Overall Fire Dispatch Analysis and Options with Current Providers

The Importance of Dispatching and Emergency Communication

Emergency call answer, dispatch, and communications are critical aspects to an effective and functional public safety system. Timely receipt and dispatch of emergency responders to emergency incidents is vital to the preservation of life in emergency medical incidents and in mitigating property loss due to fire spread. In addition, two-way voice communication between emergency responders and a dispatch centre is one of the most important safety tools available to the responders. The significant negative consequences of untimely or improper dispatch and communication have driven the prescriptive performance standards for emergency call

answering and dispatch times. Furthermore, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in the United States identified that improper communications is one of the top five leading causes of firefighter fatalities2.

As part of the investigations of fire loss, very detailed reviews are conducted involving a thorough incident analysis, commencing with the time the emergency call was received in the dispatch centre, when the fire department was alerted, and the timeline associated with these actions.

Stakeholder Consultation Process

While onsite in August 2012, a Pomax representative met with representatives of the majority of the Peace River Regional District fire departments, including the fire chiefs of Dawson Creek and Fort St. John, and Trish Morgan, Manager of Community Services for the Peace River Regional District. The purpose of the meeting was to provide the fire departments with an overview of the project as well as to:

1

NFPA 1221 Section 4.1.5 and 4.1.5.1

2 _{NIOSH Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program, Leading Recommendations for Preventing Fire}

Fighter Fatalities, 1998-2005. Department of Health and Human Services, Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

Peace River Regional District Emergency 9-1-1 Call Answer Service and Fire Dispatch Service Review Update 2015

15 | P a g e

—Determine their satisfaction with the dispatch services provided —Determine their satisfaction with the communication system

—Gather information on improvements or changes they would like to see in the systems With respect to the fire dispatch services, the majority of the fire departments were pleased with the services being provided by the South and North Peace Fire Dispatch Centres. As a result of the meeting and follow-up with some departments, some concerns were identified:

 Those departments dispatched by South Peace Fire Dispatch Centre that use telephone

interconnects as their primary connection are not able to stay connected throughout the emergency incident. The telephone interconnect automatically disconnects, as a safety feature, after 180 seconds.

 One department stated that there have been instances where off going shift dispatchers

at the South Peace Fire Dispatch Centre have not advised the oncoming shift that their department was on a call. As such, when the department attempted to communicate with the dispatch centre via radio, there was no one in the dispatch centre and the radio call went unanswered forcing the department to have to call them by cell phone (if coverage available).

 There has been no fire department training on the use of the satellite backup

communication systems.

 The South Peace Fire Dispatch Centre does not have a computer aided dispatch system.

 The fire departments would like a dedicated telephone number for contacting the

dispatch centres.

 One fire department noted they are not comfortable with a firefighter/dispatcher

model.

 Civic addressing is a problem throughout the region; one of the largest issues is a

discrepancy between fire dispatch and British Columbia Ambulance Service addressing information.

Comparison to Industry Standards

The current fire dispatch model for the Peace River Regional District does not meet the industry standard for the operation of fire dispatch centres in some areas. National Fire Protection

Association (NFPA) 1221: Standard for the Installation, Maintenance, and Use of Emergency

Peace River Regional District Emergency 9-1-1 Call Answer Service and Fire Dispatch Service Review Update 2015

16 | P a g e

Services Communications Systems is the peer reviewed, industry standard that specifies all

aspects of a fire dispatch centre operation. It is a very detailed and prescriptive standard and some of the key areas of the standard are call answer and dispatch performance metrics, quality assurance, and dispatch centre security. As the standard is very detailed and

prescriptive, it is generally recognized that many fire dispatch centres do not meet all of the requirements of NFPA 1221, but there are a number of requirements that centres typically strive to meet.

Both the North Peace and South Peace Fire Dispatch Centres are generally well equipped centres with respect to fire department alerting and voice communications systems. However, there are some operational practices that need to be addressed in order to increase efficiency, performance, and compliance with NFPA 1221:

 Adoption of NFPA 1221 performance times

 Establishment of fully-functional back up dispatch centres

 Implementation of a monthly quality assurance program

In order to address the deficiencies with respect to NFPA 1221, the Peace River Regional District has three options:

1. Maintain the current model of North and South Peace Fire Dispatch Centres with applicable staffing and technology upgrades in each centre

2. Consolidate the North and South Peace Fire Dispatch Centres into one of the existing centres with applicable staffing and technology upgrades

3. Contract fire dispatch services with an alternative service provider that is able to meet the NFPA 1221 requirements (refer to "2.9 Analysis of Existing Contracts" for additional information)

With respect to the first two options, in order to increase the service levels and efficiencies of the North and South Peace Fire Dispatch Centres, there are a number of technical and

operational issues to be addressed. These are described below.

Option 1—Maintain North and South Peace Fire Dispatch Centres

Both centres have indicated that they have not adopted the performance standards of NFPA 1221 with respect to emergency call answer and dispatching and that they do not have a quality assurance program. For both centres, one of the primary issues is the ability to quickly and effectively answer the emergency call and complete the dispatch process. Neither centre has dedicated staff in the centre, and emergency calls can be answered from locations other

Peace River Regional District Emergency 9-1-1 Call Answer Service and Fire Dispatch Service Review Update 2015

17 | P a g e

than the dispatch centre. Yet all dispatching must be done from the centre. This operational model can cause delays in dispatching fire departments and negatively affects the dispatch centre’s ability to meet the requirements of NFPA 1221.

