Cramahe to consider coordinated fire dispatch

Cramahe Council will let County Fire Coordinator, Al Mann know next month whether the township supports looking at the design and estimated costs of a coordinated county fire dispatch system. If council agrees to the next step, it is not committing to going forward with the proposal.

Mr. Mann was at council on November 2 explaining how studies have been done analyzing the current system. They point to a need for a further study to consider the cost of the preferred system. When those figures are in, the lower-tier municipalities and Northumberland County will be asked to support the change. Even though fire protection is a lower-tier function, the proposed system would be operated by the county.

Currently Port Hope services its own residents and those in Cramahe and Hamilton Townships. Cobourg looks after its own and the needs of Alnwick/Haldimand. Brighton and Trent Hills contract out their dispatch to a Sudbury-based company. The proposed study would look at existing facilities and technical requirements.

In an April, 2009 needs analysis report the top ten problem areas were - dispatching, radio coverage, channel monitoring with pagers, connecting with the county co-ordinator, paging coverage, channel congestion, interoperability, equipment problems, costs, coverage for portables.

In Cramahe the Cramahe Fire Department provides first response fire services for the entire municipality except for a portion along the northern border, which is covered by Warkworth. The department is also responsible for Highway 401 east to Brighton and west to Grafton.

There are two fire stations, Colborne and Castleton; however, due to the limited population base in the central area, there are fewer volunteers for the Castleton Hall. There are a total of 29 Fire Fighters (17 based in Colborne), each carrying a Minitor pager, of varying vintages from II to V.

The Department has a complement of seven Fire vehicles, each equipped with a mobile radio, except for the Rescue Van in Colborne which has two radios, since it is used as a command post. There are 13 portables and 3 base units (Colborne Station has two units). The base radio antenna is roof-mounted at Castleton and at Colborne there are two self-support towers beside the fire hall, which are used to hold the two antennas.

An incoming 9-1-1 call for the Cramahe Fire Department is received at the Port Hope Police Communications Centre and the dispatcher would alert the volunteer Fire Fighters. The coverage area is divided into two response zones, North and South; however, due to the limited resources, there is only one paging group and all volunteers are alerted.

Often, crews from both halls are required to respond but if not, all firefighters are nonetheless made aware of the situation and that they may be needed. The volunteers are paged out using the County fire channel through the repeater on County Road 45. Due to its proximity to Cramahe, paging coverage is quite good.

The normal procedure is for the firefighters to report to their local fire hall and one is designated the “radio operator”. He stays back at the Station and provides support for the deployed fire crews.

At this point, the Port Hope Police dispatcher’s role is finished, except to provide the initial benchmark times. In the south, it is estimated that for 95% of the calls, the station base goes “active” for the duration. For the north station, it is usually not possible to keep someone back to man the radio and then Port Hope dispatch would stay on the call until it is completed. Fortunately, it is rather an infrequent occurrence to have only the Castleton station respond to a call.

Some possibilities for the proposed county-wide system have already been identified.

Mr. Mann says that he prefers a three-channel system operated by county staff and housed in a purpose-built facility which has start-up costs of between $1.6 and $2 million. Currently the lower-tier municipalities in the county pay about $380,000 in salaries for emergency fir dispatch.

Cramahe Bylaw Officer, Jim Harris suggested at the November 2 meeting that the proposed system would required five dispatchers at about $60,000 each if it is to operate 24/7. He wondered if it could be married to Emergency Medical Services and save some money.

In the September, 2009 Design Alternatives Report prepared by KVA Communications, the estimated annual operating costs in a purpose-built building would be $1.1 million.

That same report appears to differ with the fire chiefs in its preferred approach. The report states, "On the other hand, establishing a purpose-built central Fire Dispatching facility does not seem to make economic sense, purely on the basis of personnel costs approaching $ 1,000,000 per year.

The contracting of fire dispatching services might turn out to be the best solution, assuming that a public safety dispatch facility can be identified which will provide the required level of specific fire department support at an affordable price."

In its recommendations the report states, "If a suitable and affordable external facility cannot be located, then further study should be made regarding the set up of a dedicated Fire dispatch centre within the County with a focus towards minimizing the operating costs."

Cramahe Mayor Marc Coombs advised the fire coordinator that the township would get back to him in a month. In the meantime Mr. Mann will visit all the other lower-tier councils to seek their approval for the next study.

In response to a question from Councillor Pat Westrope, the fire coordinator stated his hope to have everyone on side, including the two towns which operate their own dispatch systems.