emergency reponse timing

[asstchiefbob]

Would like to know what kind of response time is acceptable in the volunteer dept with their personal vehicles?
examples, someone leaves work and has to fight traffic all the way, taking 30 minutes or more to respond.
someone working at the time and is finishing up an assignment before leaving.
someone finishing shopping and then responding.
The real question would be What does emergency responding mean to you?

[bfrd22]

These are tough to gauge. Of course there are always mitigating circumstances to response times.
I've had 20 min responces, between heavy traffic and train crossings it was very frustrating.

Generally we have a Core Group that can and will drop everything and roll. Others do thier best. to roll as soon as they can.

Basically we tell our guys that if the tones go, roll, but at the same time we insist that every one drive safe and with traffic.

So roll outs take awhile due to bad Weather etc,

We want every one to show sooner or later (even if it's to help get the trucks back in service).

We also ask guys to gauge the call, We don't need 20 people racing to the hall for a trash bin or small grass fire. Generally in this type of call we tell the members to back off a bit once the 1st engine is out.

But a structure fire or MVA we will bring on the crews as they arrive, Relief, Back up, Traffic, Rehab, what ever. Better late than never in these cases.

As far as NFPA for Volley depts, has no time deffinitions, (I have a copy somewhere). As far I can interpret it, basically states that we will respond and gather the appropriate resources to deal with the incident. (Eventually well be there and Eventually we have it dealt with).

Our inhouse goals are Daytime Ist unit on scene 12 minutes, 2nd due 15 min. Eve, Weekends and Nights 7 min and 10. All most all our members work 5 to 7 mins out. Of course we always try to better these times. Safely of course.

You do the best you can with what you have.

[ehetu]

I echo that... we have some guys who work for the city full time so they're always seconds away from one firehall or the other and we have guys who work for or have local businesses, so they're always nearby. I'm amazed sometimes at the response times we have ... sometimes I hear trucks rolling out the station just as the pagers start squawking (some of our guys have 2-ways so they get the tones from dispatch).

Personally, I'm 12 minutes from the station -- more if I'm behind some goof who thinks I'm trying to cut in the queue with my 4-ways flashing. So I'm never the first guy on scene (unless it's my neighbour's house that's on fire, knock on wood). You can get in trouble, however, if the only guys you manage to recruit are guys who work in the big city 20 minutes away.... you need to have at least a core group of people who are always nearby.

Edmond
Chelsea, Qc

[Whitewater_419]

Our response times are pretty darned good for a volunteer department, too. We've got a "core group", for lack of a better term, that either works in the village (I work from home, about 500 meters from the hall), so there's almost always at least a guarantee that both trucks can roll with two men in each (almost, there's always the exceptions, of course :) )

Our hall captain and chiefs equally emphasize safe driving - the fire will be there when you get there, getting hurt on the way, or hurting someone else on the way only makes one emergency into several, etc.

We've got a really decent crew, too - There've been a few calls where some of the guys could only show up as we were rolling back into the hall, but there's never a question about them helping wash and hang the hoses, wash down the trucks, etc.

-Marc

[Hensrud]

The town which fire service I am a part of has grown to now more than 70,000 people which has put a lot of stress on our paid on call guys. We do have that core group of guys that are always willing to drop what they are doing and respond but when you get about and average of 6 calls all the way up to 10 calls a day, the guys start to become tired and it shows on the call times. We were averaging about an 8 minute call time at the beginning of this year, now, we have had one call where we didn't arrive on scene till 24 mins after the pager went off.

[bfrd22]

70,000 people and your Pay per call @ 6 to 10 per day????Um what the heck is you city council thinking??? What about the tax payers. Sorry but this volume is screaming full time staffing...

[Michael13]

Yes 70,000 and paid on call? that sounds crazy. I know of some cities with 25, 000 and they have 12 full timers on a shift and a call back system with pagers. Alot of industry in that city so they need it. A more closer number to your city of 70,000 has 21 full timers with a call back system by telephone. Our volly department has a pop of 1500 people and 21 vollys. and 50 calls a year. we can usally get pumper and tanker out the door within 5 mins during the day. even faster during evenings and weekends. the odd time we get 5 or 6 guys and we're a bit slower. Im proud to say we are way faster than our sister station one town to the east. We are the same municiaplty but differnt stations. they seem to have no day timers and it usally takes 7 ot 8 pages to get then out the door. we get called to their calls some times and have to cover for them

[TiSme]

We are about the same as most posts here. We have a core group that works in the town and are able to respond to calls duringthe day as needed. For everyone else it's when your in the paging area and within the traffic laws and safety. I rarely make daytime calls during the week as I work in the city 40 mins away and don't get the pages anyway. If it's been busy durning the day then most of teh guys who respond during the day will not respond until second call out in the evening unless it's something big. We have a lot of members who can respond in the evening which gives the day guy's a break if they need it.


I agree with the others ..... 70,000 with 6 to 10 calls a day is way too much for a volunteer only system. Sounds like the perfect place for a mixed system.


Let's be safe out there!!

Remember it's there emergency, Don't make it yours!

[heavyduty]

Usually from the time the page goes off to the time the truck rolls out the door is 5 minutes in our dept. I work right accross the street from the hall so when I am working in the shop I am there in 20 seconds then the waiting starts.

[mutts252]

depending on the time of day, the first truck can roll within 90 seconds of the page going out - we have a couple of guys who live within sight of the hall, and several that work *literally* across the road. if the first truck hasn't left within 4 or 5 minutes, it's an anomaly... just because so many guys live so close to the hall (we joke that our chief actually *does* live in the hall...)

in terms of most guys responding, about 4 or 5 minutes during the day is typical to get to the hall. personally, i live about 11 or 12 minutes away if it's a really urgent call (VSA etc), or around 13 to 14 if it's not super-urgent. 5 minutes away if i'm at work.

[Scuba]

We usualy have the first truck out in under a minute, and second and third rolling in another minute or two......

10-12 of our guys live within a stones throw of the hall.