Emergency Services Dispatcher - Fire

A great place to work.

Serves as a centralized communications agent involving Fire, EMS and related public safety personnel to emergency situations; performs directly related work as required.

The principal function of an employee in this class is to maintain a contact point for public safety personnel and dispatch accordingly. The work is performed under the supervision and direction of the Telecommunications Supervisor - Fire or an assigned command officer but considerable leeway is granted for the exercise of independent judgement and initiative. The nature of the work performed requires that an employee in this class establish and maintain effective working relationships with members of the public, public safety personnel, mutual aid departments and other law enforcement jurisdictions.

The principal duties of this class are performed in a central communications center requiring constant attention to several communications sources at any given time.

• Processes requests for emergency assistance from 911 and conventional telephone lines;
• Processes all Computer Aided Dispatch, (CAD), entry;
• Receives and dispatches radio transmissions on Fire and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) information channels;
• Maintains logs and records of calls received and the nature of each dispatch;
• Transfers calls to proper local, State and Federal officials as necessary;
• Handles varied emergency situations dealing with emotional, injured and victimized persons and is responsible for ascertaining the crucial information needed in the given situation and relaying this to the proper Departments without delay;
• Responds to all incoming radio calls from Fire and EMS personnel and other agencies;
• Answers all 911 calls for emergency personnel, dispatches officer’s, relays all relevant information and corresponds with the caller through the CAD system;
• Enters information into the related computer systems in connection with wanted persons, stolen vehicles, securities, weapons and related property;
• Dispatches, locations of alarms as soon as they are received;
• Processes official communications for public safety personnel on duty as necessary;
• Requests and transmits information from other City departments or outside agencies as needed by Fire personnel;
• Maintains a current updated map of all the features of the city and is responsible for memorizing constant changes;
• Performs searches with partial data to identify persons and vehicle registration;
• Perform maintenance on all communications equipment to ensure proper use during emergency situations;
• Receives information from the State-wide 911 system and transfers all pertinent information into the computer system for dispatching;
• Answers department telephone calls, receives and greets visitors to the department and provides information to callers and visitors or refers callers and visitors to other appropriate departments or City personnel;
• Answers customer questions requiring detailed programmatic knowledge of Fire operations;
• Follows up on complaints from customers involving gathering information from several Departmental and intra-Department sources;
• Prepares correspondence, lists and other documents on computer;
• Maintains information on the fingerprinting system;
• Gives emergency treatment assistance to the general public as necessary;
• Operates radio consoles alarm receiving and transmission equipment, telephones, facsimile, switchboards, traffic control and other related systems and equipment;
• Completes and maintains reports and records;
• Performs duties during multiple alarms and other emergency incidents as designated by superiors;
• Tests fireboxes;
• Conducts weekly pager tests;
• Provides information to the Communication Technicians in designating problems within the communications system;
• Monitors agencies in the field performing diagnostic work on fire alarm systems;
• Operates Opticom system to assure safe passage of emergency vehicles;
• Provides guidance and demonstrations to new employees in…