Emergency Command Center

The San Luis Obispo Emergency Command Center, (ECC) handled 10,000+ emergency responses in the 2006.  Serving as the dispatch contractor for the communities of  Avila, Cambria, Pismo, Cayucos, Los Osos, Nipomo, Santa Margarita, Shandon, South Bay, Templeton, Calstar Air Ambulance, and the unincorporated and state responsibility areas of San Luis Obispo County.

The ECC also serves as the Office of Emergency Services, (OES) County fire and rescue dispatch center. Providing resource allocation and coordination under the California Master Mutual-Aid Plan for the County of San Luis Obispo. As such:  responsible for statusing and the deployment local government and OES resources throughout Region 1 and statewide to large scale emergency incidents and rescues.

Today, The San Luis Obispo ECC is commanded by an Deputy Fire Chief Pat Kerschen. The Dispatch team is managed by Battalion Chief Steve Beightler and three shifts of captains, one administrative captain tasked with, (quality improvement, scheduling, and radio inventory), and 6 dispatchers who serve as the first point of contact each day when members of the public dial 9-1-1 for help.

Our dispatch objective: To meet and exceed the guidelines set by NFPA 1221 Section 6.4.2 which specifies that, “95 percent of alarms shall be answered within 15 seconds, and 99 percent of alarms shall be answered within 40 seconds.”  Section 6.4.3 which specifies that, “Ninety-five percent of emergency dispatching shall be completed within 60 seconds." 

Calls are received through the 9-1-1 telephone system, local area 7-digit emergency numbers, “ring-down” lines from other agencies, Via our CAD to CAD link with the Sheriffs Office and/or by radio from units in the field. The Center’s minimum staffing consists of one fire captain and 1 dispatcher, with maximums of two fire captains and two dispatchers to handle the 100 phone calls received daily.

CAL FIRE has several new additions to meet our dispatch objectives. The new Altaris CAD (Computer Aided Dispatch) system, the new VESTA 911 telephone system, Resource Ordering Status System ,(ROSS) , and the all incident reporting system (CAIRS).

The Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) project is capable of handling the complexities of the wildland fire initial attack response as well as handle all types of emergencies dispatched by Cal Fire Command Centers. The program will integrate with a number of existing CAL FIRE command and control systems and provides a multi-user, multi-tasking dispatching environment. Northrop Grumman, Public Safety Inc. was the vendor chosen to develop the CAL FIRE Altaris CAD.

The VESTA 911 telephone system growth capability has allowed for the addition of a fourth 9-1-1 call receiving station to the ECC facility. By interfacing the new VESTA and CAD systems with our existing tone alert system, a dispatcher has the ability to receive a 9-1-1 call, transfer the location into the dispatch screen, identify equipment to respond, and then send the station alert tones and dispatch from one computer screen.

ROSS, Resource Ordering and Status System, is a program that is used on all national level for significant incidents such as natural disasters. For the CAL FIRE role it is used for all resource tracking and for ordering resources for wildland fires and  any significant incidents in California. ROSS has been used nationally for approximately five years however, this was the first year for use by CAL FIRE. CAIRS, California All Incident Reporting System is a program to collect and report all incidents that CAL FIRE responds to.      

Com Op Corrin Clark	Com Op Stacey Salazar	Fire Captain Greg Alex
		Fire Captain Tony Ramirez

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