FIRE First Fire Engine.  C3 Fire calls require a full “first alarm assignment” of emergency vehicles because the series of questions asked by the 9-1-1 call taker established that “smoke” or “flame” is visible within or outside of a structure, making the call both “urgent” and “immediately life threatening.” The first responding fire engine (staffed by 4 firefighters) arrives quickly to evaluate the incident, attempt rescue of entrapped victims and begin fire extinguishment operations. NFPA Standard 1710 establishes an 80 second “turnout time” and 240 second “travel time” (together, 320 seconds or 5 minutes and 20 seconds “response time”) benchmark time goal for not less than 90% of dispatched incidents (please click here and refer to Page 29 for a detailed description). The FEMS KPI measure for this benchmark time goal is the “percentage of structure fire calls when a first responding fire engine arrived in 5 minutes 20 seconds or less.” The tables below show the percentage of C3 Fire incidents meeting the benchmark time goal during FY-17 to FY-22 (beginning 10/01/2016 and ending 09/30/22).

Fire Incidents (G2): Percentage of structure fire calls (G2 C3) when a first responding fire engine arrived in 5 minutes 20 seconds or less.

FIRE First Alarm. C3 Fire calls require a full “first alarm assignment” of emergency vehicles because the series of questions asked by the 9-1-1 call taker established that “smoke” or “flame” is visible within or outside of a structure, making the call both “urgent” and “immediately life threatening.” The first responding fire engine (staffed by 4 firefighters) arrives quickly to evaluate the incident, attempt rescue of entrapped victims and begin fire extinguishment operations. NFPA Standard 1710 establishes a 320 second or 5 minutes and 20 seconds “response time” goal for not less than 90% of these type incidents. In the District, C3 Fire calls also require a full “first alarm assignment” of emergency vehicles including four additional engine companies (staffed by 4 firefighters each), two truck companies (staffed by 5 firefighters each), one rescue squad (staffed by 5 firefighters), one transport unit (staffed by 2 firefighters, EMTs or Paramedics) and two Chief Officers (staffed with 2 firefighters each), for a total of 11 emergency vehicles and 41 firefighters to assist with victim rescue, smoke ventilation, fire extinguishment operations, firefighter safety and incident command. NFPA Standard 1710 establishes an 80 second “turnout time” and 480 second “travel time” (together, 560 seconds or 9 minutes and 20 seconds “response time”) benchmark time goal for the deployment of “an initial full alarm assignment at a fire suppression incident” for not less than 90% of dispatched incidents. Because the FEMS “first alarm assignment” is significantly larger than other municipalities, the comparison used for this measure is limited to the first three responding engine companies and one truck company (please click here and refer to Page 32 for a detailed description). The FEMS KPI measure for these combined benchmark time goals is the “percentage of structure fire calls when a first alarm assignment arrived in 9 minutes 20 seconds or less.” The tables below show the percentage of C3 Fire incidents meeting the benchmark time goal during FY-17 to FY-22 (beginning 10/01/2016 and ending 09/30/22).