Turnout time

Monday's post about the elements that comprise response time began with a discussion of call processing time.  Today's topic is turnout time: the interval from the time the assigned units are notified of the emergency until the wheels start moving.  There are a few different ways that emergency responders can be notified of a dispatch: a voice announcement over the radio, an audible alarm at a station, or an electronic message delivered to a device like a computer, phone or pager.  Most emergency response systems use a combination.  In Lincoln, we use all three.

When an fire company or an ambulance crew is assigned to a emergent call, a tone sounds on a PA system in the station, a voice dispatch to the unit is made over our radio system, and an electronic message is delivered to the mobile data computer in the vehicle.  Once the alarm has been received, the assigned units have some work to do: drop whatever they had been doing previously, proceed to the apparatus, don any protective equipment, enter the vehicle, strap in, start the unit, open the door, and roll.  Once again, all of the steps take a little bit of time, and there are many variables in play.  If you're all standing near the engine at 3:00 PM, and the dispatch is to a medical emergency that would not require bunker gear, you are rolling pretty quickly.  If it's 3:00 AM and the dispatch is to a overturned tanker car, it will likely take considerably longer to get under way.

For Lincoln Fire & Rescue, we would like our turnout time for medical emergencies to be 60 seconds or less, 90% of the time.  For response to fire, rescue, and hazmat incidents, our goal is 80 seconds or less, 90% of the time. These goals are not pulled from the air, rather they are best-practices benchmarks established by the leading authority on fire safety, the National Fire Prevention Association (NFPA), a non-profit that has been developing and publishing standards concerning fire safety for over a century.