St. Louis Fire And EMS Dispatch

The mission of the Fire and EMS Dispatch is to provide the citizens and visitors of the City of St. Louis with prompt, accurate dispatching of firefighting, rescue and medical equipment and personnel.

Citizens requesting help or assistance can be extremely helpful to the dispatchers if they stay calm, speak clearly and provide accurate information. Under duress, this can be very difficult. Dispatchers are trained to deal with people who are excited and scared. Gathering information from a caller is much more accurate when a caller is calm.

When placing a call to "911", dispatchers need to know: 1) the nature of the emergency and 2) the location of the emergency. The more information a dispatcher can obtain from the caller, the better prepared the responders are for their arrival at the incident. This is the reason the dispatcher will try to keep the caller on the telephone to gather more information.

As a caller, you may be asked questions such as: What color is the smoke ? Can you see the fire from where you are calling from ? Is the building occupied or vacant ? If the call is for a medical response, you might expect questions that will enable the dispatcher to better evaluate the condition of the victim so as to pass this information on to the responders. To the caller, these additional questions may seem like a delay. THEY ARE NOT ! These questions are necessary. Very often, while one dispatcher is asking the questions, another dispatcher is dispatching the apparatus through the communication system.

Duties of the dispatchers are varied and are not limited to sending fire trucks or ambulances to emergencies. Dispatchers maintain records (which are made available to the public and insurance companies), review audio tapes of incidents, monitor the status of the equipment at their disposal and prepare for the next emergency.

Dispatcher's duties are extremely stressful and require a very strong people-oriented attitude. The needs of the citizens must be placed in the forefront of everything that a dispatcher does during their shift. The dispatcher does not just "flip some switches and turn on some lights" to complete his/her tasks. There are many Standard Operating Procedures (SOP's) that must be learned and followed. All duties are performed with the safety and protection of the public in mind.

Fire Alarm Manager - John Williams

EMS Communications Supervisor - Deborah Berg-Gash

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This Page Last Modified: Monday, 19-Nov-2007 16:43:14 CST