CHENANGO COUNTY – One month after an amended county-wide fire mutual aid plan was approved by county legislatures, changes to the agreement have thus far proven favorable, according to Chenango County Fire Coordinator Matt Beckwith.
“We feel good that it’s working for everyone,” Beckwith said, citing incidents in recent weeks when local fire departments have received help they need quickly. “We went into this knowing it would be a huge learning curve because equipment and other assistance is making it to (fire) scenes faster than what anyone is used to.”
A fire mutual aid plan update was provided to the Chenango County Safety and Rules Committee last week. While the plan is still in the learning phase for many county fire coordinators and dispatchers, Beckwith said changes made to the document that were implemented at the beginning of the year have lowered response times and in some instances, saved homes.
“That was the goal,” he said. “To get resources to the scene as quickly as we can, save the house and save a life.”
For more than 50 years, a fire mutual aid plan has been established to set guidelines by which the resources of the 21 fire departments in Chenango County are used for fire protection and other emergencies that require fire service response. But given the drastic decline in volunteer firefighters in recent years, plan revisions developed by the Chenango County Fire Advisory Board, aim to help departments manage their resources more efficiently.
Whereas it was once the responsibility of a fire chief to call for help after arriving at the scene of a fire, the revised mutual aid plan stipulates that resources be immediately dispatched when the call comes in, meaning more equipment and manpower arrive on the scene quickly. The operation is then led by the hometown fire department.
More than a dozen fires have been reported in the county since Jan. 4, Beckwith told Safety and Rules Committee members, including a working house fire in the Village of Earlville. Automatic dispatch allowed sources from Hamilton and Sherburne to responded to the fire in near record time, said Beckwith.
“In this case, it saved that house,” he added.
But there are bugs to work out. Because an automatic dispatch is sent out to various departments when a call comes in, departments are waiting longer to hear the location of the fire and what type of fire it is.
“It can be up to a minute and a half from the time the department receives the first ton to the time when they hear the location of the fire,” Beckwith said, noting that the entire dispatch time takes approximately two and a half to three minutes.
The Chenango County Fire Advisory Board is currently seeking the input of local fire chiefs regarding the recent changes to the fire mutual aid plan. Beckwith said possible adjustments include a pre-tone announcement from the dispatcher that would say the type of fire and where a fire is located prior to them sending a tone for mutual aid.