Do you ever?

[jaff]

The pager website shows SES called out to a lot of, on the info on the pagers trivial events that should perhaps be taken care of by Mr and Mrs Joe public,the gutters flooding in particular comes to mind. "HELLO" clean em out, if your fit and able no excuse, if your old or infirm ,call a relative or contractor, not the emergency services at the worst possible moment!
Small tree down,get out of your slippers and "HELLO" bow saw!
Is this apparent phenomenon a suburban issue, as the rural areas seem to take care of themselves!
I know if I was called away from my employment to attend a job that the resident could have with a little effort relatively easily taken care of themselves, it wouldnt amuse me, it would probably only be the comraderie of my vollie mates, that make it worthwhile.
So do you ever feel used by a lazy uncaring public???

[car31]

Not isolated to SES Jaff, there is always those people that think the fire Service is there to change the batteries in their beeping smoke detector in the middle of the night 

[chook]

Lots of times. However its not just by Joe public during storm events. It also by other government agencies who use us as spare labour. Slack councils who don't maintain drains, trees etc. Community event organiser's who ask for our assistance then provide us with Sweet FA. Even the drunken driver who looses control rolls his /her car staggers out etc etc (No need for rescue, no threat to the public). Where is the emergency?
However for all of those event's they don't happen to us that often & genuine emergencies far outway the "time wasters" & these days we don't get that many jobs - period, so What can you do?
cheers

[bajdas]

Filtering of the 132500 happens often when SES SCC active. This is to try & stop processing the 'no emergency' calls.

If it is normal Call Receipt & Dispatch to a Central Region Unit, then the Duty Officer receiving the first pager call for the Unit will filter the tasking. Generally this means telephoning the person to ascertain the extra information. Makes a longer turnout time, but less disturbance on volunteers.

If it is a life-threat tasking, then SES is dual response with MFS. So the risk is mitigated by MFS being a fast responder, with SES providing equipment/skills.

Within SES SCC, the volunteers take longer to process a call so that we can determine if it is a council tree & genuine threat for further damage. If in doubt,the task is allocated to a Unit for them to investigate further.

People get quite angry ("I pay my ESL & I expect service" comments) with the volunteers, when they are advised to contact a handyman service or tree lopper. Generally we say it is policy not to impact on a business's ability to earn money.

Last major storm I attended, a person in the Adelaide Hills called

* SES to retrieve a kids trampoline that had blown into a tree. Not an emergency, thus the calltaker advised the person to contact a handyman or relative.

* called SAPOL who passed the tasking to SES SCC. This was referenced back to the first call & no response.

* called CFS Region who telephoned SES SCC. Person had stated this was a risk to school children, because the school oval was on the other side of the tree behind a fence. Problem was that it was then after 1700, so no school kids on the oval because the school was closed !!!!!!

No threat & no response. It can be a 'pain in the a**' but funny between the six volunteer calltakers we can have on shift. We can hear each other conversations & will tap the person on the shoulder if we think it is the same person trying to call again. I think the record for repeat calls in one storm incident is 5 times to SES SCC.

Have even done the trick....'Yes I will get my supervisor to talk to you so you can explain your emergency'..telephone headset handed to another volunteer calltaker next to you..'can I help you...sorry we cannot assist'.

[chook]

Just for clarification Andrews comments mainly refer to central region (Adelaide) as SCC is normally closed when we are active (hey Andrew )
And none of our calls are filtered prior to the crew being dispatched
cheers

[bajdas]

Just for clarification Andrews comments mainly refer to central region (Adelaide) as SCC is normally closed when we are active (hey Andrew )
And none of our calls are filtered prior to the crew being dispatched
cheers

Yep agree, every Unit other than Central Region is setup for life-threat response like CFS....all pagers drop & everyone bolts for the door.

[Jimmy]

Some central units are also set up for direct paging to everyone. Eastern and Campbelltown at least.

[bajdas]

Some central units are also set up for direct paging to everyone. Eastern and Campbelltown at least.

Thanks for the correction. It is good to learn.

