DFB Control Room ?

Delancey

Is there even a grain of truth to the rumour that Dublin Fire Brigade will reduce / eliminate Firefighters working in the Control Room and replace them with ' civilian ' staff ?

Ormsby08

Hopefully the rumor is fake because you need experienced firefighters answering the phones. And if anybody could help does someone know where I could get a pair of Dublin Fire Brigade issue cargo trousers

Medic475

Ormsby08 wrote: »

Hopefully the rumor is fake because you need experienced firefighters answering the phones. And if anybody could help does someone know where I could get a pair of Dublin Fire Brigade issue cargo trousers

Why would you want DFB trousers?

Ormsby08

I was given a pair by my cousin when I joined the civil defence because they are great trousers & have huge thigh pockets & are much better then civil defence issue

Medic475

Ormsby08 wrote: »

I was given a pair by my cousin when I joined the civil defence because they are great trousers & have huge thigh pockets & are much better then civil defence issue

So you have a pair already then?

Ormsby08

the pair I have are very worn out because I do afs & ambo

Medic475

Ormsby08 wrote: »

the pair I have are very worn out because I do afs & ambo

Oh right. Can your cousin not get you another pair? Do ye do much Fire & Ambu work with CD?

Ormsby08

He is away for a while on leave & I'm in dire need of a new pair. we do a lot of ambo work very little afs work mainly training

Medic475

Ormsby08 wrote: »

He is away for a while on leave & I'm in dire need of a new pair. we do a lot of ambo work very little afs work mainly training

Have a look on ebay maybe or some of those sites. Are you paramedic or emt?

Ormsby08

I'm a CFR. I had emt trousers wore them out like a shot that's why I'm looking for DFB trousers I know louth fire service use the same trousers

Medic475

Ormsby08 wrote: »

I'm a CFR. I had emt trousers wore them out like a shot that's why I'm looking for DFB trousers I know louth fire service use the same trousers

Ye must be flat out if your wearing them out that quick! Just get a normal pair from Civil Defence and they'll do will they not or buy something from the local store?

Ormsby08

well we have 1 night ambo training a week & 2 afs & we are on ambo duty most weekends. CD trousers are cheap trousers we all hate them cause the are never measured for us just givin them

Potential-Monke

Delancey wrote: »

Is there even a grain of truth to the rumour that Dublin Fire Brigade will reduce / eliminate Firefighters working in the Control Room and replace them with ' civilian ' staff ?

I think the intention is to civilianise all frontline communications centres.

miju

Ormsby08 wrote: »

Hopefully the rumor is fake because you need experienced firefighters answering the phones. And if anybody could help does someone know where I could get a pair of Dublin Fire Brigade issue cargo trousers

out of curiosity, what can a trained and experience fire fighter do over the phone that a trained civilian could not?

searescue

If I'm not mistaken, all the lads and ladies in the Limerick control centre are civilian.

I'd say something if they were replacing the HSE 999 staff with civilians but not the fire service.

Medic475

searescue wrote: »

If I'm not mistaken, all the lads and ladies in the Limerick control centre are civilian.

I'd say something if they were replacing the HSE 999 staff with civilians but not the fire service.

The HSE took on 6 regular joe soaps a few weeks ago for two Control Centres!

Tango Alpha 51

searescue wrote: »

I'd say something if they were replacing the HSE 999 staff with civilians but not the fire service.

Can you clarify the above for me, you think it's ok to replace ambulance control staff with civilians but not fire control?

searescue

A**e over heels - I think it's ok to have civilian staff looking after the fire calls but I do think that NAS staff should man the ambulance calls - I know in some countries they have civilians that follow set scripts on the computer but scripts can solve every eventuality...

miju

that script is actually the international EMDS standard and is used by pretty much every country.

d3exile

Tango Alpha 51 wrote: »

searescue wrote: »

I'd say something if they were replacing the HSE 999 staff with civilians but not the fire service.

Can you clarify the above for me, you think it's ok to replace ambulance control staff with civilians but not fire control?

Most fire controls, yes, but DFB is different given that they run the emergency ambulance too... A civilian can dispatch a Garda car or fire engine no problem, it's a medical call that there should be a trained paramedic or similar on the line, they really couldn't get away with completely civilianising HSE or DFB control...

