General Information About Boston Area Fire Departments
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Abbreviations ("abbrevs") found below include -
A = Ambulance
ALS = advanced life support (what PMs do)
BLS = basic life support (what EMTs provide)
C = Chief Officer
E = Engine Company / Pumper Company
EMT = Emergency Medical Technician
(100 hours of first aid training)
FD = Fire Department
HQ - the station where the fire chief and
fire prevention staff have their offices
L = Ladder Company / Hook and Ladder Company
PM = paramedic (1,000 hours of training)
(PMs can start IVs and give heart drugs)
Quint = half pumper - half hook and ladder
R = Rescue / usually an ambulance
R = radio repeater system
Twr = hook and ladder with a bucket on the top
(Tower)
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FIRE STATION ADDRESSES - ?1997
Matt's List of Fire Station Addresses
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EMERGENCY DISPATCH
Each city and town provides its own dispatch center. Some communities have combined police/fire/ambulance dispatch centers - some do not. Some communities have trained their dispatchers to give emergency medical advice via the telephone - some have not. Emergencies can be reported via 911 or a local alternate 7 digit telephone number.
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AMBULANCE SERVICE
Each community provides emergency "911" "public" ambulance service either by a private company or by a fire department ambulance. (Exception - in Boston the public emergency ambulance service is provided by the City Health Department.) All fire departments respond to ambulance calls to assist the patient prior to the arrival of the ambulance. Advanced life support is provided by the private ambualnce companies. (Exception - in Boston, ALS is provided by the city ambulance service.) (2000 - Cambridge FD + Lynn FD are beginning paramedic programs)
Boston Med-Flight provides 2 ambulance helicopters to the Boston Region - Med Flight 3 flies out of Hanscom AFB, and Med Flight 1 flies out of Plymouth Airport on the South Shore. (460.80R)(see seperate file)
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METROFIRE RADIO SYSTEM
Each city or town has their own local fire radio channel(s). In addition, the following channels are used for fire and ambulance mutual aid communications.
483.2875R - Dispatcher to Dispatcher Channel
483.3125R - Large Fire Onscene Messages
154.220 - Large Fire Onscene Messages
153.830 - Large Fire Onscene Messages
The 483.3125R channel has been broken and unuseable due to low audio problems for the last ?2 or 3 years. The patch from 154.22 also passes huge amounts of skip onto 483.3125R from FDs in Maine, Connecticut, and New Jersey.
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AVAILABILITY CHECK
Every day at 10AM and 8PM a roll call is conducted on 483.2875R to determine how many companies are available from each community for mutual aid. The numbers vary depending on available manpower and mechanical breakdowns of apparatus. Typically no more than one third of a communities manned companies will be considered as available for mutual aid. This idea is usually jettisoned during any serious fire with major life hazard (especially in the outer suburbs).
On Tuesday - March 16, 1999 at 10AM - the roll call showed this - Arlington 1 Engine or 1 Ladder - Belmont 1E - Braintree 1 Engine and 1 Ladder - Brookline 1E + 1L - Burlington 1 or 1 - Cambridge 3 and 1 - Chelsea 1 and 1 - Dedham 1 and 1 - Everett 1 and 1 - Lexington 0 or 1 - Lynn 2 and 1 - Malden 1 and 1 - Massport 1 or 1 - Medford 1 and 1 - Melrose 1 or 0 - Milton 1E - Needham 1 or 1 - Newton 2 and 1 - Quincy 2 and 1 - Reading 1E - Revere 1 and 1 - Saugus 1E - Somerville 2 and 1 - Stoneham 1E - Wakefield 1E - Waltham 2 and 1 - Watertown 1 or 1 - Wellesley 1 and 1 - Weston 1 and 1 - Weymouth 1 and 1 - Winchester 1E - Winthrop 1E - Woburn 1E.
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BOX ALARM SYSTEM
All FDs in and around Boston have a fire dispatch system which is built upon the old street corner fire alarm ("telegraph") boxes. Each fire box has a number and each box number has a "running card" which lists all the units that should respond on the first thru tenth alarms.
When somebody activates box 35, then the fire bells ring in the station like this - bong bong bong..... bong bong bong bong bong ......(this series is repeated 4 times usually). Dispatchers and firefighters count the bells and pull out the "running card" for box 35 to see if they are required to respond. The fire alarm system for each FD is interconnected with its adjoining communities to provide an additional means of mutual aid communication (in addition to the telephone and radio).
