Country Fire Service

Paging Network Information

The CFS and MFS are working together to reduce response times of CFS brigades in the outer metropolitan as well as some country areas. When the MFS Comcen receives a call that requires CFS attendance/support (Dual Response area) they would despatch their own appliance and then telephone the CFS brigade via ERS and respond them. So the SA CFS is copying what the CFA did way back in 1996, when we switched to paging, but still kept the ERS as back-up.

 

Direct paging means when the MFS respond their appliance via their Mobile Data Terminal (MDT) system, it also sends the message to the responding CFS brigade’s pagers. This gives the brigade the same information as what MFS receives on their MDT.

Example Message

MFS: RESPOND DOMESTIC 23/03/98 12:00 150 REYNELL RD, WOODCROFT, MAP 177 H6, HOUSE FIRE, 8124 431 8032 421 *CFSRES:

The numbers at the end of the message are the CFS brigades or MFS appliances responding, in this case

8124 - Morphett Vale CFS

431 - Christie Downs MFS

8032 - Happy Valley CFS

421 - O'Halloran Hill MFS

Once the pager message is received the CFS brigade must initiate contact with the MFS communications centre and notify them they have received the page, ie ‘give a turn-out message to MFS CommCen. If this is not done within Standards Of Fire Cover (SOFC) four minutes then the next nearest CFS brigade will be responded.

Incident types displayed on pager: Aircraft; Brush Fence; Bomb Threat; Car Fire; Explosive Used when an explosive device has been located; Domestic Used for a fire in a domestic dwelling (house, flat, unit etc); Factory; Grass; Hazmat; Waste Bin; LPG; MVA Spillage Used where caller reports persons are not trapped; Private Alarm Used for all fire alarms that are not connected to MFS; Rescue; School; Shed; Shop; To - Used for all other incidents not mentioned above. Incident type would be added at the end of message.

CFS brigades on direct paging use the SAGRN paging network, which transmits messages within seconds of them being sent, this, is a great reduction in time over the commercial paging systems many brigades used. In Victoria, the CFA paging is done by Hutchison Telecoms (Owns “3”, “Orange” etc )but CFA pager messages always get priority on the system, thus ensuring that the commercial operators that Hutchison page for are not prioritised, and CFA messages carry “ALERT EHAM01 GRASS FIRE MEL 27 A5 15/1/2004 1508,” which we’ll be explaining on the CFA, not the CFS pages.

©2004 COPYRIGHT The Australian Scanning Encyclopedia, VicNews Ltd, and Ashley Geelan.

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This Page Last Updated: January 16^th, 2004

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