County Changes Convoluted Dispatch Procedures

Matagorda County (Tex.) officials have changed how they’re dispatching volunteer fire department’s after complaints that paging sometimes takes 20 minutes to reach firefighters. The sheriff’s department handles dispatching, but the process is a bit complicated, according to Jason Boyd, acting chief of the Sargent VFD. For an EMS incident, the sheriff’s dispatchers call county EMS, who then calls Bay City Volunteer Fire Department, who then notifies the individual fire departments using a tone-activated pager system. Under the new plan, the sheriff’s dispatchers will telephone the on-call firefighter directly. Read more here.