911 or 781-941-8093 for Emergency Calls
Saugus - a town - pop 25,000 - 10 square miles
Saugus FD - 159.645R - 2 stations
Sta 1 - Hamilton St - ?Quint 1
Sta 2 - Central St - ?E1 - ?E3
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Response Levels
Building Fire - 2E + 1L
Ambulance Call - 1E + 1 private ambulance
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Dispatch Operations
1 fire dispatcher is onduty at FD HQ. The private ambulances on Saugus EMS calls utilize the Saugus FD radio channel. The radio channel was repeaterized in 1998. All calls are announced via radio. Primary means of dispatch is via vocalarm and via telegraph bells. A Class B telegraphic bell system is used and street boxes are sounded for four rounds.
Radio Test - 0900AM
Mobiles - Engines 1,2,3 - Squad 1 - Ladder 1 - Rescue 1 (Sqd 1 = ?minipumper)
Portables - Portables 1, 1A, 1B, 3, 3A, 3B, 4, 4A, 4B (Portable 4 = Ladder Tower Quint 1)
Bases - Unit 62 (Station 2)
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EMS Operations - As of July 1, 1999, Cataldo Ambulance Service of Somerville is providing 1 BLS ambo with 2 EMTs to Saugus on contract. Previously AMR had provided the service via A1, A2, A3 etc on the FD radio freq. (A1 was the primary unit in town - A2 A3 etc were backup units that moved into Saugus whenever A1 was busy).
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May 22, 1999 - News - 2100 hours - squirrel commits suicide on transformer outside police/fire HQ - police station loses all lights and primary radio channel - one police unit switches to Bapern 3 channel - fire dispatcher uses a HT to maintain radio comms ( a week or two earlier the FD was having some problems with their repeater).
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For John Galla's July 1999 profile of Saugus FD, please see John Galla's Profile of Saugus FD
Photo 1 - - Photo 2 - 2 photos of a 1960s fire at the Old High School - they are looking for the date of the fire.
Last Update - 4/24/99 - 7/3/99 - 7/31/99