Emergency dispatches after an earthquake

[billyyank]

Most of us remember the iconic dispatches from the TV series Emergency! The station tone would sound with the buzzer going off in the identified fire station, followed by the dispatcher calling out the whole station or individual units, then a short description of the emergency, the location, and time of dispatch. But one type of emergency that the series never did was an earthquake, or at least I don't remember. I can imagine the scenario: a massive quake hits the LA area (God forbid of course!), and hundreds or even thousands of people need help right away. But with such a disaster, even fire stations and hospitals could be severely damaged or even destroyed, not to mention the possibility that the dispatch center may be unable to communicate. What are the dispatch procedures for that type of situation?

 

Assuming the dispatch center is still functional, what would the first dispatch right after the earthquake sound like, considering that some stations on the department may have been knocked out of the communications net? I have tried to find examples of this on YouTube and other sites, but so far I can't find anything. I know that LA County and many other fire departments have a group call tone, but I have not been able to find an example of it actually being used.

 

I have zero real world dispatch experience, so all I'm going on is speculation. I would be most grateful to anyone who has some kind of knowledge about this. Thanks in advance.

[MCERT1]

Speaking very generally, as every agency has their own specific policies, the system changes gear.

 

-911 lines will overload, and people will get a waiting message, assuming systems are not disrupted. If they are down, the system goes dark.

-Radio transmission should still be possible depending on whether radio towers remain up.

-Communication centers will usually have a back up power source to restore basic functions, but most operations will be done using manual card systems.

-Communications centers have to have a back up center to move to in the event of a disaster, they will do that while keeping the original center open.

-The Agency will also transition into a full EOC activation, and start bringing in officials to a centralized area.

-Many agencies will enter a sort of priority system.This means that minor calls (stubbed toes, minor lacerations) would likely not get a response, and instead people would be told to go a designated triage facility. 

-Fire stations would of take care of their own immediate response area. They would start a drive through of the area and relay damage information, and treat wounded if they can, or inform dispatch that they are out of service due to the event. The comm center would filter the incoming info from the field to help reallocate resources to the worst hit areas. 

 

That's a very very  generalized description of what would likely happen.

[999madtom]

(UK version sorry no experience in US) Probably let the stations call in to control to let the stations to sort themselves out and let them be on standby for going to police stations, hospitals, prisons, car homes and urgent calls. Let the dispatch supervisor call Boss of fire service. Boss of Fire call Prime Minister office. Get the Prime Minister to declare State Of Emergency to let the Military to help. Liase with police and ambulance. Answer calls as normal but only dispatch to priority calls.

[Fred03]

Well I can't speak for the city but in my rural area we would get responders into groups (assuming lots of blocked roads) and have each group work with department and personal chainsaws to clear one lane of traffic on all major roads. If we knew of a area where there were likley to be high numbers of people in trouble we would send anyone we had available to those areas (campgrounds, schools, nursing homes). Most likley the Fire Chief, Sheriff and whatever representatives of different agencies they could scrape up would set up command in the Sheriff's Office/Dispatch (unless it was destroyed) and coordinate things from there.