMINGTON -- On a late-December morning, the Bloomington Fire Department was fighting a fire at a six-unit apartment building on Croxton Avenue.

While there, dispatchers called the department out to nine other emergencies, including another structure fire, tapping the city's emergency crews to the limit at most stations, said Bloomington Fire Chief Mike Kimmerling.

"We ran so many other calls at that time we essentially had to re-create the department," he said, explaining a reliance on their Normal counterpart.

Cooperation with the Normal Fire Department through the widely adopted mutual aid system is not unusual and is effective for responding to major disasters, but Kimmerling said the day of the Croxton fire that cooperation could have been enhanced and made more efficient through more direct communication and greater knowledge of the Normal crews' own demands.

Bloomington dispatchers can send emergency calls the Bloomington department can't handle to the closest Normal station, but they don't know whether that station is occupied, or out on another call, Kimmerling said. If the closest station is unoccupied, the call might go to the next closest Normal station, but that could be farther than the next closest Bloomington station that may be occupied. In that instance, the travel time could become lengthier than necessary, or the time it takes to get a crew in motion could be longer if the communication element becomes a relay.

It would be more efficient, he said, if both departments used the same automatic vehicle locating (AVL) system that would have allowed dispatchers to see where all emergency vehicles were, allowing them to dispatch calls to the closest vehicle, rather than a potentially unoccupied station.

Such a system is among the recommendations for increased cooperation between the two departments included in an Illinois Fire Chief's Association study of the city's department released this week.

IFCA executive director Robert Buhs said many communities are advancing beyond the more basic mutual aid systems of cooperation to more automatic assistance, including through AVL.

"If we can do it for big disasters, why can't we do it for more routine stuff?" Buhs said. "Many organizations are realizing they just can't do it themselves. They're depending more on their neighbors."

Bloomington already has an AVL system but Normal learned this week it won't receive a $300,000 grant through the Illinois Terrorism Task Force to adopt an AVL system for the entire county, said Normal Fire Chief Mick Humer.

"The northeast part of both of our communities, we both know that's an issue," he said, listing higher-risk institutions in that area, including Normal Community High School and Meadows at Mercy Creek assisted living facility.

Humer said an AVL system could be part of the solution. He said the department hasn't yet discussed potential cooperative ideas or other issues, like aging buildings, with the Normal council, but the town plans to in March.

Buhs said just as key to better coverage is developing a mutual "response card" for areas near the town-city line to tell dispatchers which emergency responders to call -- not based on jurisdiction but on which department is closer.

"Even though the 911 caller may be from Bloomington, across the street Normal may be closer with an ambulance. They need to identify those areas," he said, noting that the card would "knock down all the borders."

The IFCA report also recommends the Twin Cities develop a joint emergency liaison committee to explore those and similar firefighting and emergency medical service partnerships.

Regardless of whether the two departments enact the recommendations, the IFCA recommends the city take additional steps to insure adequate protection in Bloomington, especially in the northeast quadrant, where the travel time for fire alarms from Station No. 3 are most often the longest in the city, according the report.

The recommendations include adding an engine company to Station No. 3 at 2301 E. Empire St. that Kimmerling said would probably cost about $1.6 million in the first year, and installing better technology that allows emergency vehicles to preempt traffic signals. Kimmerling said Bloomington has some of that technology now but wants to expand it.

Copyright 2013 - The Pantagraph, Bloomington, Ill.