GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — Anyone who calls 911 for a fire emergency in Gwinnett County will now hear a new set of questions, part of a system the county says matches the response to what is actually happening without delaying help.
The Gwinnett County 911 Center launched the Fire Priority Dispatch System on July 20, an expansion of protocols it has used on medical calls for 20 years.
Every communications officer now works from the same list of questions, whether the call is a house fire or a gas leak.
“It ensures that we ask the same questions every time, gather the specific information to drive the response,” said Michelle Miller, the county’s communications division director.
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The answers decide what leaves the station. A six-story building gets a different response than a single-family house, and the smell of smoke gets less than a full house fire.
Miller said the answers sometimes change the picture.
“It initially comes in as a house fire, but you actually find out it’s really an oven that’s in self-cleaning mode,” she said.
Sending more equipment than a call needs leaves fewer crews for the next address.
The same list handles a plane crash, a building collapse, someone stuck in an elevator or a wildfire.
Firefighters helped pick the questions and decide where the county’s cutoffs fall, like how tall a building has to be before it gets more trucks.
Miller said the added questions do not hold up help.
“Someone is talking to that caller and gathering information, but there’s somebody else on the other side of the room that’s actually sending the units out,” she said.
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