Installation Begins On New Fire Station Alerting System

By: Battalion Chief Stacey Daniel

January of 2016 MCFRS began installation of a new fire station alerting system.
The new alerting system will be a modern heart healthy system with many advanced features allowing station personnel to be alerted in a variety of ways all while meeting NFPA and OSHA/MOSH standards. The system will include multi-zoned audio and visual alerts as well as automated voice technology. The system will have many new features that will enhance the alerting experience getting our firefighters on the street faster.

This system is being installed in all 38 existing county fire stations, 5 federal stations and all future stations.

The system is manufactured by PURVIS Systems Inc. PURVIS is based out of Rhode Island who have installed fire station alerting systems in New York City, Boston, Plano, Texas and Charleston, South Carolina to name a few.

The new system will offer new features such as:
• Display monitors throughout the station to provide fire fighters dispatch information
• Colored light towers to provide a visual cue as to which units are being dispatched
• Red night vision lighting for bunk rooms to allow firefighters to gradually adjust to the light               after waking up to an alarm
• Red strobe lights in noise heavy areas to provide a visual cue of an alert
• Ramped up audio alarms to provide heart healthy NFPA recommended alarms
• Multiple speaker feeds allowing fire fighters to maintain situational awareness
• A camera doorbell to allow ECC tom communicate and see a citizen at the front door in the                 event the fire station is empty

The new fire station alerting project is a CIP project under the Public Safety Systems Modernization Project. The FSA project is a full infrastructure and hardware replacement allowing us to decommission the aging system we have today. The FSA project has a 5.3 million dollar budget, currently we are under budget and on schedule. The new FSA will tie directly to the new Motorola Premier 1 CAD system which is currently being implemented to replace our existing CAD.

On June 1 we performed the first of many acceptance tests. This acceptance test included the software configuration testing and a demonstration of the hardware at Fire Stations 31 and 8 both of which are the Architectural Proof of Concept stations. Fire Chief Scott Goldstein, Chief Alan Hinde and Chief Steve Jones were given a demonstration of the system showing off the features that will benefit all field personnel, career and volunteer.

Click on the photo album below to learn more. Double click on each photo to see description.

Serious Motor Vehicle Collisions

By: Battalion Chief Mark Davis

On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of last week, companies in the lower end of the 1st Battalion responded to serious motor vehicle collisions all resulting in serious injury to multiple occupants. At least two of the collisions appeared to have involved high speed. People need to SLOW down. Companies 12, 16, and BC701 operated at the wreck shown in the below photo which occurred across the street from Co 12 on Friday, May31. 

When you look at this photo (right) , you have wonder, "How did this happen?" Well- the FD wonders the same thing - however, they have to go into action and bring the emergency under control. When cars are on top of each other such as at this wreck, the scene is unsafe until those cars can be stabilized to prevent any movement or shifting. An unstable car is a danger to both the trapped occupant and the emergency responder. 





Mechanical struts - shown in the lower right - are used to stabilize objects. In this case, the strut is one of several in use to stabilze the car that is resting on top of the other car. Master Firefighter Sean Hall (16-C) - shown in photo (left) - shared the photos.








With all patients removed, the FD carefully removes the stabilization devices that they used and releases the scene to the police. Wreckers will eventually seperate the cars and tow them away.

MCFRS Significant Incident Map For the week of January 13 – 19, 2013

In an effort to expand our Open Gov-like offerings, MCFRS has put together the below Google Map: MCFRS Significant Incident Map - Week of January 13 - 19, 2013.

This will allow the user to go in and click on various fire department incident icons to see what is going on and where. Understand these are only incidents we think have some significance and will not include, for example, a response to false or well intentioned fire alarms. Likewise, not every single medical call is on there either.

The flame icon represents fire related incidents, while the cross indicates vehicle crashes and the circle with heart beat rhythm indicates significant medial related incidents. Hope all of you find this useful. Please comment below or send an email letting us know what you think.

View MCFRS Significant Incident Map in a larger map