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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Combined Dispatch Center Handles All County Fire Calls Officials Expect Savings And Faster Responses

More than two years after planning began, Spokane County fire districts have merged their four dispatch centers into one facility downtown.

Now a month old, the new combined communication center at 508 N. Wall handles all fire and emergency medical service dispatching for the county. Fire chiefs from District 8, District 9, Valley Fire and the Spokane Fire Department believe the change will improve response times and save money. The consolidation also has allowed the districts to afford upgraded technology and new digital pagers for all firefighters.

But the transition has been rough for some fire personnel, including firefighters who say the old system provided better service, in part because regional dispatchers knew their areas better.

Both supporters and skeptics agree that the new dispatch center needs time to work out the bugs. Dispatchers, firefighters and other fire personnel are dealing with new equipment, maps and procedures.

“It’s the “C” word - change,” said District 8 Fire Chief Dan Stout. “One or two years from now, we’ll be saying, ‘This is cool. We’re glad we made the change.”’ County fire chiefs began talking about a combined center in 1995.

At the time, the city fire department, Valley Fire, District 8 and District 9 each operated its own dispatch center. Smaller districts paid to have their fire and emergency calls dispatched by the larger districts.

Under the new system, all 19 of Spokane County’s fire districts, and Stevens County Fire District 1, contract with the city for dispatching services. Each district pays about $65 per call.

Running one large center is less expensive than running four smaller ones, said District 8 Chief Stout, who supported the merger in part because his own dispatch center faced costly equipment purchases if it continued operating on its own.

With call volume increasing, Valley Fire and District 9 each faced the need to add a dispatcher to each shift - an expensive proposition because service is 24 hours a day.

Combining forces allowed the districts to purchase new equipment, including the digital pagers, at a better price.

Those new pagers alert firefighters within seconds of an emergency call being dispatched, providing them with addresses and other emergency response information. In the past, firefighters received the information over a voice system, which was slower, and then had to write it down themselves.

The combined communication center will handle about 35,000 calls each year, according to Bob Anderson, District 9 fire chief and chairman of the combined dispatch center’s policy board. It will have four dispatchers working at any given time, compared to the six who were on duty when dispatchers were scattered throughout the county.

Several dispatchers from districts 8 and 9 moved to the new downtown dispatch center, becoming employees of the city.

No dispatchers from Valley Fire opted to make the move, in part because they were all career firefighters who would lose their seniority. Instead, they returned to firefighting positions.

Valley firefighters and paramedics have been some of the most vocal skeptics of the combined communications center, saying the downtown dispatchers aren’t familiar with the Valley and have to rely on a computer system that doesn’t always tell them which fire or medic truck would be the best and fastest to send to an emergency.

In addition, not all of the downtown dispatchers have firefighting experience, making it hard for some Valley firefighters to trust their judgments.

Some firefighters have begun to second-guess the dispatchers, said union president Cooper Kennett.

“Personally, I’m torn on whether this is a good thing or a bad thing,” said Valley paramedic Mike Taylor.

, DataTimes