LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County’s fires districts reported that, as of 7:30 a.m. Thursday, all fire and emergency medical service dispatching in Lake County transitioned from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office Central Dispatch and is now being provided by Cal Fire’s Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit Emergency Command Center in St. Helena.
The districts said local communities will not see any change in service from their local responding agencies and should continue to call 911 for all life-threatening emergencies.
The decision to contract for dispatch services with Cal Fire was made by the Lake County Fire Chiefs to streamline emergency dispatching and response.
With this change, all fire agencies within Lake County are now dispatched from a single center on one frequency.
Additionally, with the move to Cal Fire for dispatch, Lake County will be able to implement enhancements such as emergency medical dispatching, enabling the dispatcher to send the closest appropriate resources and provide pre-arrival instructions to the caller in critical medical emergencies.
The chiefs said these improvements will increase fire and emergency medical service efficiency in responding to emergencies throughout Lake County and ultimately will better serve the needs of the public.
Local fire districts have fielded calls from concerned citizens about this change.
In turn, the chiefs said that community members can rest assured that Cal Fire is not new to Lake County or fire/emergency medical service dispatching; in fact the St. Helena Emergency Command Center has been dispatching certain fire and emergency medical resources in Lake County for decades.
As a result, fire officials said Cal Fire dispatchers have local knowledge of the county and several Cal Fire dispatchers even live in Lake County.
Throughout California Cal Fire operates 21 regional emergency command centers, providing dispatching services to 140 fire agencies including in neighboring Mendocino and Napa counties.
Each emergency command centers receives reports of emergencies from a variety of sources (911 calls, alarm company activations, etc.), assigns resources based on pre-planned response criteria, coordinates interagency incident activities, supports the incident as needed, provides internal/external information, and documents the activity.
This command and control service is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week by highly trained fire professionals, including a battalion chief, fire captains and communications operators who function using computer aided dispatch software.
The Lake County Fire Chiefs Association reminds everyone to always call 911 if they have an emergency and local fire districts will respond as they always have.
Should anyone have specific concerns or questions, please contact your local fire district:
– Lakeport Fire Protection District: 707-263-4396.
– Northshore Fire Protection District (serving Clearlake Oaks, Nice, Lucerne, Upper Lake): 707-274-3100.
– Lake County Fire Protection District (serving Clearlake and Lower Lake): 707-994-2170.
– Kelseyville Fire Protection District (serving Kelseyville, Buckingham and the Rivieras): 707-279-4268.
– South Lake Fire Protection District (serving Middletown, Cobb and Hidden Valley Lake): 707-987-3089.
Fire districts report on transition of dispatch services to Cal Fire
- Lake County News reports
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