Lexington FD - 2 stations - 154.34R
East - E1 - (E5)(crossmanned)
HQ - E3 L1 R2 C3 (R1) (E4) - Center
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Response Levels
Building Fires - 2E + 1L + R2 + C3 (onduty deputy chief)
Street box - 2E + 1L + R1 + C3
Line box - 2E + 1L + R + C3 + 1 mutual aid E
Ambulance calls - 1E + R1 + NSP1 or NSP3 or ALS1 (if no E avail, then L1 will be sent - 2001 - Action Ambulance Company provides ALS via a ?SUV based in Burlington at a hotel?)
Working Fire - Offduty firefighters serve as pilots - Waltham E8 to HQ - Arlington E2 to E Lex Sta
2nd Alarm - 3E
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Staff - July 1999 - have 55 people on staff
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Ambulance Operations
Rescue 1 (R1) is a spare/reserve ambulance which is staffed by the crew of L1 as needed. Additional backup ambulances respond from Bedford Fire, Burlington Fire, Lincoln Fire, and Waltham.
2002 - possibly Lexington FD is training some firefighters to be paramedics
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Dispatch Operations
In 1994, the fire dispatch center was merged into the police dispatch center at the police station. This move followed an extremely tragic incident where a young woman was stabbed by an undisclosed assailant (still unknown in 2000) and her call to the Lexington FD for help was disregarded by the onduty fire dispatcher. The young woman died from her injuries and various lawsuits followed.
Stations are alerted via landlines and the telegraphic bell system - boxes are not beeped via radio - no radio paging is done via 154.34. In early 1999, a repeater was installed on Channel 1 with 154.34 as the output and 150.805 as the input. (July 1999 - thunderstorm ?knocked out repeater and put clicking noise on channel for ?6 hours) - Dec 2001 - portable radios seem to regularly drop out of the repeater with a chirp)
Radio Test - 4/18/99 - 0828 - ?usually 0815
Mobiles : Engines 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 - Ladder 1 - Rescues 1 + 2 - C3
Portables : Engines 100,200,300,400,500 Ladder100, Rescues 100,200 C3portable
28 December 2001 - working fire on Wildwood Street - portables "Ladder 1 oh 1" + "Ladder 1 oh 2" were at the fire
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Dec 2002 from the sme2 list - Radio Identifier Scheme - Order - highest rank to lowest rank
Chief - C-1 - C-100 = Portable
Assistant Chief - C-2 - C-200 = Portable
Engine 1 - Engine 100 = Lt. - Engine 101 = Driver - Engine 102 = Rear Step
Engine 3 - Engine 300 Lt. - Engine 301 Driver - Engine 302 Rear Step - Engine 303 Rear Step (if at full shift)
Ladder 1 - Ladder 100 Sr. Man - Ladder 101 Driver - Ladder 102 Rear Step
Rescue 1 - Rescue 100 Attendant - Rescue 101 Driver
Rescue 2 - Rescue 200 Attendant - Rescue 201 Driver
Shift Commander - C-3/C-300 (depends on officer)
Fire Alarm Bucket Truck - C-4 - C-400 Portable
Pick Up Truck - C-5 - C-500 Portable
Gator 1 (Gator vehicle used for EMS Details or woods operations) - Gator 100 Attendant - Gator 101 Driver
Rescue 2 and the spare engines use the same applicable designations
Message 5655 of 5660 of sme2
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Minimum Staffing
3 people (2 firefighters and 1 lietenant) on E1, + 3 people on E3, + 3 on L1, + 2 (FF/EMT) on R1
E5 + E4 are brush engines staffed by the crews of E1 and E3/L1 as needed. (E5 is actually a combination structural/brush engine)
C3 is the On Duty Ranking Officer (Deputy Chief or ?Captain) - C1 is the Chief - C2 is the Assistant Chief/Fire Marshall?
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Online Resources
For more info please see Lexington FD WebPage
For more info, see - Look under Town Services for lots of FD info - 8/99
Also see Lexington 911 Center - 8 fulltime plus 2 parttime people work in the 911 center
May 2000 letter concerning budgeting of East Lex Station - total hogwash as far as I am concerned - the Selectman are also obviously totally corrupt - anyone that thinks that the failure of the override would REQUIRE the closing of the E Lex Station is a fool - Lima Peru has a population of 10 million and they have a totally volunteer fire department
1914? Panoramic Photo of Lexington FD Vehicles in front of the Minuteman Statue
Also see www.massmetrofire.org
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From page 7 of the 22 December 1899 Arlington Advocate newspaper - Lexington has 28 street fire boxes - 2 digits each - there is also 1 private fire box which has 3 digits (?981 at Merril Estate on Lowell Street)
Lexington Fire Boxes
45 cor. Pleasant and Watertown Sts.
