Count-up Timers Serve As Valuable Fire Station Alerting Tool To Speed Up Turn-out and Response Times
Everyone knows that faster response times to fires and medical emergencies usually result in a better outcome. That’s why most fire station alerting systems are designed to help improve response times through efficiencies achieved in dispatching and alerting of the fire and EMS responders.
In addition to bringing about greater efficiencies in the 911 dispatching process, Locution Systems’ fire station alerting system offers a “count-up timer” that’s designed to provide immediate feedback to fire or EMS responderson the amount of time it’s taking them to reach the apparatus bay, jump into bunker gear, and leave for the emergency.
Locution Systems’ count-up timer is a device with a digital display. Typically, this count-up timer is positioned at a high vantage point and so that responders have a clear view of the device the moment they enter the apparatus bay. This allows them to see how many seconds it took them to reach the bay. Locution Systems’ count-up timer is tied to the CADVoice® fire station alerting system. Once a dispatch arrives at the fire station, the count-up timer is notified and automatically starts counting up in seconds. If it is tied to an acknowledgement button, also located in the apparatus bay, it will stop once the acknowledgment button has been activated by a member of the responding unit. If there’s no acknowledgment button tied into the fire station alerting system, then the count-up timer will reach a certain threshold of time (in seconds), and then re-set to zero.
Locution Systems’ count-up timer for fire station alerting also is designed to provide maximum visibility regardless of the lighting conditions in the apparatus bay. The count-up timer has an ambient light sensor, and as it senses natural light or lighting, it automatically will adjust and brighten the digital numbers so they can be seen whether bright sunlight is flooding the apparatus bay, or whether there’s a great deal of lighting that’s activated. The digital numbers are in red lighting which helps preserve night vision. Again, the whole purpose of a count-up timer is to provide IMMEDIATE feedback to responders on the amount of time it’s taking them to turn out.
They old saying… “knowledge is power” applies to the concept of count-up timers deployed as part of a fire station alerting system. Once responders realize the time it’s actually taking to reach the bay, suit up, and go – they can adjust their own behavior and work to get there faster.
Count-up timers also can serve as a valuable tool for management to begin to develop new procedures and protocols to improve turn-out times for fire and EMS responders – with the ultimate goal of speeding up response times.
For more information about count-up timers and other components of Locution Systems’ fire station alerting and automated dispatching system, please visit: www.Locution.com.