A "street box" is an alarm of fire received via the activation of a street corner telegraph box or a telegraph fire alarm box connected to a fire detection system within a specific building. "Master box" is another name for a street box that is connected to a specific building.
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HISTORY OF METROFIRE
?November ?14 1973 - Chelsea - MA - Conflagration - Conflagration II - large area of junk Yards and rag shops - extending into thickly settled residential area and commercial district - This fire was impetus for starting MetroFire Mutual Aid Control Program.
Let me try to explain this a little further. In the beginning, each city and town had its own fire telegraph system. There were probably interconnections between the systems so that requests for mutual aid could be sent between telegraph systems. With the advent of radio, 154.22 became the mutal aid radio channel. Newton was the Control Point (for Fire District 13 as it was called) and each local dispatcher had a radio base station on 154.22. Most mutual aid was preplanned, with the "box cards" listing which rigs should roll for mutual aid (coverage and to the fire) on extra alarm fires. The "box cards" also showed what mutual aid was required for boxes that were located near municipal boundaries (or "town lines"). Typically one engine would respond as mutual aid on a "line box".
During extra alarm fires, 154.22 would be used to confirm that mutual aid towns had received the requests for mutual aid via the telegraph system. Each FD would have box cards that covered varied levels of emergencies. Some communities would have box cards covering up to 3 alarms worth of apparatus. Boston had run cards that went to five alarms.
When the major fire struck Chelsea in 1973, some serious shortcomings in the mutual aid system surfaced. The inital responses to Chelsea stripped Chelsea and its adjacent communities of all fire companies. At that point, multiple dispatchers went to 154.22 to try to find coverage from whatever FD they could contact.
The Chiefs of District 13 worked to update the Greater Boston Area Mutual Aid System in ?1974. The primary enhancements which occurred were - no community would send more than one third of its onduty resources on mutual aid - at the third alarm level, primary responsibility for the dispatch of mutual aid resources would shift from the local dispatcher to the Metro Dispatcher - companies that responded to cover on the 3rd alarm would not go to the fire : they would remain in the stations and the 4th alarm (and greater alarms) would receive a response from outlying companies. [this is a very general description of the situation]
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STAFFING
All fire departments in the Metro Boston district utilize unionized, fulltime, permanent firefighters. One or two of the towns do have some paid-on-call (volunteer) firefighters. (Weston and Winchester) Several of the fire departments have Auxiliary Fire Departments which are staffed by younger volunteers who are planning for careers in the fire service. These Auxiliary FDs often operate lighting units, air bottle trucks, or older pumpers and assist during hurricanes and major fires. Waltham, Arlington, Cambridge, Somerville, Winchester, Medford, and Malden all have active Auxiliary FDs as of 1999.
All firefighters in the Greater Boston area are represented by different locals of the International Association of Fire Fighters. A different Chapter of the IAFF represents each seperate FD. For a typical union contract, please look in the Arlington FD file.
There is no unincorporated land within the MetroFire District. The only federally owned land areas are those belonging to the Minuteman National Hostorical Park, the Boston National Historical Park, and Hanscom Air Force Base.
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WATER SUPPLY
All communities in the Metro Boston Fire District are fully covered by hydrants which are spaced approximately ?400 feet apart from each other. Each hydrant has one 4.5" threaded outlet (the steamer) and two 2.5" threaded outlets. Just about all FDs have the first due pumper go directly to the front of the fire building and supply the initial attack hoseline from onboard water. The 2nd due pumper is responsible for running a 4" hose line from a hydrant to the first due pumper. (Boston has all engine companies on a first alarm connect to different hydrants.)
All water hydrants are owned and maintained by the local communities. All water is supplied by the Massachusetts Water Resources Agency with the initial source off all water being the Quabbin reservoir in Central Massachusetts.
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FIRE PREVENTION
For any questions about fire safety matters in Massachusetts, you can call (for free) 1-877-966-3473. This number is answered by members of the State Fire Marshalls Office.
Each local community has building inspectors and members of the FD Prevention Office to handle matters of building construction and fire safety.
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For more Boston area info, please see the Massachusetts file at www.geocities.com/45peter and www.firenews.org
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typed up 3/16/99 by Peter Szerlag - updated 6/8/99 - 7/20/99 - 11/16/99 added Matts list of station addresses - 13Oct00 - minor changes (threaded hydrants - 483.2875 bad 3 years - some FD ALS - 2 links) - 07Nov00 - history of Metrofire
All corrections or additions are gratefully accepted at zerg90@webtv.net