New Regional Fire Communications Center Now Dispatching for Santa Barbara County Agencies

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif. (KEYT) - Santa Barbara County has fully launched its new Regional Fire Communications Center and expansion of the Emergency Operations Center.

The upgraded facility centralizes fire and EMS dispatch for seven local fire agencies. There are five dispatchers on duty with a supervisor for every shift.

They will handle all calls for the Santa Barbara County Fire Department, Carpinteria-Summerland Fire Protection District, Santa Barbara City Fire Department, Montecito Fire Protection District, Lompoc Fire Department, Guadalupe Fire Department, and Santa Maria Fire Department and the  American Medical Response (AMR). 

This also expands the Emergency Operations Center, to include a new Joint Information Center and Call Center, which is activated in large scale emergencies such as wildland fires and earthquakes. This puts the key players on the same property.    

The site will support 911 calls for service coming in and emergency responders on the move.

The key feature is the ability to see where all engines and AMR vehicles are located, even if they are not in their district for whatever reasons, and then dispatch that resource to the emergency.

Already it has been an active center since it gradually began opening in June.

There have been 32,000 calls and 64,000 dispatches for emergency equipment.

That includes assistance for bystander CPR and the delivery of two babies.

Retired County Fire Chief Mark Hartwig said "what we created here is historic. The biggest change in the way we do business but the least visible because   the community probably already expected that we did this."       

Chair of the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors Laura Capps said, "and you can't really think of a more fundamental way to keep us all safe than a 911 system that is coordinated and state of the art and that is what we are doing here today."

President of the Fire Chiefs Association of Santa Barbara County and the Fire Chief for the Montecito Fire Department, David Neels said, the multi-year process to complete the project took an "Unwavering support from city council and the Board of Supervisors," both political and financial. He called the building "state of the art." He says, "when any resident regardless of the city, the district or the county area whatever  engine is closest,  whatever resource is closest , they are going to be on their way  it is coordinated. "

Hartwig said, "every single unit in this county fire rescue and EMS has a screen that shows where everyone is,  where the emergency is,  and what is needed at the emergency."

Neels also said that "seconds matter" in an emergency and the public will be getting those seconds back with this new collaboration.

Office of Emergency Management (OEM) Director Kelly Hubbard says the new building is completely linked internally for all the services that come out of that location. OEM will activate its staff of department heads, resource coordinators, and partners such as utility companies in the event of an emergency.   

The center can also ramp up in large scale events. 

Training Supervisor Jackie Jenkins  said, "we literally get out  in under 30 seconds as soon as the address is confirmed we are sending resources. "

With multiple agencies on a call the coordination is vital.

 Jenkins said, "we're talking to sheriff and police via the phone and we are talking to our resources via the radio and at the scene they are forming the unified command at the  incident command post"

All the key areas will have video monitors to follow camera shots, emergency scenes, local news reports, county real-time data such as river flows and other critical information.

(More details, photos and video will be added here later today.)

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