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Resgrid.com Blog | Open Source Dispatch
The call comes in. A storm has knocked out a feeder line, your dispatch board is half updated, one team is texting in a group thread, another is on radio, and the supervisor is working from a printed continuity plan that was last revised months ago. Nobody is sure which generator site was already checked, …
The tones drop, three callers report the same highway pileup, and your dispatch floor shifts from routine to overload in seconds. One person is trying to confirm location details, another is calling mutual aid, someone else is checking unit availability, and the radio traffic starts stepping on itself. The team is experienced, but the process …
The phones are already ringing. One caller can't give a clear location. Another incident is waiting for unit assignment. A supervisor is covering a console because someone called out again. The CAD feels older than the carpet, the radio traffic is stacked, and every proposed “modernization” comes with a contract size that would flatten a …
At a lot of departments, the shift calendar for firefighters still lives in three places at once. A spreadsheet on a battalion chief's laptop. A whiteboard at the station. A text thread that starts calm on Monday and turns into a scramble by Friday. That setup works right up until someone calls out sick at …
A lot of teams are running an incident management workflow right now without calling it that. A dispatcher is juggling radio traffic, a supervisor is texting updates from a personal phone, someone is writing times on a glove or notepad, and the person in charge is trying to keep a moving scene in their head. …
A lot of agencies are in the same spot right now. Dispatchers are juggling radio traffic, a caller is giving half-clear location details, patrol units are checking in over voice because status changes don't flow automatically, and someone is still writing key incident details into a side log because the main system can't keep up. …
You're probably dealing with one of two situations right now. Your current dispatch system still works, but crews complain about slow screens, awkward unit updates, and too many workarounds. Or you're shopping for a replacement and every vendor demo looks polished until you start asking the questions that matter, like what happens when the internet …
A lot of readers asking why are fire hydrants different colors are looking at one from the curb right now and assuming the paint is mostly for visibility. On a fireground, that assumption gets people in trouble. A hydrant's color is field intelligence. It can tell you how much water you may get, whether the …
At 2:13 a.m., the CAD screen locks up right as a weather event starts pulling in mutual aid traffic. One dispatcher is writing details on paper. Another is trying to re-enter unit status from memory. Supervisors are on the phone with neighboring agencies because the old interface won't reliably pass updates. That's the moment many …
Your radio traffic is stacking up, one volunteer crew is still driving in from work, and the closest transport unit is already tied up at the hospital. Then a chest pain call drops on the edge of your district, followed by a rollover on the highway. That's where most department chiefs live now. Not in …