Roanoke Fire-EMS is in the process of installing a new electronic message alert system.
If you a scanner listener like I *try to be* (I need to do it more often since it’s a good source of story ideas), then you’ll find this particularly interesting.
The way this was explained to me was, instead of hearing the old tones, like one for firefighters and one for paramedics, which would be the initial trigger to alert on duty personnel at each station, fire-EMS personnel will get the information a lot faster.
Instead of having to wait until after that general tone in order to hear the type of emergency, the address, and then which apparatus was being dispatched, the electronic system will notify them of those details right away, essentially skipping the general tone alarm.
This will help Roanoke Fire-EMS particularly since they have multiple personnel and apparatus at each station.
Each firefighter or paramedic impacted by the emergency call will get the information faster since they won’t have to wait through that general tone.
This is a system we’ll probably see more and more in our area, if it’s not how the majority works already.
It might only shave seconds off response time, but those seconds could save lives.
Posted by Scott Leamon at 03:26 PM. Filed under: leamon •
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