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Educating the public
For who knows how long the fire service has always been about educating the public on fire safety and prevention, but is there another part of education we're missing.
I've been in this 'biz for quite some time and have seen a lot, but something that seems to becoming more and more common is false calls. Obviously we don't want the public not to call 9-1-1, but maybe we need to try and educate them better on when to call or maybe take that extra second to investigate further.
Seriously, how many "Structure fire at such-n-such Road, caller was passerby" have turned out to be a bon fire that had 3 foot flames have you been called out on?
I don't know how many 9-1-1 cell calls I took as a dispatcher where the caller was excited as he** and saying "It looks really really bad!" and they transported one patient as an A-.
Maybe we need to find out the callers address or phone and inform them of exactly what it was so they don't wonder why the fire department didn't put the fire out?
Or am I just getting old and tired of it all? LOL
~Chris
www.buscofire.com
I've been in this 'biz for quite some time and have seen a lot, but something that seems to becoming more and more common is false calls. Obviously we don't want the public not to call 9-1-1, but maybe we need to try and educate them better on when to call or maybe take that extra second to investigate further.
Seriously, how many "Structure fire at such-n-such Road, caller was passerby" have turned out to be a bon fire that had 3 foot flames have you been called out on?
I don't know how many 9-1-1 cell calls I took as a dispatcher where the caller was excited as he** and saying "It looks really really bad!" and they transported one patient as an A-.
Maybe we need to find out the callers address or phone and inform them of exactly what it was so they don't wonder why the fire department didn't put the fire out?
Or am I just getting old and tired of it all? LOL
~Chris
www.buscofire.com
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Chris Tomlinson on
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The worst thing that we can do is to discourage people from calling in.
Oh, no no, I don't want that at all. Never would dream of asking people not to call, but the enormous amount of cell callers wasting not only our time, but countless police resources with "This driver is driving reckless!" calls is an overuse in my opinion.
I guess what I'm trying to get at is maybe helping people better understand fire, they may not jump on the phone in a nano-second to call without thinking first.
Or maybe I'm just getting old? :o /
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We'd probably have a pretty boring job eh?
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Permalink Reply by paula beckham on
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i know what you are saying chris but i go with better safe than sorry we get quite a few false fire call here every autum because thats farmer burn time and a bunch of townies driving down the hiway see smoke and ring it in yes its a pain but i would rather go check it out and find nothing than find out later someone lost a life.
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