How are the Firefighters Alerted to Fire Alarms?
In Troy, we utilize the enhanced 911 (E911) service. It provides automatic routing of all 911 calls to the police, fire and ambulance dispatch center at City Hall. When someone calls 911, it automatically displays the address of the caller and enters the location into a computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system. E911 identifies which stations and apparatus should be dispatched to the emergency. Then, using voice and alphanumeric paging systems, the appropriate fire station(s) are alerted to the call. Once the pagers are activated, the fire dispatcher informs the responding station(s) of the location and type of incident. At this point, all firefighters respond to the fire station to get the apparatus. The first arriving firefighter then takes out the first due apparatus and calls on the way. This call can be heard by all firefighters through their voice pagers. Once it is heard that all apparatus are on the way, the remaining firefighters go directly to the scene.
