Controlled Chaos…

by Ed Pickett

Have you ever reported to work on a full moon and thought “Darn, this is not going to be good”?  Well, what if the full moon lasted for three consecutive months?  Every fall fire dispatchers walk into their perspective command centers and are prepared for just that.
I call it controlled chaos. 

You are driving to work and the radio station is reporting highs in the 100’s and Santa Ana winds gusting out of the north at 30 mph’s.  You think about the potential of a wildfire.  You get to your center and the morning briefing talks about nothing but low humidity, high winds and that the fire potential is through the roof.

As you sit down, the phones begin to ring: my child is locked in the car; please check on my mother because I think she is not using her AC; I was running and I feel like I am going to pass out.  This is all before 0800.  As the day progresses you begin to have a sickening feeling this is the day.  Dispatchers usually have a sixth sense when hell is about to break loose.  We’re kind of like dogs before an earthquake, I guess. 

All of a sudden every phone line from the foothills light up like the mall Christmas tree.  At first they come in from the cell sites reporting a brush fire on the hill near the freeway, then it’s coming from homes asking if they should evacuate.  You know you’re in trouble when the engine company gives those dreaded words “Smoke showing from the barn.”  Everyone holds their breath while the engine responds two miles into the epicenter of chaos.  If they are lucky, it’s a single vehicle or a dumpster on fire.  If not, the hill side is ablaze and the dispatchers can expect a long afternoon.  With that many calls we know the latter is probable.

The worst case scenario has arrived. The engine company reports 25 acres with a fast rate of spread threatening hundreds of homes.  The fire is spotting and he needs multiple additional resources.  Your dinner plans with your family just evaporated.  Your lunch break just became a snack at your terminal and you can forget about going to the bathroom for hours.  The phone lines don’t let up for hours: is my home being evacuated; where can I take my horses; you should drop baking soda on that fire; my parents are invalids that live in that development. 

I remember a fire back in 2007 where I watched the Grand Prix fire burn right pass my house on live TV.  Dispatchers don’t have the option of going home and helping their families during disasters.  We barely are able to call them.  I remember my pregnant wife calling me from the freeway as flames leapt over our minivan full of kids, dogs, cats and pictures telling me they were ok.  All I could say was, “Good, but I gotta go because 9-1-1 lines are ringing off the hook”.

This is just a scenario, but this could happen anytime.  Those of us who live in Southern California know that the windy season lasts from late August until late December, sometimes even longer.  We prepare for this throughout the year, but our minds focus in on the fall.  Any call for a vehicle, trash, pole or grass fire can potentially turn into a large campaign fire.  I can’t emphasize enough that agencies train, train, train for these events.  I work for a large agency that has the resources to handle this kind of event and we do regularly, and we still need to prepare our employees by running through this possible scenario.  Small agencies can be overwhelmed very quickly by a large fire and should not only prepare their employees operationally, but also mentally for such an incident.  They should also have an operating plan as to what the staffing plan is to maintain a seamless fire to the public.  I always tell my dispatchers that people calling 9-1-1 don’t care what else is going on except they are having a life-changing event.

We need as dispatchers to be able to maintain our level of controlled chaos during a major fire.  We need to know our limits and also our capabilities and be able to recognize them not only for ourselves but also for our peers.  I have seen dispatchers handle some extraordinary events.  Every time I think I or we can’t handle something, another event happens that surpasses the last.  We are a rare breed and chaos is our middle name.

 

Ed Pickett has been a Supervising Fire Dispatcher for the Los Angeles County Fire Department for the past 20 years. He is also assigned to the departments Expanded Dispatch Response Team and teaches campaign fire ordering.  Ed served as the departments Dispatch Training Coordinator for three years and is currently pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in Emergency Management.   Supervisor Pickett began as a paramedic explorer at the age of 14 and has worked in the emergency response filed as an EMT, Paid-Call Firefighter and Dispatcher for 28 years.  He lives in Fontana, Ca. with his wife and three boys and has been a Southern California resident his whole life.