Heartland Fire Dispatch

Ongoing discussions regarding other fire dispatching in San Diego County including Heartland, NorthComm, Monte Vista, etc. Topics about general wildland fire scanning are also welcome here.
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fotoguy
Posts: 46
Joined: Mon Nov 01, 2004 1:31 am

Heartland Fire Dispatch

Post by fotoguy »

Has anyone else noticed that Heartland is dispatching the district of the response then the units assigned.
Rescue Pooh
Posts: 218
Joined: Mon Oct 25, 2004 9:59 pm

Post by Rescue Pooh »

Just noticed that yesterday. I work for a private ambulance out of Sta. 17 in Alpine. The dispatch yesterday went something like this District 17 Medical Aid for M17, ME17. Something new they're trying I guess.
Guest

Post by Guest »

The new format is "district, units to respond, call type, details (if any), location name, address, map, cross street, channels".
Consider this "from the horses mouth" since most of you heard me doing it this way all day.
318
Posts: 40
Joined: Sat Oct 23, 2004 1:05 am

Post by 318 »

Hey mouth,

My question to you is, WHY did Heartland switch to that format? Everyone knows what district each engine/truck/medic is from. (Unles they have been living under a rock.) Why the change in dispatch format :?:

~318
Guest

Post by Guest »

Field units requested it so they know right out the shoot if a call is in their first in. For instance, if Engine 6 is on a call and hears another call they may not know just from the address if they should break and respond or not. Believe it or not, people usually know their first in well but may not know the first-in district for every hundred block of every single street. I doubt anybody does. And new streets are added every day. It just makes it easier than asking dispatch if the call is "in my first-in".
But what it all boils down to is that the fire chiefs told us to start doing it like this and so that is what we do. Follow directions.
318
Posts: 40
Joined: Sat Oct 23, 2004 1:05 am

Post by 318 »

Ok, I understand. That makes sense.

One other thing while I got you here, I was curious about how you came up with the actual words (dispatch format) the dispatcher was saying. When a dispatch goes out and starts with "In 6's district, a medical aid, blah blah blah" I always feel like I missed something that may have been said before the words "In 6's district". Know what I mean? If the dispatchers were to say something more like "Medical Aid, in 6's district, for Engine 6, Medic 6, at ....." with the reason for the dispatch at the beginning, it may sound more 'correct' to me. (No offense meant) Maybe something like SDFD's structure dispatches. If you don't know, they say "Structure Fire in 18's district, for Engine 18, Engine 17, etc...."

I suppose the cheifs may want to know 'first-thing' what district a dispatch is going to be in.

Just wondering. (And I thought I'd throw in my two cents...)

~318
Guest

Post by Guest »

Consider our old format. It made no sense really.
"Medical Aid, Possible heart, 34 year old male, for Medic Engine 1 and Medic 1....blah blah"
Everything you say before the units probably is not heard by those units. They tune in to what you say after they hear that it is for them. So the sensible way to make a dispatch is units as close to the begining as possible. Now the only thing said before the units is the district. That helps people on the air to know if they should pay close attention or not.
If a dispatcher says "In district 1..." then Medic Engine 36 can safely tune that dispatch out. But if a dispatcher says "Structure Fire, poss stove fire, command 2 tac 3 for Engine 1....blah blah" everybody in the zone had to listen to all that extra stuff that did not apply to them.
And the official new format is "In district 15 for (insert dispatched units)...".
318
Posts: 40
Joined: Sat Oct 23, 2004 1:05 am

Post by 318 »

I gottcha. Thanks for clarifying that. Have you considered becoming more then a 'Guest' to our forum? :D

~318
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