While I understand individual company officers trying to defend their boxes, one would think the fastest unit should be the one assigned. Yes, it's a long run regardless of which rescue goes, but if something goes sideways at the fire or if it is a technical response where the rescue is going to need to operate, one would think those few minutes in the difference could be precious...
12/16/24 Queens 2nd Alarm Box 1024
- Thread starter Signal73
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Years ago into the 1970's the dividing line for a Rescue response in Rockaway was 129 St ......East of 129 St was R*4 & West of 129 St was R*2 ( from Carlton Ave ).......after moving to Bergen St on more than one occasion when the JFK Crash Box 269 was transmitted & we responded leaving Qtrs at the same time as R*4 we would arrive first ( theoretically the same could be said for Rockaway as we would hit Crossbay ahead of them).....a lot of variables on Responses.....it is surprising that with technology ( satellite , etc ) that there isn't a system in place to track Units & decide the closest based on real time locations / real time traffic ,etc. & Dispatch the closest at that time.
There is a system that will do just that. Polk County which dispatches for most of the municipalities in the County, Orange and few other places use it. Especially on the EMS side. It uses a combination of area, AVL ( Automatic Vehicle Locator) and a few other factors before sending a unit. Even though it works EMS hates it with a passion. As soon as they transport to a different hospital and they go available, 8 out of 10 times they'll get stuck in that area.
Chief, if R2 was to run to Rockaway say east of 100 st would they come out to Crossbay and down or would they head toward the Marine Pkwy Bridge?
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From Bergen St it was down Crossbay.
Isn't having the closest unit respond better for the public than being "territorial"?
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Yes it is. But the Rockaways seem to be the one area where R4, 2 and 5 get in all around the same time. I'm starting to think the Chief of Special Ops just spun a wheel.
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unless its a multiple or a SOC job either way no rescue will make it in to the peninsula , and assigning R2 or R5 pulls them out of their covrege area and creates large gaps compared to sending R4 because at least 4 is still in its response area if it gets turned
Would you also say that 5 shouldn't come over to the 40/42/43 on the same principle?
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No, because that is still R5 response area. South BK is very much R5 area as much as southern SI is. R5 being in BK does create a gap for some parts of SI but it’s not like their out of their normal response area.
Ok, so if R2 can get to the Rockaways faster than R4, make it R2's response area and they won't have to leave their response area to get there. I cannot follow the logic of not sending the fastest unit - imagine telling someone "oh yes you badly need help but we're going to wait 5 or 10 extra minutes for the rescue to get here because .....?"
Also, no matter what rescue is assigned, there's going to be a 1/5th coverage gap in the remainder of the city. I get that R3 and R5 are isolated, so to speak, but when it comes to R2 vs. R4 I don't see how coverage is any better or worse assigning one vs. the other, particularly in light of all the squads in between.