Silent Response Policies

[Ging599 13]

I am in the process of putting together a slient response policy for my department and was wondering if any of you had a similar policy in effect. Not every alarm requires a "Code 3" response so I am trying to draw up a policy to address this. Any ideas or input is appreciated.

[50-65 205]

It's a shame that drivers/officers can't just use common sense based on dispatch information.

Some calls that I don't see automatically requiring a Code 3 response: Mulch fire in a parking lot, PD on scene of a PDAA requesting a washdown, 2nd and subsequent apparatus responses to small fires reported to be out, mmm... those are just a few that readily come to mind.

[x4093k 654]

It's a shame that drivers/officers can't just use common sense based on dispatch information.

Some calls that I don't see automatically requiring a Code 3 response: Mulch fire in a parking lot, PD on scene of a PDAA requesting a washdown, 2nd and subsequent apparatus responses to small fires reported to be out, mmm... those are just a few that readily come to mind.

Or "CO Alarm No Symptoms Call Back From Alarm Company, Dead Battery" or "Low Hanging Wires Off The Road"

[lt411 145]

I am in the process of putting together a slient response policy for my department and was wondering if any of you had a similar policy in effect. Not every alarm requires a "Code 3" response so I am trying to draw up a policy to address this. Any ideas or input is appreciated.

M'Ave can tell you what the FDNY current response policy is to various alarms. I know that most responses require the units other than 1st due engine or truck to go "non-emergency", unless the radio dispatcher has more information requiring "lights and sirens". (Obviously all units respond code 3 to reported structure fires,and life-threatening calls).

[Remember585 815]

We respond "Non-Emergency" for the following types of calls:

CO Alarms w/ no reported symptoms

Trouble with an Alarm

Fluid Spills

Tree Down in Roadway

MVA w/ No Injuries

Animal Complaints

Appliance Troubles (no smoke/fire)

Boat in Distress (stalled motor, etc.)

Lift Assists

Lock-Outs

Pump-Outs

Relocates to another Fire Station

[AFS1970 504]

Or "CO Alarm No Symptoms Call Back From Alarm Company, Dead Battery" ...

This brings up a sore point for me, that alarm companies rarely have actual information that is useful to either dispatchers or responders in making such a decision. After an experience in my old VFD when a large and seemingly reputable alarm company canceled a call, so the 1st due engine downgraded the response only to arrive and be met with the statement from the homeowner, "it was only a small fire" I am extremely suspicious of anything I get from them. When working in dispatch and an alarm company calls to cancel either a burglar or fire alarm (including CO) I have started asking for 3 things.

#1 the name of the keyholder who canceled the alarm. You would be amazed at the number of times the alarm company has only a first name or only a last name yet accepted a cancellation from Bob or Mr. Smith.

#2 is that keyholder on premises or not. Especially in a city where many residents work out of town, knowing that the homeowner is in NYC in an office building means that he really is not qualified to cancel any alarms in CT right now.

#3 What set off the alarm / reason for cancellation. I would say that 8 or 9 times out of 10 the only reason is that they got the password. Sometimes we are lucky enough to get, it was probably the cleaning lady (from that out of town keyholder).

So how does this factor into silent dispatch for the FD, well you are going to a fire alarm I just sent you to. All of a sudden I call the responding Chief and say that the alarm company is trying to cancel. Now in my city we never cancel fire alarms but will downgrade to a single engine, but that decision is being made on faulty information most of the time. So what would you do? Would you turn off the lights and siren? Then you get there to a fire because some guy reached on his cell phone while vacationing across the country knew the password was teddy bear.

Now same scenario and I relay to you that the alarm company is trying to cancel based on an off site keyholder who can give no cause for the alarm. Now you have some info (or at least a confirmed lack of it) to work with.

Maybe even the lucky third option. The alarm company is trying to cancel, homeowner is home and reports accidental activation due to steam from a shower. Now we have enough credible info to work with, all the switches go off some units head back to the barn and we reduce the risk to the public, our people and even our equipment.

Edited December 19, 2012 by AFS1970

[mstrang1 213]

Dec '12 Firehouse Magazine has an article about this.

[Ging599 13]

It's a shame that drivers/officers can't just use common sense based on dispatch information.

Some calls that I don't see automatically requiring a Code 3 response: Mulch fire in a parking lot, PD on scene of a PDAA requesting a washdown, 2nd and subsequent apparatus responses to small fires reported to be out, mmm... those are just a few that readily come to mind.

Believe me, I don't want to write more policies that further police the department but I stalled on this for a year and watched how responses went. I heard more absurd reasoning as to why they used the sirens for obvious non-emergency calls and got more complaints from people about the Q being wound up at 3am for no reason than I care to admit. I feel I have no other choice.

[INIT915 1,119]

Without beating a dead horse, as this topic has been addressed a number of times before, how come so many law enforcement agencies respond to burglar alarms no lights/no sirens, yet FD's roll a fleet of equipment, lights and sirens.

I believe Capt. Nechis has provided some useful stats in the past on the number of actual fires.

