911 Cell Phone False Alarms...

[Towntalk]

Youngstown's 911 no "should" but "MUST" get Enhanced 911, and just send out one unit. These firemen put their life at risk every time they respond to an alarm, and if the city is not willing to shell out for it, then we must all tell them that their services are no longer required the next time they come up for re-election.

Until we do get Enhanced 911 the people working the board should be required to verify before sending out units, and as you so rightfully observed, just send one unit to investigate and verify before committing other units, and if the 911 operator fails to verify, then they should immediately be discharged.

How long would it take for the first response and the time it would take to get other units to the scene?

It would be another matter if the trucks weren't equipped with radios, but they are and until other trucks can be dispatched, the first unit would be able to deal with the problem.

Another benefit would be that the YFD dispatcher would better know how many trucks would be needed rather than have to dispatch 4 or 5 units at one time on blind calls.

[yfdgricker]

I posted this over at my forums at youngstownfire.com (http://www.youngstownfire.com/forums/index.php/topic,7743.0.html) but I thought some of the readers here would like to chime in.

Listening to Youngstown during what the media is calling the "Big Blast" of 2008. Youngstown has already gone on 2 reported structure fires in about an hour only to have them be 911 prank calls from cell phones. In most cases the phones are disconnected when they try and call them back.

I understand that the department must take all calls seriously and investigate. No problem with that. I just wonder if dispatch should try calling back the cell phone and see if its disconnected before toning 7 units out on a possible fire call. If it comes back disconnected, maybe the dispatcher could announce that when they are sending the call out.

Maybe they could send 1 unit to investigate calls which come in from disconnected cell phones and where they only receive 1 call. I know there was talk of getting Enhanced 911 which will also pinpoint the location of cell phone 911 calls but I don't think that is active here yet. Maybe if they will help, they need to put a rush on it.

Any other ideas, discussion or suggestions about this growing epidemic?