Dispatchers Work from Home
Working from home has a lot of advantages, but this is the first I've heard of dispatchers working from home (from Firehouse.com).
Jeannie Kinback's house is just like anybody else's -- sort of.It has bedrooms. A living room. A kitchen and bathrooms.
But then there's the emergency dispatching center located in her dining room -- a fully functional dispatching center plopped right next to her table.
The setup includes a red phone with a special ring, Caller ID and a two-way radio to link with area fire departments and the local ambulance service -- plus the ability to fire up the community's tornado sirens.
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With today's state-of-the-art regional communications centers, such an arrangement may seem odd. But in rural Sandy Township it's tradition that dispatchers -- there are four of them -- work out of the comfort of their own homes. It's been that way for as long as anybody can remember, back to the days when firefighters' wives were volunteer dispatchers.
And as far as local authorities are concerned, their unusual system -- they don't know of another one like it in the area -- operates just fine so there's no reason to change it.
It sounds like this works great in their community. I would imagine that in jurisdictions with larger call volumes, this set up wouldn't be the most efficient use of money or resources.
