Saves Critical Seconds in Emergency Response

When it comes to emergency fire response, seconds count. Just ask the Kitchener Fire Department, who has shaved valuable seconds off their fire station alerting time with a custom solution from Glentel / Time MCI.

TimeCall FSA is a Fire Station Alerting system developed by Glentel / Time MCI and now deployed at the Kitchener Fire Department (KFD). The system enables fire departments to quickly alert area fire stations when an emergency call arrives. It speeds the overall dispatching process while improving the quality of communication to fire stations during the critical early seconds of emergency fire response.

Tim Beckett, KFD’s Deputy Chief, oversaw the installation of the new system, and explains how the new technology helps improve performance. “Before the upgrade, it would take up to 30 seconds to alert four fire stations of an emergency call,” says Beckett. “Now we can alert five stations in eight seconds,” he says. These extra seconds allow fire crews to arrive on scene faster which can help minimize the severity of outcomes in a fire emergency. “Ultimately, the community will see faster response times as a result,” says Beckett. “We’ve committed to achieving a certain reflex time on emergency calls, and the TimeCall FSA system is a tool that can help us do so,” he says.

 Don MacKenzie of Glentel / Time MCI, explains the versatility of the proprietary TimeCall FSA system. “We designed the technology so that it can be interfaced with any CAD system that supports the universal Zetron serial CAD link protocol,” he says. “In KFD’s case, TimeCall FSA was implemented as an upgrade to their existing Zetron Model 26/6 system. Virtually all of the existing system was redeployed in the upgrade, which helped reduce the upgrade costs.”

According to Beckett, the solution also brings other enhancements to the dispatch process and rectifies a key shortcoming of the former system. When we alert a fire station of an emergency, our Computer Aided Dispatch system (CAD) generates a file containing critical information for the fire crews like addresses and map coding,” says Beckett. “This file is sent to the printers at corresponding fire stations, where it is printed out in a ‘trip ticket’ format. Before the upgrade, however, our dispatchers had no way of knowing if a trip ticket had been successful printed until it was verbally confirmed over the radio by a fire crew in motion,” he says.

 Glentel / Time MCI solved this problem by linking the remote printers to the dispatch station and building a custom printer monitor interface. Now dispatchers can monitor a number of conditions such as AC power, paper status, online status and printer cable connectivity at every printer. With this upgrade, the success of each print job can now be monitored and confirmed. The new solution also features a push-button at each fire station, whereby the receiving fire crew can acknowledge receipt of the printed trip ticket by pushing the button once. “Our dispatchers now have assurance that critical information reaches the stations,” says Beckett.

Glentel / Time MCI is also the prime maintenance provider for TimeCall FSA, offering 24-hour, 7-day support. According to Beckett, this kind of innovation and dedicated support is reflective of Glentel / Time MCI’s overall commitment to customer satisfaction. “We are very impressed with thier commitment and expertise in terms of their quality assurance measures, testing procedures, and overall customer service. They guided us through the upgrade process and were relentless in ensuring that every part of the solution met with our satisfaction,” says Beckett. “I would highly recommend Glentel / Time MCI.”