Matthew Huddle, an emergency dispatcher with over 15 years of experience in Fire and EMS dispatch and over 20 years of firefighting experience with the Berwyn Heights Volunteer Fire Department, discusses the role of the Emergency Fire Dispatcher (EFD) in violent incidents. He covers the varying definitions of “violence,” the role of premise history, and the EFD’s need to cultivate active listening skills.
Mike Thompson, a Fire Protocol, Academics and Standards Expert with the IAED’s Academics, Research, and Standards Division, discusses protocol accommodations for callers with disabilities, specifically for fire calls. He explains what accommodations exist and the events that prompted them.
The extent of fire emergencies in our communities is of great concern, not only to the public, but to the nation's fire departments, whose role is not only to respond to them, but to mitigate and, even earlier, to prevent them. The variety of types of fire-related emergencies reported to 911 is of significant interest to this ongoing mandate. The aim of this study was to characterize the distribution of calls handled using a Fire Priority Dispatch System (FPDS™) in the studied agencies. This was a retrospective and non-controlled descriptive study...