46 " Waltham and Middle Sts.
?48 Lincoln and School
52 Clark and Forest
54 Mass and Cedar
56 Bedford St - North Lexington Depot
57 Bedford St opp J.M. Reed's
58 Hancock at Adams
62 Woburn at Vine
63 Woburn at Lowell
65 Lowell near Arlington line
72 Warren St opp Mrs W.P. Monroe's
73 Mass at Woburn
74 Bloomfield at Eustice
75 Mass at Percy
76 Mass at Village Hall
77 Mass at Pleasant
78 Mass opp East Lexington Depot
79 Mass at Sylvia
82 Centre Engine House (fire station)
83 corner Grant and Sherman
84 corner Merriam and Oakland
85 Hancock Street near Hancock Avenue
86 corner Mass at Elm Avenues
87 Chandler St opp J.P. Prince's
89 Mass Ave near Town Hall
?981 Merril Estate
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From the 1988 Annual Report for the Town of Lexington
page 118 - $66,000 revenue to the Town from ambulance service fees
page 129 - Police 862-1212 - Fire 862-0270 - Ambulance 862-0270 (emergency only) - Give name and address - Describe the problem - Make sure message is understood - Emergency Signals on Town Fire Whistle - 4444 - Alert Warning - Turn on your radio or television to receive emergency information - 2222 - Final Warning - Fire (non-emergency) 862-0272 (24 hours) - No School or recorded messages 862-7581 (24 hours - do NOT call Police or Fire)
page 127 - population 1950 17,335 - population 1989 29,677 - area of town in square miles 16.64 - Public streets (accepted) in miles 122.23 - Public streets (unaccepted) in miles 12.02 - Condominium and private drives 4.62 - State Highways 18.98 miles
page 113 - Fiscal year 88/89 - FD budget - $2.3M - PD budget - $2.4M
page 112 - FY90 articles - Article 28 fire truck purchase $176,000 - Article 29 ambulance purchase $81,000 - Article 37 police accreditation $20,000
page 109 - Article 27 of 1988 rehab fire truck $35,000 spent - Article 26 of 1988 re-roof Fire ?HQ $60,000 funded $55,000 spent - FD personal services $1.8M + $209,000 - FD esxpenses $170,000
page 45 - FD Report - 2,703 emergency calls - 1,101 were for ambulance service - Kovatch awarded contract to replace 1978 Maxim Engine 1 at E Lex Station - new amb ordered as part of routine 4 year replacement cycle - new ALS unit now oerating from Arlington will cover E Lex (NSP2)
page 42 - DPW report - 3 interior doors were replaced with Class B fire resistive doors at Central Fire Station - also, a local fire alarm system was installed at Central Fire Station
page 16 - Article Action Summary - Annual Town Meeting - March 27 to May 3 - Article 28 - Fire truck - Adopted -$176,000 appropriated from the tax levy, reduced by the amount received from trade-in or sale. April 3 - Article 29 - Ambulance - Adopted - $81,000 appropriated from the tax levy - April 3 - Article 27 - Police Station Alterations - Adopted - $63,000 to remodel the Police Station and purchase addition equipment - (also see Special TownMeeting September 25).
page 4 - Two firemen, Theodore C. Setterland and Richard L. Sullivan, checked in with their 25th years. Two employees reached their 40th year of dedicated service to the Town : Loyd Baylis of the PD and Emanuele Coscia, Jr, of the DPW.
Page 42 - DPW Water Division maintains the entire water system of 154 miles of pipe, 1500 fire hydrants, and 2 water towers used to store 3.24 million gallons. 19 fire hydrants were installed.
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Last Updated - April 24, 1999 - 7/31/99 - 10 April 00 (added old boxes info) - 11June00 (88 town report items) - 1Sept00 (1914 photo + LTE + minor changes) - 30 Dec 2001 (Ldr 101 and 102 - plus minor changes - plus line box) - 23Dec2002 radio IDs