Responding without being paged or requested.

I would like to know what happens in your area if a Fire Department was responding to calls in the surounding areas with being paged by dispatch or being requested by the local Fire Department. Which means during the response no one knows that Fire Department is responding. They are responding with light and sirens going during the response and know one knows untill they show up on scene. What would happen in your area to the Department or Captain that tells his guys to respond.

If they were in an accident who would the person they hit go after the town, fire department or the captain that ordered the response. Would anyone be disciplined for the as far as I am concerned, Illegal response or is not illegal to respond in this way.

Thank you

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Permalink Reply by Marc on April 13, 2010 at 1:20am

In Los Angeles, a unit might be dispatched but if another unit is closer they can take the run as well, BUT THEY GET IT CLEARED FIRST!!!!!!!!! They get it cleared through OCD (our dispatch system). OCD most of the times agrees to this and sends the unit that requested to be attached, to the same call. It works out most of the time, altho there are those times when it does slip up(it only happened once in the 3 years i worked for them): we had a MVA once and we were dispatched as the first engine co. because it was in out first-in district. Well, 3 other engines and our Truck thought that they were closer, so we ended up having 3 Engines 1 Rescue-Ambulance and a Truck respond to a small little vender bender. Lucky this was relized when we got on scene and gave a size up, all the other units cancelled, or continued through non-emergency just to see if they could get a ppiece of the action. In the end, it ended up being Our Truck, Engine and Rescue-Ambulance. It was pretty funny when we got the updated message on the computer saying all these extra companies had added themselfs.

It was a slow day, we only had 2 calls in 24 hours. So, these other companies were just trying to get in on a run.

so just remember: GET IT CLEARED FIRST!!! we dont want anyone coming down with lawsuit

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Cole on April 16, 2010 at 9:34pm

I am having a hard time following this thread. It would be easier with proper sentence construction, phrasing, spell check, and grammer used.

Other than that...it's hard to understand the reasoning behind the alleged self-dispatch. As an Officer, I would certainly find myself in the Chief's Office for responding out of our communiy without being requested.

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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on April 16, 2010 at 10:33pm

Has LA given any thought to changing the terminology "OCD" to something else?
I realize that we love our jobs, but isn't that a little "obsessive"? :-)

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Permalink Reply by william cody gentry on April 16, 2010 at 10:56pm

our dept will not respond to a call unless we are paged out for the simple fact if something does happen the dept is NOT liable for anything that happens going to someone elses call....

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Permalink Reply by Tony Leonard,Jr. on April 17, 2010 at 12:19am

Art, we around here call this "CALL JUMPING"/"JUMPING THE CALL",it happens from time to time and,should a department jump a call,1 the officer of the truck gets chewed by the i.c.,2 they are told to go home NOW!,3 if they do not leav the officer and other crew put themselves at risk of being arrested by the P.D. for tresspassing,and quite possibly obstruction of gov't administration.Since they where not activated they should not have responded,PERIOD. Granted there is nothing wrong with standing by in quarters and waiting for activation,nor should it be a problem if the officer on duty called the i.c. to inquire if thier unit is needed,and if not to let i.c. know that they have a crew at the station for their apparatus if needed.Otherwise Stay put and wait for the call to come in.