Fire Dept. realigns as county dispatch takes effect

The Canton Fire Department has officially made the switch to the Norfolk County dispatch system after successfully testing the system throughout the month of June.

While all 911 calls will still go to Canton Police headquarters, under the new system, all fire-related calls are transferred to the county dispatch center in Holbrook and then on to the Canton stations on Revere and Sassamon streets.

During the trial period from June 1-30, Canton Fire Chief Charles Doody kept a desk person on duty at all times but had the county dispatch handle all of the calls — and all 300 of them were successfully transferred. “There were no problems,” Doody said. “It went quite well and the system is working very efficiently.”

Doody also highlighted some notable changes within the department that took effect with the start of the new fiscal year on July 1. First, with the county dispatch now handling emergency calls, the chief has more firefighters to man the trucks. Doody said that enables the captain on duty to serve in a supervisory role as a true shift commander, giving each shift a full 11-man crew plus a captain.

Doody also promoted four firefighters to lieutenant, which now gives the department a total of eight. The four new lieutenants are Jason Coleman, Jamie Meier, Tom Norton, and Ryan Patrician, who will be the Fire Prevention Officer. Lt. Greg Woodbury has left the fire prevention post to return as a truck lieutenant.

In addition to the personnel changes, the Fire Department also has a new phone system with prompts to personnel in the department. The business line now includes a message instructing anyone who calls with an emergency to hang up and dial 911.

Doody said the department has also installed emergency phones outside of both stations in the event that someone arrives with a “walk-in” emergency at a time when all of the firefighters are out on call. The outside phones have a direct link to the emergency 911 system. Doody said the dispatchers in Holbrook are all professionally trained to handle emergency fire calls.

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Posted by Mike Berger on Jul 8 2017. Filed under News, Police & Fire. Both comments and pings are currently closed.