Principal Decision Systems International (PDSI) is estimating that 90 plus fire departments are using TeleStaff to communicate to and deploy staff to battle the Southern California fires.
According to Battalion Chief Jim Birrell of the Monterey Park (CA) Fire Department, “TeleStaff has saved our department several hours in staffing management due to the Southern California fires this week. We currently have two Engine Companies and a Battalion Chief assigned to the Santiago Fire in Orange County. Before TeleStaff, we used to staff manually by pen and paper. With TeleStaff, we now reassign our personnel to Strike Team Status and TeleStaff makes the calls automatically to backfill for our personnel out on the fire line. I can honestly say as our department’s Administrative Chief that TeleStaff has saved me countless hours.”
National City Fire Department is also relying on TeleStaff this week to battle the fires.
“TeleStaff has been used to call-back personnel in order to deploy two Strike Team Fire Engines from October 21 – 26, 2007. TeleStaff was used to call-back Captains and Engineers, and has worked efficiently during these times of crisis. TeleStaff did not require staff to take time out to make phone calls to Captains and Engineers; TeleStaff did it for them automatically as soon as the units were deployed. The system noticed the vacancies and called Captains and Engineers on its scheduled time,” stated Walter Amedee, Homeland Security Manager.
Deploying staff and several resources to combat fires, not only in its own agency, but out into other agencies, has been the Ontario Fire Department’s priority.
“On Sunday, October 21st, a large fire broke out during the high wind situation in the southern portion of our city. We deployed and staffed to full capacity, and called in additional resources to assist (Strike Teams from other Fire Departments). This fire was reduced in size on Monday, and we were able to release the outside agency resources. By early Tuesday, we were able to commit five engine companies, one water tender, three chief officers, and three other overhead personnel to the fires in the Running Springs and Lake Arrowhead area. All of our resources were deployed and staffed through TeleStaff,” stated Battalion Chief Dave Carrier.
Deputy Fire Chief Jeff Reeb of the Long Beach Fire Department says: “TeleStaff has been extremely valuable this week. Deployment and return times among firefighters is impromptu, but TeleStaff allows us to track work hour variations on multiple strike teams at different times. As deployment teams roll out, personnel yet to be deployed are monitoring TeleStaff online. TeleStaff lets everyone know what our staffing needs are, and offers a high level or accountability.”
Santa Clara County Fire Department is relying on TeleStaff to contact and staff higher numbers of personnel for the fires. “We normally staff ten spots each night on a regular basis, but on Monday night, October 22nd, we were actually staffing 76 spots. On Tuesday, we needed to contact all of our personnel to let them know we still had spots that still needed to be filled. We sent notifications to 170 firefighters and captains, and we were able to complete that in less than an hour and a half. We have eight phone lines that allow TeleStaff to contact our staff at their best contact number. If we didn’t have TeleStaff, contacting the staff would have been done manually and would have taken much more time and resources to complete,” stated Captain Jim Swanson.
For La Mesa Fire Department, TeleStaff is being used not only to deploy personnel, but to forecast staffing needs, track personnel hours, and to provide updates.
“Currently our department has deployed twelve of our 46 suppression personnel on engines and as strike team leaders to the various fires in the county. For most, they received their first rest and hot meals yesterday morning. Telestaff is being used to track our personnel hours, to forecast staffing needs, and to help in filling open positions. Also, using the messaging portion of the program, TeleStaff provides situational updates and advisements,” stated Division Chief Barry Wiebel.
More: www.pdsi-software.com
