News & Announcements

In a memo to all Saratoga County EMS and Fire Services, EMS Coordinator Mike McEvoy and Fire Coordinator Ed Tremblay outline two Radio Procedure Changes that will take effect April 1, 2009. The first is a specific “manpower request” procedure that will assure timely and appropriate assistance by activating both EMS and Fire with automatic fire department mutual aid when no response is received after 5 minutes. The second change is implementation of automatic EMS mutual aid for Priority 3 standbys at structure fire scenes when no response is received from the ambulance corps of jurisdiction. The full memo can be downloaded by clicking here or by visiting the downloads page. NOTE: Implementation has been delayed until May 1 by the Fire Service.

Senator Roy McDonald and the Saratoga County Council on Autism will hold an Autism First Responders Conference on Thursday, March 26th (2009) at the Comfort Inn Suites in Clifton Park from 9 am until 3 pm. There is no cost to attend. RSVP is needed by March 16th to Jennifer Ciulla at 885-2212 or to jenciulla@saratogacountyny.gov. This event has been approved for 6 hours of REMO CUE credits (additional category). Click here for an invite/announcement.

A draft amendment to the EMS Mutual Aid Plan that incorporates crew confirmation to comply with a REMAC advisory on Agency Response Parameters was presented at the February 11th EMS Council meeting. Although agencies are able to comply with the directive under the present MA Plan, adding crew confirmation to the existing alerting system would assure that any response time gaps are covered automatically. Implementation of the plan will not occur until upgrades to the Sheriff’s Department Communications Center mapping system are in place to accommodate the changes. Click here for a copy of the draft document. Comments should be submitted to EMS Coordinator Mike McEvoy.

Dec. 2 & 4 – An AWR-160 WMD (Weapons Of Mass Destruction) Awareness-Level Training Course will be held Tuesday December 2nd (Part 1) and Thursday December 4th (Part 2) at the Fire Training Center. Both sessions run from 7-10 PM. The program is part of the EMT Pilot Core Content Refresher Program but is open to any person who wishes to attend. AWR-160 is a six-hour program that provides emergency responders with awareness-level instruction on recognition, avoidance, isolation, and notification techniques in a WMD environment. The course covers prevention and deterrence and chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive (CBRNE) hazards. CEU credits are available and there is no charge to attend. To assure availability of sufficient course materials, preregistration is requested by email to training@saratogaems.org.

Effective November 16, 2008 Corinth Fire alerting tones will be simulcast on both Fire Control and EMS Dispatch (155.925). This test precedes planned migration of all Fire paging onto the 155.925 frequency which has been pushed ahead into 2009. Stay tuned for further details.