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We all get them, The calls that the police need to secure before we can respond
We all have probably ran a call where the scene isn't secure that they request the EMS or FD to stage at a given place and then respond when police notify us that the scene is safe. So my question for discussion is here in my county the dispatchers do not give us the address or even the street that the potential call is on I know why they do this so that no one goes to the call immediately but one three different occasions 2 in my district 1 in my old district where I feel that by us responding to the hall and even once we were on the trucks going to the staging location that dispatch told us to we have put our FF in harms way. the most recent one was a suicide attempt that they had us stage a crossed the street from and our trucks had to drive right by the house to get to the staging place but we didn't know where the call was. the next one was a person who was high on several drugs had access to weapons and they had us stage at the corner of that street still not that far away but 4 of our firefighters including myself and my father travel the street the call was on to get to our hall so we drove right by the house again not knowing where the call was, and the last and most dangerous one was in my old district we had a call put out to stand by for poss. response to assist police so me and my father respond from our home to the hall only to later find out that the police call was for a ex boyfriend outside of the house of the ex girlfriend treating to kill her with the handgun he had on him weapon drawn only for us to find out that the call was at my neighbors house and the guy was walking between my house and their house and we both just ran by him and leaving my family now at home alone. so i think they need to start notifying the location of the call to avoid this kinda problem what do you think?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Royce Terry on
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Our County sets off our tones its more common for EMS calls but set off our tones for police activity in the area, or repond to your station and call fire control (dispatch). We get to the firehouse then we call "dispatch" via phone and we recieve the address. Then we normaly stage right at the firehouse if its in town or just out of town but if its way out of town they normaly stage 1 to 2 miles away to not spook anyone or anything so we dont really have a problem with driving right by the house.
But i can see where you are coming from.
Maybe when you recieve the call call dispatch via phone and ask where the address to the house is so you can plan a route around the house so you dont accidently drive right by it to spook anyone.
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Permalink Reply by Brian Dumser on
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You mean your dispatchers don't give out the address in the initial dispatch?
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Permalink Reply by PFC Harmon on
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They tell us the address but advise us to stage and the fire department OIC decides the staging area. There has been some cases where I have to pass the scene to get to the fire hall so I will tell the other responders where to stage and I will stage on the other side.
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Permalink Reply by Tony P on
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There can be many issues with this type of call. We get the full address in our pager message, but are told on turnout to run quiet and stage several streets away (the Police nominate the staging street). We also don't respond direct, so that aspect is covered. But with vols all being locals, there's always the chance that we'll be attempting to drive past the address - especially since in our case we won't know there's a safety issue until we get the further information on turnout! We have to trust that the Police will have the street closed off.
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Permalink Reply by John on
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No they dont only give us stageing location that Disp decides on usually way to close to scene
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Permalink Reply by Peter Lupkowski on
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We have a "standy by at your station" alert, and then we call and get the details. We can also turn up the scanner and listen to the police dispatch and get the whole scoop. I appreciate the concern for my safety, but it is irritating that on some calls we can't be trusted with the information.
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Perhaps it's not a matter of not being trusted, but just that until our assistance is definitely needed, it's none of our business? A matter of privacy for the individuals concerned? I'm not having a go at you Peter, it's just the way I perceive it...
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Tony, I understand and may select my words more carefully in the future. BUT as previous posts have mentioned driving by the scene or recognizing the address have good and bad points. I think that witholding the address and incident because scannerland may hear it is just potentially creating other problems. Sounds like I have a protocol change to talk about at our next communiations meeting!
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I agree, the base information needs to be there. We always get the address of an incident, it's part of our alerting pager message. And has been very usefull at times for someone to arrive at the Station with extra information as he/she has driven past the incident. If the police want us to standby at Station, that info is given when we radio a turnout message - so scannerland can hear all about it. Is it good that scannerland can hear so much? Maybe not, but that's life.
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The bad thing in the U.S. is chances are if someone has the fire channel in thier scanner, they usually have the police channel. So they are going to hear it anyway Peter, I would make sure to ask the dispatch supervisor to say the addrersse in the page. Just make sure your firefighters know what the word stage means.
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