LEPC Fire Subcommittee meeting                         03/16/2011 

The LEPC Fire Subcommittee met on March 16th, 2011 at 12:00. Present were John Hallowell, John Kelsey, Mark Rudella, Dave McClure and Debra Archer and Joe Mitchell.

Subjects of discussion were:

• Mayday, Evacuation and Update tones have been installed at the radio consoles. SOGs 7-04, Emergency Traffic Only and 7-07 Fire Ground Communications and Reports, have been reworded to include the Update tone. A draft copy of the Mayday and Evacuation policy was reviewed and finalized.

       - This SOG will be split into two separate SOGs 7-31 Mayday Situations and 7-32 Evacuation Situations. The SOGs will be brought before the LEPC.

      - Once adopted they will be uploaded to the SOG section of the 9-1-1 website.  A news article will be posted on website along with the corresponding sound files allowing all area firefighters to become familiar with the new tones. 

      - The tones will be added to the weekly Sunday siren test for a few weeks.

       - Copies of the new SOGs will be mailed to all County fire companies along with a copy of the field feedback form. Fire Chiefs will be urged to utilize this form when encountering issues.

• A full time Quality Assurance Coordinator has been hired. This is strictly a 9-1-1 management position. We hope to be performing Quality Assurance evaluations and be within PEMA standards soon.  The QA Coordinator will sit on the subcommittees in order to report on compliance levels and report on field feedback forms received. These feedback forms are useful in detecting error trends. This subcommittee can then work toward solutions.
• The issue of lack of standardization regarding re-paging at the 4 and 8 minute mark was discussed. At the 4 minute mark dispatchers are to re-page and simply announce all units still due while others will advise the IC and ask his wishes. At the 8 minute mark some dispatchers automatically turn over units still due and others ask the IC his wishes. It was agreed that the dispatchers should follow established SOP:

        - After 4 minutes any units not yet responding should be toned and paged (Steps 4-10)

       - After 8 minutesthe dispatcher should contact the Incident Commander to advise dispatch status and what units, if any have not responded. Incident Commander should advise dispatch if he wants units not yet responding turned over.

          If the IC has directed “no re-page or replace” then it is not necessary to do so.

• The problem with Incident Command not knowing what units are responding and which haven’t, due to the IC being on the fireground and not monitoring the dispatch channel, was tabled. In the meantime all units should check in with IC upon approach to the scene to receive orders.
• MDT project. Joe Mitchell advised he is awaiting an extension on the grant. The main purpose of this project is for notification of unit EMS and fire unit status and to provide up to date mapping to responders. Before implemented usage procedures must be created and training will be required for users.
• There was some discussion about unit classifications. The NFPA guidelines are useful to a point but do not cover combo type units. We should have some standardization county wide. Joe did create an equipment list detailing each apparatus for the Knowledge Center. However it is outdated. We will revisit this as a future project.

 Meeting adjourned at 13:40

 Submitted by Debra Archer

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LEPC Fire Subcommittee meeting                         12/16/2010

 The LEPC Fire Subcommittee met on December 16^th, 2010 at 12:05, prior to the quarterly LEPC meeting. Present were John Hallowell, John Kelsey, Jas Catherman, Mark Rudella, Dave McClure and Debra Archer. The following guests were welcomed: Dubois Mayor Gary Gilbert, Dubois City Manager, Herm Suplizio, Assist Fire Chief John Emerick, Jeff Baronick, and Clearfield County Commissioners Mark McCracken, John Sobel, Joan McMillen.

All old and new business was tabled in lieu of discussion regarding the Fire Dispatch Procedure 7-06 with the shortened Pre-Alert. This subcommittee had conducted a survey of County Fire Companies asking if the Pre-Alert should be shortened to include only Alert Tone, Type of Alarm and Box number. The LEPC voted to accept this change at the September meeting. It was effective on October 11^th. After the change had taken effect, the City of Dubois requested a meeting with the County Commissioners. Due to this meeting, the Commissioners mandated that the Fire Dispatch procedure be lengthened to include incident address, business or building name (if applicable) and any available details obtained. The mandated change was effective on December 1^st.

 Some members of this Subcommittee recently met with members of the Dubois Fire Department to discuss the situation and arrive at a compromise. The following procedure will be taken to the LEPC for a vote. If accepted Implementation should take place on December 23rd

 Pre-Alert:

1. Depress Pre-alert tone for at least 2 full seconds
2. Announce “Clearfield County announcing…” type of alarm (Fire, Rescue or Local)
3. Announce Box number
4. Announce street address (municipality not necessary)

Dispatch:

1. Announce type of alarm (Fire, Rescue or Local)
2. Announce Box number
3. Announce full location including street address, building or business name, intersection, etc.
4. Give all available additional information (Ex: stove on fire, smoke coming from an outlet, with entrapment, roadway blocked with fluids leaking, etc)
5. Announce Companies due.

 A number of recordings were presented by Herm Suplizio. It was evident that inconsistency in dispatch is a problem. The Pre-Alert Tone is often cut off before the full 2 seconds. Another issue is that often there is a lapse between the Pre-Alert tone and the voice announcement. All available information should consistently be given if available.

 Meeting adjourned at 12:58. Next meeting is scheduled for 1 hour before LEPC meeting on Thursday, January 27^th.  

 Submitted by Debra Archer ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

LEPC Fire Subcommittee meeting                         10/26/201

The LEPC Fire Subcommittee met on October 26th at 12:10. Present were John Hallowell, John Kelsey, Jas Catherman, Dave McClure and Debra Archer.