They could however civilianise say 80% of the control room so the civilians are call takers or dispatchers but there's always a paramedic, nurse etc able to take over the call if someone needs talking thru first aid..._

Medic475

d3exile wrote: »

Most fire controls, yes, but DFB is different given that they run the emergency ambulance too... A civilian can dispatch a Garda car or fire engine no problem, it's a medical call that there should be a trained paramedic or similar on the line, they really couldn't get away with completely civilianising HSE or DFB control...

They could however civilianise say 80% of the control room so the civilians are call takers or dispatchers but there's always a paramedic, nurse etc able to take over the call if someone needs talking thru first aid..._

Ambulance control staff in Castlebar are all EFR's!! Not even EMT's!

Delancey

Worth remembering that the scripts used by the Ambulance Service are done by a company that also does scripts for Fire Servic calls - can't see any special reason why a Fire Fighter is needed for fire calls

999nobody

d3exile wrote: »

Most fire controls, yes, but DFB is different given that they run the emergency ambulance too... A civilian can dispatch a Garda car or fire engine no problem, it's a medical call that there should be a trained paramedic or similar on the line, they really couldn't get away with completely civilianising HSE or DFB control...

They could however civilianise say 80% of the control room so the civilians are call takers or dispatchers but there's always a paramedic, nurse etc able to take over the call if someone needs talking thru first aid..._

Paramedics aren't trained to deal with patients over a phone line, any medical advice given must be very basic and can easily be given by a fully trained dispatcher.

irishrgr

Agreed, this is a job for civilian trained EMT personnel. FF or Gardai answering the phone is a waste of a trained FF/officer. Most agencies here use civvies and it works fine. We use the same EMDS scripts, it's a nationally validated standard and it works fine. Civilians doing support jobs is more cost effective and allows the trained/sworn personnel to perform the duties they are trained to do be it police, fire or EMS.

familystand

searescue wrote: »

If I'm not mistaken, all the lads and ladies in the Limerick control centre are civilian.

I'd say something if they were replacing the HSE 999 staff with civilians but not the fire service.

You are correct they are civilians , There have been lots of errors in responses since they took over, Example 1
Cork city fire service responded to an apartment fire , CFB found no fire, The fire was in Clonmel
CFB responded to a flat on wire on wellington road in Cork city, Fire was in WATERFORD and there are tons more mistakes by these civilian call takers but they never get publicised.

Taking experienced firefighters from control rooms is a disaster , Most firefighters are at least EMT qualified and can give medical advice over the line while the caller is waiting for help to arrive , The civilian telephonists are NOT capable of doing that.

Delancey

familystand wrote: »

You are correct they are civilians , There have been lots of errors in responses since they took over, Example 1
Cork city fire service responded to an apartment fire , CFB found no fire, The fire was in Clonmel
CFB responded to a flat on wire on wellington road in Cork city, Fire was in WATERFORD and there are tons more mistakes by these civilian call takers but they never get publicised.

Taking experienced firefighters from control rooms is a disaster , Most firefighters are at least EMT qualified and can give medical advice over the line while the caller is waiting for help to arrive , The civilian telephonists are NOT capable of doing that.

In the absence of links to back up these stories I have to take what you say with a large pinch of salt. Smacks of scaremongering designed to resist change and preserve the status quo.

Medic475

familystand wrote: »

Most firefighters are at least EMT qualified and can give medical advice over the line while the caller is waiting for help to arrive , The civilian telephonists are NOT capable of doing that.

Its not up to the Fire Control Operator to give medical advice over the phone I'm afraid, that's the Ambulance Controllers job!

familystand

I am one of the firefighters who has been on many a wild goose chase from calls taken by the mrcc, sad but true.

Paulzx

Medic475 wrote: »

Its not up to the Fire Control Operator to give medical advice over the phone I'm afraid, that's the Ambulance Controllers job!

It is when he does both..........

familystand

It is hardly scaremongering since no 999 calls are taken by cork city fire brigade anymore, There are huge gaps in the call taking service that serves munster every firefighter in munster has lots of examples of mistakes by those people in both retained and full time brigades
The point i was making that it is a backwards step for people that need to speak to an experienced trained professional when reporting an emergency, I am not trying to save any staus quo etc

d3exile

dispatching the wrong unit to the wrong location has nothing to do with whether someone is qualified as a firefighter or EMS or not, its just bad calltaking, you can't say being trained in performing first aid or firefighting automatically means you're better at answering the phone than a joe soap civvie calltaker

your examples only prove that some civilian calltakers are doing a bad job, and that standards should improve, not that they are incapable of doing the job just because they aren't EMS or Fire trained...