The CAL FIRE/Riverside County Fire Department’s main Emergency Command Center (ECC) is located in the City of Perris at CAL FIRE'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 112,011 incidents in the 2006 calendar year, an increase of 1.62% over 2005, averaging 307 emergency responses per day. 

 

CAL FIRE/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 one 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 CAL FIRE/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 ECC is staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days year and utilizes three overlapping shifts.   This concept allows for at least eight 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.    
 

·          The Perris ECC is part of CAL FIRE'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.

 

·          CAL FIRE 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 throughout 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), the Perris ECC is able to expand and constract 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 is maintained continually.  

 

Two alternate Emergency Command Centers, located in Riverside and Indio are maintained to provide redundancy as a backup to the Perris ECC as communication centers in support of Riverside County Office of Emergency Services (OES) to coordinate multi-agency disaster management within Riverside County.

Emergency Command Center Staff:
2 Battalion Chiefs
9 Fire Captains
4 Fire Communication Supervisors
4 Senior Public Safety Communcation Officers
40  Public Safety Communications Officers