The Initial 911 Call - Public Safety Answering Point
The Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) answers all 911 calls. PSAP is the RCMP Operational Communications Centre (OCC) in Courtenay. The initial answering point for public safety calls is the RCMP Operational Communications Centre in Courtenay. The North Island 911 Corporation has an agreement with the RCMP OCC to perform this function. All employees in this centre are both 911 and police dispatch trained.
Courtenay Operations Communications Centre
The Courtenay Operations Communications Centre is a state-of-the-art facility that is responsible for supporting the largest geographical 911 area in Canada. 30 full time and nine casual employees comprise the Courtenay OCC Staff, with eight dispatch operators working at any given time. When a 911 call is received it is distinguishable by a unique emergency call sound and is answered by the first available operator. The dispatch operator will ask the caller whether they would like police, fire or ambulance. A computer screen appears displaying the callers address, name, and telephone number, as well as a business name in the event that they are calling from a business, and effectively pinpoints the callers location. All 911 call histories are automatically recorded.
The dispatch operator will then relay the call to the appropriate unit. Calls regarding fire emergency are instantly directed to North Island 911's fire dispatch centre in Campbell River. Ambulance emergency calls are relayed immediately to Victoria, while calls for police are dispatched by the Courtenay OCC Dispatch Operators. Radio support is also provided for the 17 detachments and two highway patrols within the jurisdiction.
Campbell River Fire & Rescue Dispatch Centre
On April 2, 1996, the Campbell River Fire & Rescue Dispatch Centre went into active operation for the North Island 911 Corporation. The dispatch centre at that time partnered with 46 fire departments through the Regional Districts of Nanaimo, Alberni-Clayoquot, Comox-Strathcona, and Mt Waddington. The system was expanded in October 1999 when the Regional District of Powell River joined the corporation, bringing the total to 49 fire departments. In February 2008, the provincial government restructured the Comox Strathcona Regional District into two new RDs: the Comox Valley and the Strathcona Regional Districts. The dispatch area covered by our communications centre and member fire departments extends approximately 56,000 square kilometers over the northern portion of Vancouver Island and the mainland around Powell River (see our mapping section for details of the overall coverage area).
The intent of the dispatch centre is to provide a reliable, centralized regional 911-radio fire dispatch facility for the express purpose of dispatching the appropriate fire department and providing support to that fire department.
There are currently two communications operators on duty twenty-four hours a day. This state-of-the-art facility receives 911 calls and dispatches the appropriate response in a matter of minutes.
The communications system utilizes many different systems and mediums for establishing and maintaining contact with the Fire Departments, including regular telephone lines, mountaintop towers with VHF radio repeaters as well as satellite phone systems. The system is designed to be fault tolerant, with backup for paging and emergency power into remote areas particularly for the event of the most severe weather situations.
Incoming 911 calls are routed through AvelCAD, a computer aided dispatch and mapping system. The AvelCAD mapping software will automatically centre a map over the civic address locating the 911 caller when using a standard home phone within any of the five regional districts. The use of a cell phone however, requires the caller to provide an address, landmark, or other location descriptor ( see our slideshow ) to the dispatcher, who will enter the information manually, enabling the mapping software to then pinpoint the location and indicate the proper fire department to be dispatched.
All radio and telephone communications are recorded on an Atis recorder for archiving and dispatchers are equipped with a Spilsbury instant play-back recorder to verify addresses at any time during an incident.
BC Ambulance Service
Emergency Medical Dispatchers
The province's three regional ground ambulance communications centres are located in Kamloops, Vancouver and Victoria. The Provincial Air Ambulance Coordination Centre is based in North Saanich. North Island 911 calls are routed to Victoria.Emergency Medical Dispatchers are the "Vital Link" between the public and the BCAS. They will provide emergency medical telephone instructions to the caller until BCAS paramedics arrive on the scene, thus allowing the caller to play a key role in assisting a person with a medical emergency. Many dispatchers have also worked as field paramedics.
Today's Service
The service now employs about 1,100 full-time paramedic and dispatch personnel, 2,200 part-time staff, and 100 management and support personnel. The provincial call volume is about 460,000 calls annually, ranking the BCAS as one of the largest ambulance services in North America. The system bridges major regional disparities in both geography and population density across the province.
