RACOM Delivers Fire Station Alerting to Saint Paul and Ramsey County

When a call comes in to a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP), the first critical step in dispatching emergency responders is notifying them of the situation. But radio dispatch uses up precious emergency response time — seconds or even minutes that could be the difference between life and death for a victim.

The fire departments at Saint Paul and Ramsey County, Minnesota, saw an opportunity to make the dispatch-notification process a lot faster — thus speeding up their emergency response times — by acquiring new, advanced fire station alerting technology: the Phoenix G2 Fire Station Alerting System from US Digital Designs (USDD). The solution works by automatically transmitting emergency alert data from the PSAP to multiple stations simultaneously — in less than one second. Each station receives and processes the transmitted data through an onsite G2 ATX Station Controller, which broadcasts the information within the fire station via electronic signs and loudspeakers.

Fire station alerting project is underway

USDD contacted RACOM to submit a quote for installing the alerting system for the Saint Paul and Ramsey County fire departments — a total of 31 stations. RACOM was already familiar with the Phoenix G2 Station Alerting System, with two installations in Marion, Iowa and five prior fire station installations in Saint Cloud, Minnesota, under their belt. USDD gave RACOM the go-ahead, and RACOM’s Worthington, Minnesota, service center team, assisted by other RACOM technicians, started the Saint Paul/Ramsey County installation project on Nov. 3.

RACOM expects the installation project to take about five months, with completion expected in late March 2015. RACOM will install and provide technical assistance to the fire departments for the new equipment, which includes a G2 ATX Station Controller for each fire station; G2 peripheral devices (signs, speakers, and lighting); and a G2 Communications Gateway at the local dispatch center.

The Saint Paul and Ramsey County fire departments look forward to putting the G2 into action and reaping its benefits: a much-improved computer-aided dispatch-to-station alerting interface and significantly faster turnaround time on its emergency calls. This extensive project will also expand RACOM’s skill set, giving the Worthington service center team solid expertise in fire station alerting systems.