Fire Chief: Centralized Dispatch Beefs Up Department Coverage

To outsource or not outsource? Even the Scarsdale Fire Department faces this question in an age of budgetary belt-tightening.

In the case of moving the village's emergency dispatch services to Valhalla, and consolidating with the county fire operator, Fire Chief Thomas Cain said there are more benefits than drawbacks, at a July 13 meeting before Scarsdale's Board of Trustees. 

Currently, Scarsdale conducts fire dispatch in-house and has its own "career" firefighters at a desk nearly 24/7 to pick up the phones and send engines to incidents in town. Of the three fire stationhouses, two have dispatch and one does not; an average day sees four calls.

The dispatcher on the phone leaves when the crews are sent out, making it essentially a part-time role for the firefighters.  When the dispatchers go on a call, all phone and radio calls are already handed over to 60 Control, which is also known as the Westchester Department of Emergency Services, or ECC.

The problem? The county wants to end all part-time dispatch services, says Cain.

According to Cain, since September 2007, when the village met with county fire officials, the Village has been on notice that it must permanently solve the part-time problem of not having continuous live dispatchers.

The most affordable option is to join Centralized Fire Dispatch service, or 60 Control, which is a service already paid for in the taxes Scarsdale pays to the county each year  – a total of 5 percent of our $1.8 billion operating budget.

Basically, 60 Control is a centralized service, based in nearby Valhalla, that has four full-time paid staffers who handle dispatch day and night for many municipalities. It is run by Westchester government.

Already 60 Control takes over Scarsdale Fire's phones two to three times a week, roughly 11 times a month, and 132 times a year, said Cain. Valhalla currently accounts for 8.25 percent of the fire department's annual call volume.

"The most important advantage to me is manpower, we get more manpower at every fire scene." said Chief Cain. "Right now we send six firefighters and a captain to a structural fire; we send eight firefighters [after this transition]. Besides the operational advantage, there are numerous safety advantages," he continued.

Cain used as an example, the speed of handling incidents in the community and the surge in call volume on July 7, the day of the White Plains fire, and a Con Ed fire that left many in Scarsdale without power.  Twenty-four calls came in that day, though four members of the department and an engine were in White Plains.

"By freeing up another engine, we can send more people and handle these incidents on a simultaneous basis. On the instances where we do get overwhelmed, we'll get help quicker [from neighboring departments]," he said. By being able to use the firefighter who would otherwise be working the phones to get more backup, "we're cutting out the middle man." Cain said.

The proposition alone has been cause for concern among the union leadership, which has been concerned that the consolidation may make it easier for the department to lay off workers or shed overtime.

Cain spent a good deal of time trying to address what he called rumours surrounding the restructuring. He assured the trustees that, rather than losing career positions on the force, he expects the move would secure positions and allow firefighters to focus soley on the call of duty  – namely, dealing with fires and helping the public.

However, that doesn't mean there's no cost.

"Administratively, there is a ton of prepatory work that will need to be done. Staff will be burdened for six months, " said Chief Cain. There are also changes in the software for the computers that the employees need to learn, and Scarsdale will lose a degree of local control.

"Our firefighters are not the ones speaking to callers; they follow prompts on a screen, but it's customizable, so a fire chief can override it on the phone, but you can't override what's on the screen," he continued.

Scarsdale residents will experience a difference in service, when it comes to the phones. "The public will see that they're losing a direct interface," said Cain.

Currently, the fire department goes above and beyond, taking calls for kittens up trees, potentially hazardous non-fire conditions or Mrs. Jones's flooded basement. (Unlike other districts, ours pumps basements and helps people get into their own locked cars.) Moving forward, some of that might be lost, although dispatchers would follow whatever directions Scarsdale has for sending out help, as long as it's in the system.

However, there is a protocol when responding to reports and the priority of a situation's treatment will be determined based on the severity of the condition –it is a triage system in medical facilities, and this rule will apply now to the Scarsdale Fire Department. The most urgent calls come first; minor calls that do not involve a fire will be triaged.

Last, and possibly most contentious for some, is the fate of the volunteer firefighters.

Cain assured the Board of Trustees that treatment of emergency calls and dispatch of information would be no less, and possibly better, because of the transition, but Rich Foran, the president of the Volunteer Fire Company No. 1, raised concerns at and after the meeting.

"We hope that the countywide radio is not a prelude in trying to extinguish the Volunteer Firefighters of Scarsdale, and [a step to] create a massive fire district," wrote Foran in an e-mail to Patch, and he exressed fears that the volunteer firefighters feared being overlooked in other ways, as well.

The village needs to write a commitment letter to the county and then the Scarsdale Fire Department will be forced to implement it.

If Scarsdale Village doesn't go with the option of 60 Control here are the alternatives:

• Hire a union firefighting staff to dispatch internally with overtime pay. The estimate cost is $440,000. This is what Hartsdale and Fairview do and the cost ranges between $350,000 and $500,000. Hartsdale pays $550,000.

• Hire civilian staff, which would cost approximately $200,000. There are worries regarding how cost effective this would be given the productivity of the department.

• The third option involves having the Police Department take over these dispatch duties when the Fire Department vacates to cover a fire.