[Benji]

And Barker as well.. also followed up with SMS to everyone as not all have pagers

[OMGWTF]

Considering every unit now responds to life threats, industrial rescue/confined space/heights/build impact.... i should think you should all be going to the "CFS style" of using pagers...

[Zippy]

Its interesting that SES seems to has similar problems to CFS regarding 'doing the same thing'.

As for dealing with life threat or non-life threat, heres a possible good practice for ses units:

P1 - Life Threat. Immediate response to station on receipt of page. Full Emergency Driving Conditions Allowed.
P2 - no immediate life threat, Equivalent of CFS Priority 2. Upgraded if required after initial arrival - respond to station after page from Duty Officer.

And id think every response would start at P2 unless otherwise stated by Adelaide Fire, or the resource first on scene.

[OMGWTF]

P1 - Life Threat. Immediate response to station on receipt of page. Full Emergency Driving Conditions Allowed.
P2 - no immediate life threat, Equivalent of CFS Priority 2. Upgraded if required after initial arrival - respond to station after page from Duty Officer.

And id think every response would start at P2 unless otherwise stated by Adelaide Fire, or the resource first on scene.

not a bad model, except i would suggest that instead of every response starting as a P2 "unless stated by adelaide fire" that the unit should be able to determine for themself what priority the job is...

maybe for a tree down adelaide fire could suggest it going as a 1 or 2, but in reality SES shouldnt need to be told that an industrial rescue is P1 or that a cat in a tree is a P2. every one has some level of common sense.... hopefully.

[chook]

We already have priority protocols (which every unit duty officer should know), due to the range of job types we do. Remember that we are talking metro units here - rural are responded the same as CFS/SAMFS (and before any body brings up that individual in Adelaide who drives around the place P1, I know - what can I say)
cheers

[Zippy]

(and before any body brings up that individual in Adelaide who drives around the place P1, I know - what can I say)
cheers

hahaha

[bajdas]

Its interesting that SES seems to has similar problems to CFS regarding 'doing the same thing'.

As for dealing with life threat or non-life threat, heres a possible good practice for ses units:

P1 - Life Threat. Immediate response to station on receipt of page. Full Emergency Driving Conditions Allowed.
P2 - no immediate life threat, Equivalent of CFS Priority 2. Upgraded if required after initial arrival - respond to station after page from Duty Officer.

And id think every response would start at P2 unless otherwise stated by Adelaide Fire, or the resource first on scene.

Current SES priority codes are:

P1 = life threat, responding with MFS or CFS = lights/sirens
P2 = potential life threat = lights/sirens
P3 = serious infrastructure = no lights/sirens
P4 = minor tasking = volunteers respond at convenient time
NIL = no response

They can be altered when received by the Unit.

[24pumper]

Its interesting that SES seems to has similar problems to CFS regarding 'doing the same thing'.

As for dealing with life threat or non-life threat, heres a possible good practice for ses units:

P1 - Life Threat. Immediate response to station on receipt of page. Full Emergency Driving Conditions Allowed.
P2 - no immediate life threat, Equivalent of CFS Priority 2. Upgraded if required after initial arrival - respond to station after page from Duty Officer.

And id think every response would start at P2 unless otherwise stated by Adelaide Fire, or the resource first on scene.

Current SES priority codes are:

P1 = life threat, responding with MFS or CFS = lights/sirens
P2 = potential life threat = lights/sirens
P3 = serious infrastructure = no lights/sirens
P4 = minor tasking = volunteers respond at convenient time
NIL = no response

They can be altered when received by the Unit.

I find it interesting that a P2 "potential life threat" = lights and sirens doesnt involve a responce from fire service if they are the closest most appropriate resourse???

[bajdas]

Current SES priority codes are:

P1 = life threat, responding with MFS or CFS = lights/sirens
P2 = potential life threat = lights/sirens
P3 = serious infrastructure = no lights/sirens
P4 = minor tasking = volunteers respond at convenient time
NIL = no response

They can be altered when received by the Unit.

I find it interesting that a P2 "potential life threat" = lights and sirens doesnt involve a responce from fire service if they are the closest most appropriate resourse???

