Overview:
The Lego City of Dutchess Dispatch Center is located adjacent to the city's fire station 1. The center contains many state-of-the-art technologies and is responsible for communications between the public and the city's emergency services. The facility dispatches the Fire/Police/EMS departments within the city.
The center is divided by department. The fire department sector has two alarm receipt dispatchers (ARDs) who receive and process alarms from telephone call-ins via E911 and the city's alarm box system, a radio dispatcher who responds to transmissions in the field and transmits alarms via radio, a voice-alarm dispatcher who transmits alarms to the various stations in the city via intercom in each station, a decision dispatcher who examines each alarm and decides if the equipment assigned is sufficient, and a dispatch supervisor who is responsible for the center's operations.
This dispatch setup makes a tour size of 6 dispatchers including a dispatch supervisor. There are 6 dispatchers assigned to one of the four groups. Dispatcher shift's last 12-hours, 8am-8pm and 8pm-8am. Dispatcher tour's run in the following manor: Group-A works the morning shift, B works the night, while groups C & D have off that day. The following day group C & D work the two shifts while A & B have off. This rotation works rotating the shifts from day to night shift.
The alarm dispatch process works in the following matter: The ARD receives an alarm and inputs it into the computer. Next the decision dispatcher makes any changes to the response protocol and then approves the dispatch. At that point the call is forwarded to the assigned units MDTs, mobile data terminal or computers mounted in every vehicle; the radio dispatcher; and the voice-alarm dispatcher. The radio dispatcher dispatches the incident via the city's fire dispatch channel and the voice-alarm dispatcher dispatches it to all the individual stations assigned to the incident.
Alarm Box System
The city alarm box system has 2 different types of alarm box systems. The first system is the Emergency Reporting System (ERS), which is a street box type system. This system works by a person pressing either the fire or police button located on the box. If the person presses the fire button then the alarm will be forwarded to one of the ARDs in the fire department sector of the center. There are currently 897 of these ERS boxes in the city. The second kind of alarm box system is the Master Box System. This system is hooked up to various pull stations through-out a building or complex. When the master system is activated, the alarm is sent to one of the ARDs. There are currently 57 of these Master box alarms. This leaves a total of 954 alarm boxes in the city.
Dispatch Protocol
Normal Alarms
| Alarm Type | Engines | Ladders | Chiefs | Special Units |
| Auto Fire or Accident | 1E | |||
| Auto Accident w/ Pin | 1E | 1 | 1 BC | 1 Squad |
| Building Collapse | 1-2 + 1E | 1-2 | 1 BC | 1 Squad, Rescue, Safety Officer, Air/ Light |
| Building Collapse (Total) | 2 + 1E | 2 | 2 BC, CWTC | 1 Squad, Rescue, Safety Officer, Haz-Mat, Air/ Light, Command |
| Carbon Monoxide | 1 | 1 | ||
| Technical Rescue (Confined, High & Low angle) |
1 + 1E | 1 | 1 BC, CWTC | 1 Squad, Rescue, Safety Officer, Haz-Mat, Air/ Light |
| Elevator Emergency | 1E | 1 | ||
| Fire Out (Still Alarm) | 1 | |||
| Gas Odor | 1-2 | 1-2 | 0-1 BC | |
| Railroad/ Aircraft Emergency | 1-2 + 1E | 1-2 | 1 BC, 0-1 CWTC | 1 Squad, 0-1 Rescue, 0-1 Haz-Mat |
| Foam Operations | 1 BC | 2 Squads, Foam 5, Haz-Mat, Satellite | ||
| 10-60 (City-wide Emergency) | All | All | All | All, M/A to cover city |
| Haz-Mat Code 1 | 1-2 | 1-2 | 1-2 BC | 1 Squad, Haz-Mat (Optional) |
| Haz-Mat Code 2 | 3 | 2 | 1-2 BC, CWTC | 2 Squads, Rescue, Air/ Light, Command, Safety Officer, Haz-Mat, Foam 5 |
| EMS Support |
* Designated CFR-D Unit |
|||
| Outside Fire | 1 | 0-2 Brush Units | ||
| Pedestrian Struck |
* Designated CFR-D Unit |
|||
| Person/ Veh in Water | 1 | 1 | 1 BC | 1 Squad, 1-2 Marine Units |
| Water Emergency (Boat in Distress, Watercraft Fire, ect.) |
0-1 BC | 1-3 Marine Units | ||
| Fire/ Smoke Alarm Activation | 1-2 | 1-2 | 0-1 BC | 0-1 Squad (FAST) |
| Steam or hot water leak | 1 | 1 | ||
| Street Box | 1-3 | 1-2 | 0-1 BC | |
| Water Leak | 1 | |||
| Water Main Break | 1 | 0-1 BC | ||
| Wires Down | 1 | 1 | ||
Fire Alarms
| Alarm Level | Engines | Ladders | Chiefs | Special Units |
| 1st Alarm | 1-3 | 1-2 | 1 BC | 0-1 Squad (FAST) |
| 1st Alarm (Second Call) | 3 | 2 | 1 BC | 1 Squad (FAST), Rescue |
| 10-75 (Working Fire) | 3 | 2 | 1 BC | 1 Squad (FAST), Rescue |
| 10-76 (Working Hi-Rise Fire) | 4 | 3 | 1 BC, CWTC | 1 Squad (FAST), Rescue, Safety Officer |
| 2nd Alarm (Additional Response) |
1 | 1 | 1 BC, CWTC | Satellite, Command, Safety Officer, Air/ Light if not assigned yet |
| 3rd Alarm (Additional Response) |
1 | 1 | 1 BC, Car 1 or 2 | Tanker |
| 4th Alarm (Additional Response) |
1 | M/A 1 | Car 1 | M/A 1L & 1E for covers |
| 5th Alarm (Additional Response) |
1 | M/A 1 | M/A 1L & 1E for covers; 1 M/A Rescue to scene |
BC: Battalion Chief
CWTC: Citywide Tour Commander
FAST: Firefighter Assist & Search Team
*E: Enhanced Engine
*Both Squad and Enhanced Engines are qualified FAST units, which ever one is
closer may be assigned as the FAST truck.
Back to: Station 1 | Stations/ Trucks
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