Bloomington Fire Department: Locution Station Alerting System

The Challenge

Imagine you are a Firefighter on a night shift. A dispatch alert wakes you up with a call to service. Your adrenaline is pumping and you are immediately fully awake - only to find that your unit is not the one scheduled to respond to the event… and this happens an average of 11 times per night. 

Parents of young children who don’t sleep through the night will tell you what being woken up multiple times per night ready to go into action does to your brain, your ability to be alert, your mood, and your health. For firefighters, this amount of stress on the heart can also be deadly.

There had to be another way to wake up only the firefighters that need to be dispatched and allow the others to continue to sleep. 

The Idea

When Chief Moore joined BFD, he came from a department with advanced dispatch technology. He was aware of what automation was possible and was actively looking for a system that would fit BFD’s needs. Chief Moore and Monroe County Central Emergency Dispatch Supervisor Jeff Schemmer heard of an alert system in Johnson County that used targeted audio and visual signals to allow only the unit or units being deployed to be notified. After visiting Johnson County and seeing the Locution system in action, they knew they had a winner.

The Cost

The Locution Station Alerting System was a major investment of $328,630 in the health and safety of our first responders as well as in the safety of our community by improving the efficiency of their response. 

The Benefits

What is different now that the Locution Station Alerting System is in place?

• Targeted notifications by unit reduced the average number of unnecessary rousings from 11 to 0 per shift.

• The custom audio used by the Locution system increased comprehension of the dispatch message by approximating a human voice with specific speed and inflection.

• Exhaust removal was automated improving air quality in the fire station.

• System run timers now track each step of the response time and display actual metrics versus performance goals for best in class service. 

• Call processing time was reduced by 45 seconds; overall response time was reduced by 3 minutes (Considering a fire doubles in size every 30 seconds to 1 minute, these time savings are huge!)

• Redundant dispatch connection points mean more backup if the system were to go offline.

• System has red pathway lights that prevent disruption to a firefighters vision at night and allows us to turn off all of the lights instead of leaving several lights on 24 hours a day.

Metadata

City Department(s): Fire 

City Department Point(s) of Contact: Fire Chief Jason Moore 

Partner(s): n/a

Partner Point(s) of Contact: n/a

Type of Innovation: Mechanical/Equipment 

Date Implemented: August 2019