Additionally, the South Peace Fire Dispatch Centre does not use a computer aided dispatch system. Instead the centre relies on the Automatic Number Identification/Automatic Location (ANI/ALI) of the received 9-1-1 call and a hard copy of the Peace River Regional District web based map viewer in order to determine the location of the incident and the appropriate responding fire department. A paper-based map system can add additional time in the dispatch process as the dispatcher must manually determine the location of the emergency incident and the appropriate responding fire department.

In order to reasonably achieve the NFPA 1221 benchmark performance standards, a staffing model change should be considered for both centres, and consideration should be given to the implementation of a computer aided dispatch system in the South Peace Fire Dispatch Centre. The current staffing models in the North and South Peace Dispatch Centre reasonably allow for the answer of emergency calls per the NFPA 1221 standard. However, without the use of a computer aided dispatch system at all times, not all call data is entered in a database

immediately upon receipt of the call. Therefore it is not possible to determine if the centres are meeting the call answer standard. In addition, having dispatch staff dedicated to the dispatch would allow for increased fire department dispatch efficiencies and would reasonably ensure that the NFPA 1221 standard for dispatching is met.

The respective call volumes of the North and South Peace Dispatch Centres only require one dispatcher. A dedicated staffing model would require one dispatcher per shift as well as

additional staffing to cover holidays, other scheduled leave, and sick time. In order to meet this staffing level, a relief factor is applied to the number of full time dispatcher positions; the relief factor identifies the additional staff required to maintain one full-time position per shift. The relief factor for public safety dispatch centres is between 1.4 and 1.7; therefore, a minimum of 5.6 full-time equivalent positions are required to staff one full time dispatcher position. It is reasonable to use properly trained firefighters to provide meal and rest breaks for the dedicated dispatchers during regular shifts.

With respect to a computer aided dispatch system for the South Peace Dispatch Centre, budgetary pricing for a single position license from FDM Software®, including full mapping, the ANI/ALI service, and implementation is approximately $110,000. Training costs are extra.

Peace River Regional District Emergency 9-1-1 Call Answer Service and Fire Dispatch Service Review Update 2015

18 | P a g e

The Peace River Regional District owns and maintains the same Zetron® common control units and dispatch consoles in both centres. The consoles were purchased in 2006 and 2007 and are at the end of their service life. The replacement costs would be $80,000 for Fort St. John and $96,000 for Dawson Creek. The Dawson Creek console costs more because it provides interfaces for seven fire departments, while Fort St. John provides interfaces for five fire

departments.3 Option 1 would also require the continued ongoing support and annual

maintenance of the dispatch communication consoles.

Option 1 would require a total of 11.2 full time equivalent dispatcher positions between the North and South Peace Dispatch Centres, the addition of computer aided dispatch for the South Peace Dispatch Centre, and the continued maintenance of duplicate dispatch console and communication technology.

Option 1 is not recommended due to the high costs involved (see “Appendix F—Cost Comparison Between Fire Dispatch Models” for details).

Option 2—Consolidate North and South Peace Fire Dispatch Centres

Based on the total call volume of the North and South Peace Dispatch Centres of approximately 2,000 annual calls for service, this call volume can be handled with one full time dispatcher. However, in order to reasonably meet the performance objectives of NFPA 1221, a dedicated dispatcher staffing model should be considered.

As per Option 1, one full time dispatcher per shift as well as additional staffing to cover

holidays, other scheduled leave, and sick time would be required. In order to meet this staffing level, the relief factor is applied to the number of full time dispatcher positions. Using the same relief factor considerations as per Option 1, a minimum of 5.6 full-time equivalent positions are required to staff one full-time dispatcher position. It is reasonable to use properly trained firefighters to provide meal and rest breaks for the dedicated dispatchers during regular shifts.

3 _{These console replacement costs and the one for Option2 are based on quotes from Zetron, who based their}

quotes on the initial system identification numbers. The number of actual radio, telephone and paging interfaces provided in the quotes does not exactly match the equipment inventory provided by Glentel, so Pomax has added a 15% contingency. The discrepancy could be due to equipment added following the initial installation. The Zetron USD quotes are converted to Canadian currency using an exchange rate of 0.75. Additionally, Zetron was supposed to provide pricing for upgrading the current equipment if possible. However, Zetron only provided the replacement costs. Pomax has determined it could be possible to upgrade the current equipment at

approximately 50% of the replacement cost. However, given that the equipment will be ten years old next year, Pomax recommends replacing the equipment.

Peace River Regional District Emergency 9-1-1 Call Answer Service and Fire Dispatch Service Review Update 2015

19 | P a g e

With respect to computer aided dispatch, the North Peace Fire Dispatch Centre currently uses FDM Software® computer aided dispatch application. In addition, the North Peace Fire Dispatch Centre also uses FDM Software® records management systems. These applications are fully integrated and provide for a seamless and efficient transfer of fire department incident data from computer aided dispatch to the records management system. FDM Software® dispatch and records management applications are fully scalable and can easily handle the additional fire departments in the South Peace region.

As indicated above the existing Zetron® dispatch communications consoles are at the of their service life and need to be replaced. The cost of a dispatch console to handle the interfaces for

all the fire departments from a single centre, would cost $130,000.3It should be noted that

Pouce Coupe and Tomslake fire departments, which are currently dispatched directly via radio from Dawson Creek, will require remote links – such as, telephone interconnect or Radio over Internet Protocol (RoIP) – because Fort St. John will be too distant for a direct radio link. The telephone interconnect and the RoIP terminal will cost approximately $2,500 per link.

Option 2 would require a total of 5.6 full time equivalent dispatcher positions; minimal costs to program the additional South Peace agencies into the computer aided dispatch and records management systems; and continued maintenance of one of the Zetron® dispatch console and communication systems (see “Appendix F—Cost Comparison Between the Different Models of Fire Dispatch” for details).