Ronald W. Richards
I Am Responding
S.O.G. 500-10-1
I. PURPOSE
To provide a standard operating
guideline for the use of the I AM RESPONDING program.
II. SCOPE
This SOG is applicable
to all fire department response personnel.
III. RESPONSIBILITIES
Officers are tasked with
providing a safe response to emergencies with adequate staffing to allow
the company to complete its objective(s) safely. Knowing staffing is available
prior to an emergency allows the officer to be proactive in problem solving
staffing issues. Firefighters who make up staffing as part of a company
can complete their tasks in a safe manner with adequate staffing. Officers
and firefighters will utilize the IMRESPONDING application to allow for
appropriate actions to insure adequate staffing.
IV. BACKROUND
IamResponding.com immediately
shows who is available to respond to your calls and when they will be responding.
This saves critical time for fire departments when responding to emergencies.
After dispatch response
personnel who are available to respond to an emergency incident simply
press one button on any telephone, and any Internet connected computer
or mobile phone instantly displaying who is responding to your incident,
their qualifications, and when they are responding.
With IamResponding.com,
officers will:
• Know immediately
if you have a full crew on the way, or if you need to page additional personnel;
• Stop waiting for members
who are not on their way, and stop leaving the station just as others are
coming around the corner; and
• Know who is responding
to the station.
With IamResponding.com,
you will know immediately who else is en route, where they are going, and
when they will be there. With this information, you can make informed
decisions about whether to wait for others who are still on their way.
In many situations, waiting another 20 or 30 seconds for others that you
know are on the way can result in having a more complete, better equipped
crew for your emergency response.
IamResponding.com includes
many other features, including: an instant mass-messaging system for enhanced
communications within your department or team; web-based scheduling; apparatus
status tracking and expiration date tracking.
V. PROCEDURES
1. All response personnel
will provide necessary information to the Assistant Chief to be included
in the IAMRESPONDING database. Once this information is received, an email
will be sent confirming the receipt of this information.
2. Group or individual training
will be provided for all response personnel allow for responders to demonstrate
an understanding of all the feature of the IAMRESPONDING program. All response
personnel will attend the training.
3. All responders will
utilize the IAMRESPONDING program to acknowledge response or the unavailability
to respond.
4. Officers will utilize
the IAMRESPONDING program to convey information such as training announcements,
need for staffing or other short correspondence using the TEXT mail and
email features.
5. Staffing schedules will
be maintained on an ongoing basis to allow all to know who is available,
unavailable. Response personnel will have access permission to the IAMREPSONDING
to update availability calendars on a day to day basis or those who have
predictable schedule, can show there availability.
For example, if a member
is at home or work and knows that he can respond to any incident during
the next 7 hours he can log in and put themself "on duty" for the next
7 hours. A member who will be out of town or simply unavailable can
schedule themselves as "out of service" for "X" hours or days. This
enables officers to be able to assess their available manpower resources
at any time.
6. Following an incident,
the OIC will retain the IAMRESPONDING information, attaching to the incident
report. Once complete, the IAMRESPONDING response screen can be cleared.
7. This pilot program and
standard operating guideline will be reviewed and evaluated 45 days after
its effective date.
VI. SUPERSEDED GUIDELINE
This is a new guideline
on this subject matter.
