Fire Alarm Dispatching is part of the City of East Providence Emergency Communication Center. The Communication Center is located within the police department headquarters, 750 Waterman Avenue, and handles dispatching for fire, rescue and police emergencies. The main dispatching frequency is 470.7625 mgh., the fire ground frequency is 470.5872 mgh and the state inter-city channel is 154.280 mgh.

All dispatchers are crossed trained for fire and police dispatching and work 8 hr. shifts, with 4 days on and 2 days off. Minimum staffing is two dispatchers on duty with one dispatching fire and one dispatching police. There are shifts where a third dispatcher is on duty as a call taker.

Emergency incidents are received by; municipal master alarm boxes, street pull boxes, telephone, and the state's Enhanced-911 emergency line. Emergency dispatches are broken down into two (2) categories; Still alarms and Box alarms.  Any emergency dispatch in which the request for assistance was received via telephone, 911, or radio is referred to as a “Still Alarm”.  Any emergency dispatch received from a master municipal alarm box or street pull box, is referred to as a “Box Alarm.” All radio communications and dispatching procedures are handle according to the guidelines established within the fire department communications manual.

      The  East Providence Fire Department is faced with and prepared to handle and mitigate numerous emergency situations.  These problems range from fire, medical, and hazardous materials incidents, to emergencies involving electricity, gas, and strange odors.  The department handles many calls for people stuck in elevators, imperiled by water, ice, or any other imaginable hazard. 

The department also assists the public in non-emergency situations such as water emergencies, lockouts, lockins, and assistance to the physically disabled.  The department’s policy is to respond to any type of 911 call, received from any residential or commercial property, where the problem is yet unknown.

The East Providence Fire Department is part of the State of Rhode Island Mutual Aid system and agrees to assist the respective fire departments with whatever equipment is necessary.  In turn, this department is dependent on other departments if the need should arise.

The East Providence Fire Department utilizes an Incident Command System, (ICS), to safely and effectively conduct the operations of any emergency situation.  The key to the Incident Command System is proper communications, which allows this system to efficiently increase or decrease in size depending on the scale of the incident.  The ICS also provides an accurate accountability system for all personnel operating at an incident scene. 

  FIRE ALARM

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