A new tiered-response system is shaving valuable seconds of the time it takes Wellesley firefighters to be dispatched to emergency situations, the township’s fire chief reports.
The new fire dispatch system, Emergency Medical Technical Interoperability Framework (EMS-TIF), went live in June after a year-long pilot project. It reduces by 40 seconds the time between the call an ambulance dispatcher answers then passes on the information to the fire department, Andrew Lillico told councillors meeting Oct. 30.
Beyond fire calls, the system flags serious medical calls and dispatches firefighters, who can often respond quicker than an ambulance in the rural areas. The idea is that firefighters may be able to shave precious seconds off response times and provide much needed assistance in difficult situations.
“Motor vehicle accidents, construction, industrial and farm accidents are part of our tiered-response system,” he explained of possible scenarios.
Callouts also include reports of multi-casualty incidents, or disasters and presence as requested by the ambulance crews on the scene.
Severe respiratory issues, heart problems, seizures, near drowning and severe trauma require firefighters’ presence, Lillico said. Firefighters now also attend victims of stroke and women during childbirth and delivery.
“They are very serious types of calls where firefighters’ presence at those calls makes a difference,” he explained.
Whereas previously, the ambulance dispatcher would need to call fire dispatchers to pass on the information, “the technology links, by computer, the provincial ambulance dispatch centre with the Kitchener fire dispatch centre. When a person calls 911 for an emergency, dispatchers at both centers have the information at the same time,” he said.
“Now the information is done automatically. The Kitchener fire dispatch is the first in the province to use this dispatch system.”
The pilot project involved developing the software so that dispatch centers could use common terminology and transfer it between computer systems. The hope is that this technology will eventually find its way into all dispatch centres throughout Ontario.
