SA Firefighter

primary & secondary searches of the (abandoned) premises found no persons inside. seems it was a common squat for more than one homeless person...

Well, despite all the bashings, criticisms, and some positive reinforcement, Adelaide Fire had its mettle tested well and truly on Thursday. I'd like to congratulate them on an amazing job under such intense circumstances. There has been some really good feedback, although I know that not everything went 100%, I'm guessing that many people expected, maybe wanted, it to fail. Region 1 never even activated their own resource tracking.
MFS put extra staff on for the conditions, had every phone in Comcen staffed and had the right people in the right positions.
I was in there on the day, and wish to publicly thank all the Adel Fire operators on a brilliant job.

On another front, a BOMS upgrade is due for release on Monday, which will allow operators to search for and input requested Brigades by full name, rather than short name (4 letter abbrev.) This should speed up your alerts calls and dispatches. ie, operator enters full name and BOMS converts it to callsign.

Rusty

Quote from: medevac on December 06, 2006, 11:52:28 AM

MFS: RESPOND Strike Team 06/12/06 09:50,MAJORS RD,OHALLORAN HILL, MAP 165 A 5 ,,ASSEMBLE 1030HRS - STN 42,DAILY INC. NO. 16,41 441 401 431*CFSRES:

Is this a relativly new addition to their response messages, or have i just been outstandingly unobservant? (DAILY INC. NO. 16)

The MFS have transitioned to on-line (computerised) fire reports, (finally away from hand-written fire reports!). As part of the consultation process, the operators identified that when the radio operator had a page full of going jobs and appliances were calling in sit-reps, upgrades or stop messages, it would be harder (& time consuming) to select the correct incident from the daily incident list. This is because the calls are listed in call-number order, not by appliance. To alleviate this they suggested including the daily incident number into the dispatch message. (gulp - aghast... management actually consulted with and listened to the staff!!!)

This also means a change of radio protocols, requiring the appliances to say "Glynde 221, call number 16, From S/O Smith Stop for..." etc, allowing for the operator to select the incident first, then input the message in the right place.

It will also be a God-send when Multiple Incident Procedure is instigated, and the MIP log forms are returned to comcen for input into the system - straight to the call number listed by the crew on their MIP log.

Although it's not currently required, CFS/SES crews could quote the call number when acknowledging pager messages... might help if it's busy?!

Heysen Tunnels Response Plans state that for a confirmed fire in the tunnels an automatic second alarm shall be transmitted (Bridgewater, Aldgate, Upper Sturt & MFS). OIC can request specialist resources from either service, including foam pod/s, State Hazmat, BWC's etc. Also, dispatch should incllude a phone call to the Norwood Traffic Control Centre to see what their monitors show, from which they would likely close the freeway completely.
From past experience on that road dealing with large spillages, they have 25 mins on a rainy day to catch the flow before it hits the Patawolonga, or longer if the waterways aren't full. Now, burning fuel down the catchment presents a whole host of new issues, and may warrant a strike team response from the MFS to follow it through the channels in MFS area & cut it off.

although SOCC are not allowed to tell CFS appliances to change to MFS talkgroup,,,, any appliance responding into there area should do so, and tell SOCC that they are.

WTF?? Why on earth would SOCC NOT be allowed to tell CFS apps to go to MFS T/G? It's SOP to change, so where's the problem? Might be difficult for borderline calls to know whose area it is until arrival, but for the others....

Smoke alarms do funny things when their batteries go kaput... some actually go into a series of beeps, not just the one occasional chirp. The poor elderly callers usually are frantic or at wits end (especially as these events occur usually in the middle of the night as the temp drops and the chemical reactions in the batteries slow down, making them appear flatter..). When they call the Fire Service it usually is their last port of call. So the dispatch goes out to Assist Resident. From there the (MFS Country or CFS Brigade) chooses their own priority and crew and attends as they see fit. If that means one person to walk around the corner, or a full crew in full turnout gear, so be it. That's locally governed.

Some councils have Elderly Assistance Programmes, who will change their batteries once a year, in line with the Fire Services' call to "Change Your Clock, Change Your Smoke Alarm Battery" campaign..some councils do not. However when it is after hours, and the resident has noone to turn to, we are there.

If you don't want to go, put your head back under the pillow and go back to sleep. Or, better still, stop complaining and start your own local assistance programme.

Pumprescue does not need to reply to your post. Firstly PR might not have logged in for a week, or had the chance to reply, but mostly it shouldn't need one. Figure it out.

No, Linc24p, THIS IS NOT A JOKE.

MFS are also going the way of "MCT"s (Mobile Computer Terminals) with touch screens. The company that produced the old MDTs is now defunct, so there are no more spare parts!
MFS expect to switchover sometime in the first half of 2007, though initially the MCTs will be just as dumb as the old MDT's. Later they expect on-line mapping and alarm/ premises preplans etc, more in line with SAPol MCTs. All they have to do then is try to teach the S/O's how to use them!

Only the Officers carry the pagers... the station bells still drop ok, just have trouble getting to the Appliance MDTs through the new roof.

An alarm call doesn't worry me so much, esp during working hours, but reports of fire is another matter entirely. BTW the request for CFS not to go to alarms in MFS area came from our CFS management, not from the MFS.

All fair enough. Especially see the point with employer negotiations.

I think the point is why is Pt Lincoln MFS responding to a tree/grass fire 30km north of the port and then taking 10 minutes to call CFS. Thats an issue worth looking at as it's covered by 2 or more CFS brigades???

Well, that one just seems crazy...a distinct lack of common sense on that one I think. I would have thought that CFS should have been called by MFS Comms in the first instance.

Pity the CFS uniform isn't an attractive one.... can't think that too many women would be clawing at the khaki.

Well...the poor dipatchers... damned if they do, damned if they don't.

"Common sense should prevail..." Operator counselled and told to send the recommended response.
"Why send rescue when not required?" Operator counselled for not using common sense.

As pointed out, the RCRRD states that all should be responded outside metro are (and just what is the definition of metro area?).

Often when SAPOL or SAAS call the Fire/Rescue service for a job they may well say that there is no one trapped, but this is the result of questioning the caller, without confirmation of an emergency service on-scene. Everyone has heard and bitched about past incidents when the other service wasn't called, or a simple MVA turnout was found to be a job with entrapments...

So, for now, at least, expect to see more unrequired callouts. At least it'll get the stats up.