Stony Point Fire 9/19/11 Article

[SRS131EMTFF 471]

I found this article about the fire in Stony Point.

3 Stony Point firefighters pull badly burned woman for home; clothes may have caught fire while she cooked

http://www.lohud.com/article/20110920/NEWS03/109200357/3-Stony-Point-firefighters-pull-badly-burned-woman-home-clothes-may-caught-fire-while-she-cooked?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Frontpage

Great job by the brothers with the rescue, hopefully the victim makes a full recovery.

I do have one question. Can any elaborate on the quote from the article below? Do they mean that the cell phone call for 911 would have gone to the 911 answering center in Mount Pleasant?

"A bit of good fortunate occurred when the two people living on the first floor escaped the fire and called the Stony Point police directly by cell phone without using 911, fire officials said.

In that section of town, the 911 call would likely have gone to a police force in Westchester County, fire officials said.

The response time was faster as a result of calling the police directly, said John Kryger, a deputy fire coordinator for Rockland County Fire and Emergency Services.

"It was a stroke of luck and led to a much quicker response," Kryger said. "If the call went into Westchester, there's no knowing how much time would have gone by."

[Goose 188]

If the cellular call is received through a Westchester County cell tower then it would have likely gone to the state police or some other local PSAP. Happens all the time

[x635 4,066]

If the cellular call is received through a Westchester County cell tower then it would have likely gone to the state police or some other local PSAP. Happens all the time

Unfortunately, it does. It costs crucial minutes, and I've even had calls transferred three or four times until they reached the right call center.

Last I heard, APCO was pushing for a GPS coordinate location mandate so the caller gets the closest 911 center to where they are calling from and that 911 Center can get an almost exact location. Given it's the FCC and it would cost the carriers millions, we'll probably see it in 20 years.

[JFLYNN 681]

Unfortunately, it does. It costs crucial minutes, and I've even had calls transferred three or four times until they reached the right call center.

Last I heard, APCO was pushing for a GPS coordinate location mandate so the caller gets the closest 911 center to where they are calling from and that 911 Center can get an almost exact location. Given it's the FCC and it would cost the carriers millions, we'll probably see it in 20 years.

Maybe FASNY could add something like this to their legislative agenda...

[x635 4,066]

Maybe FASNY could add something like this to their legislative agenda...

As well as the IAFF, NYSAFC, IAFC, PBA, NFPA, Unilever, and local governments.

[FirNaTine 370]

Never had a problem with the Gamewells

[JohnnyOV 2]

Unfortunately, it does. It costs crucial minutes, and I've even had calls transferred three or four times until they reached the right call center.

Last I heard, APCO was pushing for a GPS coordinate location mandate so the caller gets the closest 911 center to where they are calling from and that 911 Center can get an almost exact location. Given it's the FCC and it would cost the carriers millions, we'll probably see it in 20 years.

if we got rid of the 50+ PSAPs in Westchester and had a centrally located 911 answering point for the county... big cities can have their own... we could eliminate all the transferring and BS that goes on in delaying response, for ALL agencies. Our last fire, we heard our PD going out on the job since the call went to PD first, geared up, jumped in the rigs and were out the door as the tones were dropping. Probably a good 1:30-2 minutes after the PD was initially dispatched.

If our motto of "seconds count" really matters, why don't we abide by it ourselves?

[INIT915 1,119]

if we got rid of the 50+ PSAPs in Westchester and had a centrally located 911 answering point for the county... big cities can have their own... we could eliminate all the transferring and BS that goes on in delaying response, for ALL agencies. Our last fire, we heard our PD going out on the job since the call went to PD first, geared up, jumped in the rigs and were out the door as the tones were dropping. Probably a good 1:30-2 minutes after the PD was initially dispatched.

If our motto of "seconds count" really matters, why don't we abide by it ourselves?

Just to clarify, there is a central PSAP for Cell 911. From there, based on information to the caller provides, it is forwarded to one of the 50 individual PSAP's by landline. With current technology, cell calls that come in, come in at a certain "Phase", which dictates if the 911 operator can pinpoint the caller to a degree of a few meters or something more broad, such as a few miles.

The problem with Stony Point is, some of the closet, unimpeded cell towers are inevitably going to be in the Garrison/Peekskill/Cortlandt area. It's a straight, line-of-sight shot across the Hudson. Easier for that roaming cell signal to latch onto those towers, versus going inland into Rockland County. I say some, not all.

[Remember585 815]

Many cellular 911 calls for those of us on both shores of the Hudson River will bounce to a cell tower on the other side of us.

A lot of incidents in our neck of the woods that are called in via cellular 911 go to towers in Rockland County.

If more people would follow my philosophy of not getting involved in other peoples' business, then nobody would call 911, thus eliminating this problem!

(I'm just kidding, of course)