[Scan-DC] Mont Co Analog Pagers and Working Incident Notifications

[Alan Henney]

I came across this on the MC DFRS website.

https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/frs-ql/Resources/Files/swsj/fcgo/2021/21-06.pdf

Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service
FIRE CHIEF’S GENERAL ORDER
FCGO: 21-06
April 13, 2021


Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service
FIRE CHIEF’S GENERAL ORDER
FCGO: 21-06
April 13, 2021


TO: All MCFRS Personnel
FROM: Fire Chief Scott E. Goldstein
SUBJECT: Analog Pagers and Working Incident Notifications

MCFRS has used analog tones and pagers for decades to alert Fire/Rescue
personnel when an incident is dispatched. Currently, these analog tones are
activated on every incident dispatched. The more units dispatched on an
incident, the more analog tones are activated. A full assignment can have
up to 15 sets of tones. As our service has evolved, so has the technology
of notifying personnel of dispatches. P1 CAD, station alerting, MDCs,
radios assigned to most riding positions, third party notification
services, i.e. Everbridge, Active 911 etc., have all played a part in
decreasing the need for analog tones. Beginning, May 1, 2021, ECC will
decrease the number of analog tone activations. In addition, ECC will add a
‘Working Incident Notification’ and ‘Critical Information Notification’ to
our notification process. These changes are described in more detail below.

Analog Tones: In general, analog tones will only be used to dispatch
personnel that do not have station alerting, or to provide relevant
notifications to MCFRS leadership. The only analog tones that will be used
during dispatch will be: CWFULL, CWEMS, LFRD duty tones, FEI, SOPS and
Canteens. There will be no tones for each station involved in the dispatch
or other specialized units. However, the text or email notification you
received through Everbridge or Active911 will not change.

If station alerting goes down for an extended period, analog tones can be
turned back on at the station level.

Working Incident Notification: Any significant incident where MCFRS
leadership should be aware or may attract the media attention, will get an
analog tone and the notification CWWIN. As soon as practical, the ECC
Supervisor will also send out a notification through Everbridge with a
short description of the incident. Examples of significant incidents
include, working fires, extrications, atypical traumatic injuries that are
fatal or life threatening and active water rescues. Working Incident
Notifications will not be done while under Condition Red.

If you subscribe to email notifications for CWWIN through Everbridge,
here’s what the notification would look like:

CAD MSG: F2000200000 * PIC - ENTRAPMENT - ALS1 (POL) * 123 MAIN STREET * Box
Area: 9901 * X/Y: 38.06052512 / -75.12051179 * Units: CWWIN
The ECC Supervisor would then send the corresponding notification:
FRS Working Incident Notification
123 Main Street: 2 car collision; 1 pinned; 2 P1 traumas.

Critical Information Notification: Any infrastructure or technology issue
that may have an impact on service delivery. Such as, issues with CAD, the
radio system or 9-1-1 phone lines.

FRS Critical Information Notification
Experiencing intermittent 911 phone outage beginning at 1115 hours.

A new Response Plan matrix with tones and notifications can be found here.

If you need assistance with programming your Minitor pager or with access
to your Everbridge account, please fill out a Technology Service Request.

Any questions or issues with these notifications, please fill out an ECC
Feedback Form.