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Show South Davis Fire District reports welcome slump By SCOTT SUMMERILL BOUNTIFUL "No business is good business in our business," said South Davis Fire District (SDFD) Chief Brent Argyle reporting February Feb-ruary to be a lighter than normal month for firefighters during the monthly meeting of the SDFD Board last Monday. Argyle reported only six fires during the month with a total dollar loss due to fires of $1,250 in the district. In addition, although there were 64 rescue calls in February, there were no casualties or injuries posted. "This was probably the kind of month we like to see most," he said. "t was a very mild month." Argyle also gave a favorable report on the new emergency 9 1 1 phone system being used by the district, but he pointed out that there were still bugs that need to be worked out. Specifically, the need for dispatchers taking calls to confirm con-firm information from the caller. According to Argyle, the new system automatically gives a listing list-ing of the name and address of the originating call. Dispatchers are relying on the information provided by the computer without confirming confirm-ing the data with the caller. As a result, if there is more than one person by the same name, or if a fraudulent address exists in the system, firefighters may respond to the wrong location. That was exactly what happened with the only structure fire reported in February. Firefighters responded to a building fire only to find there was no fire. Upon checking with the originating caller, it was discovered dis-covered that there were multiple listings under the same name. Another team was dispatched to the correct site, and the situation was handled without additional damage being assessed. However, the computer discrepancy could have resulted in disaster under different dif-ferent conditions. "The system's working great," he said. "But it's not infallible. We need to encourage dispatchers to get additional information while they're on the phone." Argyle said the problem is common com-mon with the system and has shown up in other counties that have installed in-stalled it. "We knew this would happen," he said. "It's just one of the bugs that has to be worked out." In a final note, Argyle reminded the board of some of the equipment needs of the district as a consideration considera-tion for the upcoming SDFD budget meeting. "When you look at the age of some ol our apparatus, you can see that many of them need to be replaced," re-placed," he said. "We're just going to try to get the equipment to protect pro-tect our people." |