While emergency calls went from agency to agency, a fire in an outdoor shed spread to a home in Oceano on Aug. 21. [KSBY]
Neighbors of the Beach Street home began calling 911 at 12:09 p.m. to report the shed fire. It was more than eight minutes before the first fire truck arrived. By that time, the fire had spread to the home.
The National Fire Protection Association’s standard for answering, transferring and processing an alarm call is one minute and 45 seconds.
In this case, it took dispatchers almost five minutes to notify the Five Cities Fire Authority it needed to dispatch a truck. The 911 call went first to the California Highway Patrol, which took almost a minute to send information to Cal Fire, which contacted Grover Beach, which then informed the Five Cities Fire Authority it needed to dispatch a truck.
Dispatch timeline from KSBY:
12:09:11 CHP received first 911 cell phone call
12:09:55 Cal Fire receives transfer of cell phone call from CHP
12:11:11 Cal Fire transfers info from 911 call to Grover Beach dispatch via CAD system
12:11:22 Cal Fire dispatched first mutual aid engine
12:11:27 Grover Beach dispatch receives information
12:12:12 Cal Fire transfers info from 911 call to Grover Beach via phone
12:13:16 Grover Beach dispatch sends tones to Five Cities Fire
12:17:52 Five Cities Fire first engine arrives on scene
12:18:33 Cal Fire mutual aid engine arrives on scene