 Old Business:

• Mayday and Update tones: Dave expects that Centre Communications will install within the next month or so. We reviewed SOPs (7-04, Emergency Traffic Only and 7-07 Fire Ground Communications and Reports) to reword to include the Update tone. A new SOP will be created to address the Mayday tone. Jas has a draft which he will forward to Deb to be forwarded to the committee for review.
• The updated Fire Dispatch Procedure 7-06 with the shortened Pre-Alert was effective on October 11^th. Deb needs to concentrate on QA reviews for fire dispatch to ensure that the dispatchers are adhering to the change.
• The dispatcher should be announcing building descriptions (Residential, single-Residential, multiple-Commercial/Industrial) according to the Priority Dispatch protocols at dispatch, especially on a structure fire call. The dispatchers will be reminded of this and it will be reinforced with the QA process.

New Business:

• MDT project is in progress. Completion is targeted for the end of this year. The Committee has questions regarding software and connectivity. Dave will ask Joe to email an outline of the status of the project. Then, if there are specific questions we would invite Joe to the next meeting.
• Re-paging at the 4 minute mark. Some dispatchers do it and announce all units still due, some will advise the chief and ask his wishes. In an effort to standardize the Committee agrees that the dispatchers should continue to re-page at the 4 minute mark as per established procedure, but should advise the IC of the dispatch status of all units, especially units that have not responded at the 8 minute mark.
• Fire Hydrant Layer in Mapping for CAD/MDTs. Deb will talk with GIS Director John Kaskan to see what data is needed to create and add this layer.
• Problem: Incident Command doesn’t know what units are responding and which haven’t when on a fireground, especially on a structure fire. Possible solutions:    

      - Units check out on fireground after checking out on dispatch channel. (Redundant use of air time).

     - Have dispatchers announce all units responding to IC. (When, at 4 minute or 8 minute mark?)

      - Assign a fireground at On Scene rather that at Response so that IC can hear who is responding on Dispatch   channel.

     - Units should check in with IC upon approach to scene to receive orders.

    This was tabled until next meeting.

• Priority Dispatch determinant codes and levels: Further discussion will be needed on how to best use this information. If we will have the dispatcher announce the level upon dispatch we need to inform our firemen. Tabled for next meeting.

 Meeting adjourned at 13:20. Next meeting is scheduled for 1 hour before LEPC meeting on Thursday, December 16^th

 Submitted by Debra Archer

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 09/23/2010

LEPC Fire Subcommittee meeting                        


The LEPC Fire Subcommittee met on September 23rd at 12:03. Present were John Hallowell, John Kelsey, Mark Rudella, Jas Catherman, Denny Curry, Dave McClure and Debra Archer.

Old Business:

•    Mayday and Update tones: Centre Communications has been tied up on other projects, but intends to install. In the meantime Debra will update the SOP (7-04, Emergency Traffic Only and 7-07 Fire Ground Communications and Reports) to have ready for review at the next meeting. The dispatchers and fire chiefs alike will need to be educated regarding their usage before being implemented.
•    Four Priority Dispatch Fire QA guides books have been purchased. Everyone on this subcommittee except John Kelsey has one for reference.
•    Mark Rudella had surveyed county Fire Chiefs for their opinions regarding the dispatch pre-alert. The overwhelming majority agreed that it could be shortened by omitting the address and any other details to reduce repetition. After discussion it was voted to recommend to the LEPC that we change the current Fire Dispatch Procedure 7-06 and announce the Pre-alert as follows: Tone, Box Type, Box #. (Ex: Alert Tone…"Clearfield County Alerting Fire Box 19A")  Then proceed with the actual dispatch.
•    Updates should be echoed by the dispatcher on both the fireground and dispatch channels. (i.e.: hold all units not already responding.) Debra will reinforce with the dispatchers.
•    The dispatcher should be announcing building descriptions (Residential, single-Residential, multiple-Commercial/Industrial) according to the Priority Dispatch protocols at dispatch, especially on a structure fire call.
•    The incident location should be announced to the first few units responding, after which any unit already familiar with the location should state they are responding and "OK on report". This will eliminate unnecessary repetition and decrease air use.
•    Since this subcommittee is a representative group, a means to keep other County Fire Chiefs informed of our activity is needed. Debra will post meeting notes on the EMA/9-1-1 Website beginning immediately.
•    Drip gas transfers and offloading at Bionol: It was voted to recommend to the LEPC that Fire Chiefs no longer need to be notified. EMA can be attached to the CFS only.
•    Out of Service units: If a unit is out of service more than four weeks it should be moved to an OFF DUTY status so it will not be announced daily.

New Business:
•    MDTs project is in progress. Completion is target for the end of this year. Hardware is ordered. EMA hopes to integrate with Firehouse Software in the future. Jas asked how connectivity with dispatch will be established, Radio Frequency vs. wireless? EMA is working with Verizon to see about a wireless connection. Centre Communications will be mounting in the apparatus.

Meeting adjourned at 13:00. Next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, October 26th at 12:00.
Some topics of discussion will be:
-    Re-paging at the 4 minute mark. Some dispatchers do it and announce all units still due, some will advise the chief and ask his wishes. This should be standardized.
-    Priority Dispatch determinant codes and levels: Further discussion will be needed on how to best use this information. If we will have the dispatcher announce the level upon dispatch we need to inform our firemen.

Submitted by Debra Archer