Efficient fire dispatch key for San Rafael

San Rafael's “partnership” with the Marin County Fire Department is a huge step toward bringing the county a state-of-the-art 911 and fire communications hub.

Its creation comes from the decision that the county's current dispatch center would no longer handle both police and fire calls, requiring the fire departments to come up with their own system.

That hub will be located in the county's Marin Commons building in north San Rafael and it will be able to share some of the technology and infrastructure already in use for police dispatch.

The city's interim fire chief, Abraham Roman, called the development of a consolidated Marin fire departments' communications center “the most efficient and most effective” course for the San Rafael Fire Department and other Marin fire agencies.

The plan won the City Council's approval at its Feb. 20 meeting.

Since 2009, the fire department has contracted with the county for 911 and fire communications, replacing its much smaller in-house dispatch center long located in the now-gone firehouse at Fifth and C streets.

The development of a countywide communications hub, specifically designed for fire services, is a recognition that Marin “is not big enough for all of us to do our own thing,” says Marin County Fire Chief Jason Weber.

The new hub builds on a seamless mutual-aid system of response that has been in place for years, boosting the number of trained personnel and equipment available to fight fires.

The plan calls for the center to be up and running by July.

It will cost the county and participating cities and fire districts more, but the new center will also be an improvement over their current service, with added equipment and staffing.

The center will be equipped with real-time video monitors showing views from fire lookouts and traffic locations. It will also be equipped with technology that tracks fire and paramedic vehicles so dispatchers can send the first-response team that's closest to an emergency call, in some cases regardless of a department's boundaries.

A command officer will serve in the center to direct resources to the emergency.

Weber says that many of the improvements are based on lessons learned from destructive and deadly wildfires seen in the North Bay since 2017. Those fires underscored the response of the dispatch center and the importance of its role providing front-end view of the breadth of the emergency and managing the initial response.

In addition, the hub's dispatchers will be trained to provide emergency medical and 911 callers with instructions on measures needed before the arrival of paramedics and firefighters.

In San Rafael, for instance, 70% of the emergency calls to the fire department are medical-related.

It is the collection of local agencies that is making this new and improved communications hub possible.

Weber rightfully calls in a “partnership.” He's right. It is a public service that is staffed and equipped to provide callers “the service they expect and that we can all be proud of.”