Gaming 911 Operator Review

One of the firefighters on my department is a dispatcher for the next county south and he's frequently the only one on duty at night. Can get a bit exciting.

 

Sounds like a cool sim, I'm kinda into these niche things. Nice review.

 

The review isn't bad and makes you want to give it s shot, but it doesn't sound like something I'd want to part cash for to be honest.

 

Yeah, I dug it, but it's not something I would have bought if I saw it go past me on the Steam wheel.

 

You know what's interesting?

That's not how Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) works.

We don't have GPS units in our rigs and dispatch doesn't have a map of where we are at all times. Such technology does exist and I'm sure some big cities use it, but in most places dispatch is entirely text based.

For example, here is Seattle's dispatch system in action. It's not quite real time, but updates every minute...

http://www2.seattle.gov/fire/realtime911/getRecsForDatePub.asp?action=Today&incDate=&rad1=des

When we get dispatched to a call we don't actually get a whole lot more information than that.

Unit types:
A# is an Aid Car, an ambulance staffed by basic level Emergency Medical Technicians
AIR# is a truck that carries extra air bottles for Self Contained breathing Appartus (SCBAs)
B# is a Battalion Chief, a senior command officer
DEP1 is (I think) the chief of the Fire Department.
E# in an Engine comapny with typically three firefighters
L# is a Ladder company with 3 or 4 firefighters
M# is a Medic unit, an ambulance staffed by Paramedic level EMTs
SAFT# is a Safety officer who advises the incident commander and can act as an aditional member of the command staff if needed
STAF is a Staff Officer, an extra officer who can fill the many roles needed on a large incident

This video from Stockton California gives you a really good idea of how dispatch and fireground communications actually work.

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