FD347

FDNY Runs & Workers - It's that time again.

Item 1: those are Squad 8's numbers. I mixed up 8 and 18. Item 3: Another typo. It should have been 48. They're all fixed now and thanks for nitpicking. (After a few hours of typing all those numbers I tend to get cross eyed.)

A new stat this year: Special Units now have a column for All-Hands or Greater. http://www.fdnewyork.com/rnwindex.asp

It took me a while to get the data but better late than never. Runs & Workers

The annual numbers are here: The main page: www.FDNewYork.com/rnwindex.asp The top 10: www.FDNewYork.com/top10.asp

A worker is any run where some type of work is done be it outside rubbish, fire in a vacant or a false alarm (the investigation is considered work.) OSW, occupied structural worker, is any FIRE in an OCCUPIED STRUCTURE. All hands simply means 3 engines and 2 trucks are at work for whatever reason. I've had all hands car fires, MVA's, carbon monoxide incidents and other types of non-fire workers. Does that help?

The annual numbers are here: The main page: www.FDNewYork.com/rnwindex.asp The top 10: www.FDNewYork.com/top10.asp

www.nyc.gov/html/dob/downloads/pdf/ll_0573.pdf www.nyc.gov/html/dob/downloads/bldgs_code/locallaw26of04.pdf Good luck reading legalese.

It is only a coincidence that some box numbers align with the first due battalion. The boxes were installed when NYC was comprised of only Manhattan and Bronx. They started at the Battery and continued north to the City line, leaving only a few box numbers in reserve for future expansion. (The last street box in Manhattan is 1888 and the first in Da Bronx is 2103. Since then the 1900 series were installed on Welfare/Roosevelt and Ward's/Randall's Island. The 2000 series boxes are in Battery Park City.) This is why there are no duplicate box numbers between the 2 boroughs and why they had the same borough prefix in the days of telegraph.

I'll try to explain the system in a nutshell but it's going to be a pretty big shell, and it's definitely nuts. NYC 911 was located for years in 1 Police Plaza in lower Manhattan. In the mid-1990's they were kicked out and moved to downtown Brooklyn, Metrotech. They have 2 basic functions, call taker and radio dispatcher. Depending on the time of day they can have 60-80 call takers working at once. They also have over 2 dozen radio positions that operate on a 24 hour basis. Between 911 operators, radio dispatchers, relief personnel, supervisors and other uniforms there are about 200 people on duty at a time. Their civil service title is Police Communications Technician: http://www.nyc.gov/h...1202013000.pdf. Their CADS is custom written and they call it SPRINT. NYC*EMS (as it was known before the hostile takeover) was located in Maspeth, Queens, until the late 1990's. A sinkhole formed under their building forcing them to move out in a hurry. For a while they operated from a double-wide trailer in their parking lot before they too were moved into Metrotech, 2 blocks from 911. Their dispatchers and call receiving operators are EMTs (http://www.nyc.gov/h...01202004000.pdf) and their supervisors (lieutenants and captains) are medics (http://www.nyc.gov/h...00808501000.pdf). Their CADS is also custom written but I don't know if it has a name. FDNY had (past tense) 5 central offices, one to each borough prior to 2003. Most of you probably know the history but the basic stuff is here: http://www.fdnewyork.com/article.asp. Also in the late 1990's the fire department (now fully taken over by NYC*EMS) decided to decentralize the EMS dispatching facility and put them in the 5 FDNY central offices. Then came 9/11, Mayor billionaire and his scheme to integrate the entire operation, all 3 services , into 1 operation, 1 job title, 1 agency outside of FDNY and NYPD. His grand scheme was to create 2 new facilities, PSAC's, put half the city in each one. We're about half way there now in PSAC 1. Look for a completely new system to be in place in the next 3 to 10 years depending on how long they can delay the construction of PSAC 2 and the creation of the next CADS that can do all 3 jobs. (We're already in the selection phase and the scuttlebutt says it's just a formality, they're going with Intergraph because NYPD already contracted with them.) You can glean more information by using your favorite search engine and entering the phrase NYC ECTP. The current system looks like this: Bronx and Queens fire dispatch are still located in their respective FDNY central offices. The Bronx CO was remodeled so it can handle Manhattan fire dispatch should we have to evacuate PSAC 1. Similarly, Queens was remodeled to handle Brooklyn and Staten Island. The rest of the entire operation, 911, EMS and Brooklyn-Manhattan-SI fire dispatch are in PSAC 1. The flow of a 911 call hasn't changed much. Under the old system, if the caller reported a police matter, the police operator handled the call and sent it to their dispatcher. If the caller reported a medical emergency, the police operator interrogated the caller to ascertain the basics of the medical emergency, then patched the call to the EMS dispatch office for triage and ambulance dispatch. If the caller reported a fire, NYPD patched the call, before asking any questions, to the Fire Department central office of the borough in which the call originated. Under the new scheme that is not fully implemented yet, there will be no transfer of the call. The 911 operator will ascertain the location, perform medical triage and provide pre-arrival instructions for EMS and fire, then route the info to the respective dispatcher. I will not comment publicly about the new scheme because I have nothing positive to say about it. 'nuff said? So... how's that for a nutshell? Frank Raffa Supv. Dispatcher, FDNY Borough of Brooklyn www.FDNewYork.com