A call coming into the Danbury Fire Department used to mean alarms and tones immediately blasting at high volume, startling firefighters before they headed out to scenes that could get their hearts pumping even faster.
Capt. Kevin Lunnie noticed a big jump in his heart rate when the alerts went off, which isn’t a good thing in a profession where heart problems are the leading cause of on-duty deaths.
The city is now taking a gentler approach.
A new system went online in September that includes alarms that start softer before gradually increasing in volume, while a computerized voice calmly announces the information the firefighters need to know about the incoming emergency.
“It’s much easier on your nervous system,” Lunnie said.
Danbury, a city of around 87,000 people in southwestern Connecticut, is using the new alerts in its five fire stations, joining thousands of other departments around the U.S. and world aiming to both reduce stress and improve response times.
On a recent weekday, a call came into Danbury’s main fire station and the alert began with a single, soft tone. “Truck 1,” said the automated female voice. “Respond to sick person,” it said, giving the patient’s address.
Around the firehouse, warm, red lighting flashed while monitors displayed the nature and location of the emergency. A timer display began to count down from two minutes, with the goal of firefighters leaving the station before the time ran out.
It’s both calmer and clearer than the old system, which began with full-volume single tones followed by cacophony of longer ones that fluctuated between high and low pitches. Dispatchers would previously announce the calls over the station speaker system, which firefighters said could be static-y and hard to understand.
“Most people found it very jarring,” Lunnie said of the system, which would jolt firefighters awake day or night.
The new setup is integrated into the computer-aided dispatching system. So when a dispatcher takes an emergency call and logs the initial information, it can alert the stations and units faster than department staff, while also sending the call information to firefighters’ phones and watches.
The result, according to Danbury Assistant Fire Chief William Lounsbury, is quicker response times.
Danbury tapped around $500,000 in funding from the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act to pay for the new Phoenix G2 system, made by Honeywell subsidiary US Digital Designs. That same system is in nearly 6,000 firehouses around the U.S., according to Honeywell.
Other companies make similar alerting systems that are in many stations nationwide.
