How Are Firefighters Alerted to Fire Calls?
In the metro area we are very fortunate to have available the E911 service. E911 (enhanced 911) provides for the automatic routing of all 911 calls to the appropriate police, fire and ambulance dispatch service providers. For our area that service provider happens to be the Hennepin County Sheriffs Communications Division located in Golden Valley. When a 911 call is placed within our service area, it is automatically routed to the Hennepin County Sheriffs dispatch center showing the address of the call and what police, fire and ambulance agencies should be started. Then, through the use of a special voice paging system, the Hamel Volunteer Fire Department is alerted to the call. Upon receipt of a unique coded signal, all of the Departments’ pagers are activated and the fire dispatcher is able to inform everyone of the location and type of incident. At this point all firefighters (with the exception of some officers who report directly to the incident scene) respond to the fire station
