The CDF/Riverside
County Fire Department’s main Emergency Command Center is located in the City of Perris at CDF’s
Riverside Unit and Riverside County Fire Department’s headquarters.
It is one of the largest regional fire service
organizations in California.
The Department responded to 106,050 incidents in the
2004 calendar year,
an
increase of 3.8% from the 2003 calendar year of 102,203 calls.
CDF/Riverside
County Fire Department is dedicated to cooperative fire services and the Perris Emergency Command
Center (ECC) is responsible for three primary functions simultaneously they are:
·The Perris ECC is
a full service regional command center providing dispatch service to all unincorporated county
areas, 16 contract cities, and 1 Community Service District.
In addition the Perris ECC dispatches under contract
for the Idyllwild Fire Protection District and three Native American Fire Departments.
One of the great advantages for the county and all of
the contract cities is that they are part of CDF/Riverside County Fire Department’s cooperative
fire protection philosophy and are dispatched and coordinated as a single fire department.
It is automatic-aid at its best, providing effective,
cost efficient customer service.
The Perris command
center is staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days year and utilizes three overlapping
shifts.
This concept allows for at least 8 Public Safety
Communication Officers (PSCO) plus a Senior PSCO and a Fire Captain to be on duty during daily high
activity periods usually 10:00am to 10:00pm.
Fully trained volunteer call-takers augment our
career Public Safety Communication Officers.
·The Perris command
center is part of CDF’s three-level command and control structure utilized for the day-to-day
operations of the department and for dealing with emergency incidents.
The purpose of the command center is to receive
reports of emergencies from a variety of sources, allocate resources based on preplanned response
criteria, coordinate interagency incident activities, support the incident as needed, provide
internal and external information, and document the activity.
CDF crews and
equipment are a familiar sight throughout the State with responsibility for the protection of over
31 million acres of California’s privately owned wildlands.
The Perris ECC is directly responsible for command
and control as these resources respond up and down the state.
·The Perris ECC is
the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (OES) Local Area Coordinator for the California Fire
Service and Rescue Emergency Mutual Aid System.
The purpose of the plan is to provide for systematic
mobilization, organization and operation of necessary fire and rescue resources of the state and
political subdivisions in mitigating the effects of disasters, whether natural or man-caused.
This is a statewide
plan to facilitate mutual aid to local fire departments, which are faced with a disaster, fire,
flood, earthquake, hazmat or other emergency, that is beyond the ability of the local fire
department to mitigate without loss of life or property.
In accordance with
standard Firescope Incident Command System (ICS) theology, the Perris ECC is able to grow and
constrict in relation to activity and incident needs.
One means of facilitating this, is with the
activation of Perris ECC Expanded operations augmenting on duty personnel with trained personnel
making up the expanded cadre.
Expanded is able to support local incidents with
direct radio, logistical and informational support while not impacting the main command floor.
Expanded is also utilized for mobilizing personnel
and resources in support of
fires throughout California and the Western United
States.
For safety and accountability the status of these
resources in maintained continually.
Two alternate
Emergency Command Centers, located in Riverside and Indio are maintained to provide redundancy as a
backup to Perris and as communication centers in support of Riverside County Emergency Services
Division (ESD) to coordinate multi-agency disaster management within Riverside County.
Deputy Chief Vacant
Battalion Chief Bob Toups
8 Fire Captains
4
Senior Public
Safety Communications Officers
32
Public
Safety Communications Officers
