A new deal for dispatching firefighters in Renfrew is all about improving reliability and safety.
Town Council approved a 3-year deal with the Brockville Fire Department on Tuesday, November 7th, who will begin directly sending dispatch orders to Renfrew’s firefighters over the internet sometime in 2024.
Fire Chief Mike Guest explained to council that the current system through the Renfrew Central Ambulance Communications Center has quite a few different steps, using the radio tower in Foymount to bounce instructions between the primary dispatchers, local dispatchers, and firefighters.
Guest says that neighbouring municipalities have been working with Brockville Fire Department since 2018 and are extremely satisfied with the level of service provided.
He adds that making the change will remove the many points of failure in place at the moment, including the fact that firefighters can only verify that they’re on the way by paging the dispatchers back.
Some of the other benefits include all parts of the dispatch process being recorded for accountability purposes. At the moment, the calls from primary dispatchers to our local CACC team are recorded, but the tactical channels our local firefighters use while receiving and responding to a call are not.
The current contract for dispatch services through the Renfrew Central Ambulance Communications Center, which also handles local ambulance services, wraps up on December 31st.
Brockville’s Fire Department will be charging for the service, starting at just over $30,000 in 2024 and ramping up to around $52,000 by 2026.
There will also be a $29,600 start-up fee in 2024 to purchase the necessary components for the new system and a $26,058 invoice from the County of Renfrew, who will be buying new equipment for the Renfrew CACC facility.
All costs are expected to be part of the upcoming 2024 town budget.
(written by Kasey Egan)