QUICKER RESPONSE TO CALLS.

Byline: Alex Dobuzinskis Staff Writer

The regional dispatch center that coordinates the emergency response for Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena will be able to more quickly summon fire companies from seven nearby cities under a six-month pilot program starting Monday.

The program will merge an automatic response system for Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena with a similar system used by the other cities covered by the Verdugo Fire Communications Center. It will take several weeks to get the computerized program fully operational, officials said.

``The new system that will be implemented is essentially creating borderless cities,'' said Pasadena Assistant Fire Chief Calvin Wells.

The computerized program will enable dispatchers to automatically deploy as many as 21 fire engines, eight ladder trucks and seven battalion chiefs - the equivalent of a seven-alarm response.

The previous system required them to call by phone if they needed additional help fighting a fire - a process that could take as long as 10 minutes to complete, officials said.

``The goal is to improve response times to fire emergencies by allowing other agencies to respond across their traditional borders if in fact they have (an engine) that is closer to the source of the emergency,'' Wells said.

The unified response program will replace most of the 40 agreements - some of them dating to the 1950s - for sharing resources among the 10 cities that are covered by the Verdugo center.

The program has been a long time coming for Verdugo Dispatch, which was created in 1978 by the cities of Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena.

``It's the agreement and the philosophy and the concept: everyone in the area sharing the resources for the common good of everyone,'' said Rich Kaufman, fire communications administer for Verdugo Dispatch. ``The computer is just the tool that makes it easier to do it.''

The Verdugo Fire Communications Center, at 421 Oak St., in Glendale, covers that city, as well as Burbank, Pasadena, Arcadia, Monrovia, Monterey Park, San Gabriel, San Marino, Sierra Madre and South Pasadena.

Alhambra will also be part of the unified response program, but because it is not under Verdugo Dispatch its fire companies will be called in by phone instead of by computer. Officials hope to soon bring Alhambra into Verdugo Dispatch.

With an annual budget of $1.7 million, the dispatch center is funded under contacts with the various cities, which pay $32,000 to $637,000 a year, depending on their size.

The center has a total of 15 dispatchers, with four workers on duty during the day and three at night.

Dispatchers work calmly in a semi-dark room the low-level lighting meant to help them as they stare into five computer screens and a larger bank of screens along the wall. On a recent day shift at the center, two suspended TVs provided some light entertainment in the form of a ``The People's Court'' broadcast.

Collectively, the 11 cities have 40 engines and 11 ladder trucks. While a fire department occasionally needs to send trucks to help in an emergency, the department benefits when it has a big fire, said Burbank Assistant Fire Chief Tracy Pansini.

``It's better to do that on an occasional basis than for Burbank to double its Fire Department to meet those emergencies,'' Pansini said.

The new system will cost nothing to implement, because the center is using on-staff technicians to reprogram its existing computers.

``It's going to dramatically increase the resources available to any incident and also dramatically decrease response times,'' Kaufman said.

Since the cities involved form a geographic T, with Pasadena at the center, officials will be watching during the six-month trial program to ensure the Pasadena Fire Department is not overtaxed. That will involve using local freeways to bring in engines from other cities so that empty stations can be filled for stand-by in an emergency, Kaufman said.

Alex Dobuzinskis, [phone]

alex.dobuzinskis(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

Verdugo Dispatch Center supervisor Manual Sotto talks about the advantages of dispatching fire and rescue vehicles from 11 cities from one control center.

John McCoy/Staff Photographer