[LINK] Triple Oh calls :)

[Anura Samara]

I know that in Canberra, triple-0 calls for Police go to the police
operations in the Winchester Centre in Belconnen, whilst triple-0
calls for ambulance, fire (including rural fire service) and road side
emergency phones goes to the Emergency Services Agency's
communications centre (aka comcen) at North Curtin.

Comcen have one ambulance operator and two fire operators on duty.
They have the authority to despatch vehicles to an incident
immediately, the number of vehicles - escalation of the incident then
depends on the service and their own standard operating procedures.

Recordings (do they still do tapes? or digital?) are kept for a number
of years - I seem to recall the number 7 being mentioned. It's one of
the reasons that good communications procedures are emphasised - who
wants their pointless natterings re-run at a coronial enquiry?

Some of the issues are:

- liaison between the police and other services. The communications
operators are physically remote,
- handling multiple incidents eg. an urban fire requiring multiple
appliances often means the operators have less attention to devote to
a bushfire. For big incidents, an incident team and dedicated RFS
communications are set up. We bushfire fighters are big boys/girls and
will happily go anywhere anytime regardless of whether anyone is
listening to us!

Anura