Response time to be changed

Dispatchers will wait about half as long before making second call for company

By Sally Voth -- svoth@nvdaily.com

WOODSTOCK -- In an effort to improve emergency response times, dispatchers will wait about half as long as they have been holding off before dispatching another fire and rescue company when the first fails to answer a call.

Shenandoah County Department of Fire and Rescue Chief Gary Yew told the Board of Supervisors about the protocol change at a Thursday work session.

On Friday, he said the Shenandoah County Fire and Rescue Association is expected to vote on the change Feb. 27.

Yew told the supervisors his department met with the volunteer association on Jan. 22 to discuss ways to shorten response times.

It has been the emergency communications center's practice to tone a first-due company, wait five minutes and tone again if the company fails to respond. After eight minutes, the company is toned again, along with the second-due company.

If a company has not responded in 11 minutes, it's considered a failed call.

Response times refer to the amount of time it takes company members to leave the station on fire and rescue equipment.

"Everybody felt that [eight minutes] was way too long for somebody to wait," Yew said.

The new protocol calls for a second-due department to be toned after five minutes if the first-due company has not gotten out, he said. The first-due company would receive the second tone as well.

"The major change here -- and, it's a good change -- [is] making sure somebody's responding within five minutes," Yew said.

He said all of the volunteer agencies agreed the change was necessary.

"The downside is it's going to increase call volumes," Yew said, adding that the system is already taxed.

If neither the first- nor second-due company has responded by the eight-minute mark, a third will be dispatched, Yew said.

Volunteers aren't allowed to respond from anywhere other than their station to the emergency scene, he said.

District 4 Supervisor Sharon Baroncelli asked Yew if he was fine with volunteers being considered in-service while at home waiting to be dispatched.

"I'm OK with it because I think it's the best we can do right now, knowing we need to accommodate and not burden the volunteers," Yew said. "Is it ideal? Probably not."