I am not sure if I should post examples in a public forum, so I have sent you a private message with some examples.

I believe it is on the 'most appropriate' resource. During storms the MFS & CFS respond to a lot of fire alarm calls.

Personally I would prefer a very expensive fire truck to attend them rather than a tree on a side street where cars can get around. But on a stormy night, a car could hit that tree.

[chook]

Andrew has listed the protocol as written - obviously if the threat could be dealt with appropriately by a fire service & they were as close or closer then they would be despatched by Adelaide Fire. The document was issued for internal use only & has everyone of our task type responses & there are two variations one for metro one for rural - the reference to fire services is metro only.
I hope this clears up the confusion - rember not every appliance/ brigade is equipped to provide rescue response.
cheers

[Zippy]

rember not every appliance/ brigade is equipped to provide rescue response

haha...doesnt the typical MFS firey think that every single appliance at least has a combi tool for RCR?

[Alan J]

Get less frivolous calls in the CFS than in SES. Partly rural people (even urban escapees) seem more self-sufficient than metro counterparts. There is also a wider understanding I think that CFS are vollies.  A lot more people think that SES are paid.

Other thing I noticed while I was in SES, we seemed to get a lot more stupid little calls during major multiple-tasking events than at other times. Almost as if certain members of the public are sufficiently upset by unusual wind/weather as to lose the plot about their actual event. Any other day/night, they'd drag the branch aside & put a bow saw to it on the weekend..

One of first important activities in incident management, even at local HQ level was to set up call filtering & prioritising.  That said, we'd always take the job, give it a P4 & have someone eye-ball it at some later stage. And tell the punter to their face that they are a time-waster (nicely, with one or two exceptions.  )
From a vollie PoV, I'd see this sort of sorting out for storm damage calls as a Good Thing. The other sorts of calls - RCR & etc via 000 - need to be direct dispatch, or as close to it as reasonably possible. Which how it happens in metro SES units, Yes ??

cheers

[bajdas]

...
From a vollie PoV, I'd see this sort of sorting out for storm damage calls as a Good Thing. The other sorts of calls - RCR & etc via 000 - need to be direct dispatch, or as close to it as reasonably possible. Which how it happens in metro SES units, Yes ??

cheers

Yep, all 000 calls go direct to Adelaide Fire for SES response at all times. Then they set off the pagers using the normal process.

The volunteers in the SES SCC only handle the 132500 calls during a major incident. Takes the load from the MFS operators so they handle the life-threat incidents timely.

Sometimes get a P1 call on 132500 when volunteers manning SES SCC. This 'Request for Assistance' gets priority through the system to the Unit dispatch.

[Zippy]

The other sorts of calls - RCR & etc via 000 - need to be direct dispatch, or as close to it as reasonably possible.

You would be meaning...the page goes to every member instead of one or two duty officer pagers??  thats the best way for a Life Threat job.

[Alan J]

The other sorts of calls - RCR & etc via 000 - need to be direct dispatch, or as close to it as reasonably possible.

You would be meaning...the page goes to every member instead of one or two duty officer pagers??  thats the best way for a Life Threat job.

I would be meaning that. But I'm no longer SES.  Andrew or one of the other metro SES
bods would be better placed to answer that.  Judging by the GRN paging site, I'd say
yes, that's how it happens.  In which case we would probably agree that SES are
intelligently handling their call traffic.  Which is to be expected - they have some
very good people.

[jaff]

On the paging site saw you guys got called out to internal flooding caused by a overflowing washing machine, can't imagine that many members were breaking their necks to get to that one.
Dont these people have family, friends or mates to help out.....maybe you guys could set yourself up as a emergency rent a crowd, say if your house warming is a bit of a flop ,no mates or family coming call "SES rent a crowd" hey presto 10 friendly people in orange party costumes.

[chook]

Trouble is Jaff, except for a few metro units you would have to page a lot of units to get a crowd
But it sounds like a great idea, better if SES charged for the "crowds" appearance. Might be a way of raising the dollars for the service to keep going
cheers