Is the risk to the dozens of first responders, civilian motorists and pedestrians worth the risk? It's not to the police, so I don't know why it is to our fire service brethren.

I'm willing to bet more civilians and MOS's have been injured or killed in responding to false alarms then have been injured or killed as a result of the FD taking an extra minute or two to respond. And I'm not persuaded by arguments related to problems with the alarm company. How much sooner do you really arrive with lights and sirens? It's negligible, we all know that, and it's not worth the risk.

[helicopper 1,050]

Believe me, I don't want to write more policies that further police the department but I stalled on this for a year and watched how responses went. I heard more absurd reasoning as to why they used the sirens for obvious non-emergency calls and got more complaints from people about the Q being wound up at 3am for no reason than I care to admit. I feel I have no other choice.

I couldn't agree with you more but before you attack the issue with policy have you tried revising the driver training and/or providing some supervision to those revving up the Q at 3 AM? While the notion of disciplinary action is often lost in the volunteer sector, it can still work. Tell a driver and/or officer that they're going to lose their driving privileges for a month for such infractions (or something to that effect).

[AFS1970 504]

As agencies, we can certainly learn from each other, however I think it is more important to look at the rationale for the decisions. Just based on my work in Dispatch I would say we have many more Burglar Alarms than we do Fire Alarms, so this became a recognized problem for the police allot earlier. I do not know if the false alarm rates are similar but I am thinking that they are.

Our CAD system allows us to set a priority for each type of call so that in addition to the incident type there are priorities which further organize calls. On the police side this is very valuable as there are often multiple pending calls. On the fire side this is usually not an issue except when it gets unusually busy. So it would be relatively easy to say that certain priorities got certain response levels. In essence this is what we do with run cards.

I think we also need to look and see if we really have a problem to fix before we try to fix it. When I took my initial EMD training there was allot of talk about accident prevention and response levels. This discussion almost entirely depended on national statistics but then focused on a few sensational events. At least one of the events did not involve responding to any incident so no such policy would have prevented the tragedy. However when applied to my city, even combining all the police, fire & EMS units on the road, we have a very good record on motor vehicle accidents. So it could be argued that we don't have a problem to fix. This doesn't mean we shouldn't try to be more safe, but we should be sensible about it.

[Ging599 13]

I have addressed this with drivers and officers. You would be amazed at some of the justifications I hear as to why they went "Code 3". I won't go into specifics.

It is hard to remove driving privileges or take disciplinary action when there is no set policy.

I tried to lead by example. It is well known in my department that I very rarely use lights/siren on my Chief vehicle. Yes I have been driving down the road with no lights or siren on and in my rear view mirror I see the engine in the distance lights a blazing.

[helicopper 1,050]

I have addressed this with drivers and officers. You would be amazed at some of the justifications I hear as to why they went "Code 3". I won't go into specifics.

It is hard to remove driving privileges or take disciplinary action when there is no set policy.

I tried to lead by example. It is well known in my department that I very rarely use lights/siren on my Chief vehicle. Yes I have been driving down the road with no lights or siren on and in my rear view mirror I see the engine in the distance lights a blazing.

Points taken, I was just throwing it out there. Good luck!

[everybodygoes 331]

Being that youre from putnam I can relate. Our dispatch information is limited at best. How we can get someone sitting in front of a computer that can only give cross streets that the CAD presents is beyond me, yet I am forced to look at CADPAGE's link to google maps on my cell phone while driving but thats another story. Someone posted a great list. But the only thing in NYC that your respond to with out lights is for a complaint or water leak. Some guys say you use lights for elevators some say no. We get the first due engine and truck lights on any run. Don't use NYC as an example. Most companies are 4 minutes from their first due assignments, not very similar to Carmel, or cupcake NY.

Anything that you think should wait should make the list. CO no symptoms, water leaks, PDAA is a good one, but then again you have to teach guys they need to use lights on highways regardless of condition being responded to so people are aware of you and your members.

[Ging599 13]

I appreciate all of your input.

[everybodygoes 331]

I hit enter too soon. Also how do your responders respond? to the scene? the firehouse? I totally agree with you on altering response, but drivers need to realize that a) the streets we drive on are in most cases engineered to facilitate drainage and usually have a heavy crown or camber to one side, are narrow, usually have a shoulder and not a curb to change your direction, and have people traveling at rates of speed that usually exceed our warning capacity or are highly distracted. Also not many drive a staight truck with a weight of anywhere from 20-40 tons on a daily basis, and at high rates of speed. I tell all the kids when they get on the rig, seat belts, no one wants to get killed for free!

[Ging599 13]

All members respond to the station unless they have to pass the scene to get there. We are strict about this and it is almost always complied with by members.

Basically, as sometimes is in fire service, its about risk vs. reward. How much time are we really saving driving L/S to alarms? Unless there is a major traffic jam in town, probably not much, so even if an AFA turns out to be the real deal we aren't going to lose much on our response time.

Edited December 16, 2012 by Ging599