The process by which fire calls to 9-1-1 are handled is being modified temporarily, in the hopes of having information that is more accurate.
It was announced on Friday, November 20 that, going forward, and for an as-yet-undetermined amount of time, a Fire Department call taker will be conferenced in to the 9-1-1 call being handled by a Police call taker.
The FDNY will now be able to ask additional questions, possibly notice erroneous information, and have additional background.
In May of this year, “Unified Call Taking” was instituted, meaning that Police call takers sent information about fires directly to FDNY dispatchers through a new electronic link. This replaced a 1960s-era system under which both Police and Fire call takers separately interviewed callers. Since Unified Call Taking began, FDNY officials say response times to structural fires dropped below four minutes; they were 3:56 in October compared to 4:10 in April.
However, the system has come under fire from the Uniformed Firefighters’ Association (UFA).
In late October, based on a review of the first six months of Unified Call Taking, the FDNY and NYPD launched a new training program and more than half of the Police call takers have received it.
On Saturday, November 7, firefighters responding to the scene of a fire at 42-40 65th Street in Woodside were delayed when a 9-1-1 dispatcher mistakenly entered the wrong address, meaning they went to the wrong home.
The modified call-taking, set to begin on Tuesday, November 24 and lasting until both agencies deem it unnecessary, will be “used to assist in training and transition for 9-1-1 operators to be the sole call taker,” according to FDNY spokesperson Jim Long.
“There have been several instances where we had to take a closer look and provide a temporary set of extra ears,” he said.
