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Committee presses for dates, CAD reports after 13 "no-responses" flagged in 2025 NERIS reporting
Summary
After the committee reviewed 2025 NERIS/ESO data showing 13 no-responses for volunteer departments, members asked staff for incident dates/times, discussed paging and CAD timing problems, and agreed to pursue operational changes including a duty-officer concept and monthly incident reports from dispatch.
At the April 7 meeting the Fire Advisory Committee scrutinized 2025 call reporting after members identified 13 no-response entries in the NERIS (ESO) records and requested the incident-by-incident dates and times so each reported no-response can be classified.
Jake Hanley said the department’s ESO reports originate from CAD exports and the committee needs specific dates and times to determine whether entries labeled "no-response" were actually "cancelled in route" or truly unacknowledged: "If I knew the date, that specific date, and time, of the call that you're curious about then" he said, explaining how the binders and CAD data link to NERIS submissions.
Aaron Facincani clarified the meeting’s usage of terms: "That is cancelled, not a no response. A no response is a 'nobody heard through the duration of the call'," he said, underscoring differences between cancelled calls and unacknowledged responses. The committee examined an example from Jan. 6, 2025 (dispatch 22:37, first-arrival 23:01, clear 23:17) to illustrate how time stamps influence classification.
Members described operational problems that can create apparent no-responses. Aaron and others reported delayed or missing voice audio after tone, and said turnover and inconsistent dispatch practices contribute to the problem. Lee Sullivan explained that tones still originate on VHF and that CAD and the digital trunk system interact; he suggested coordinating with dispatch to set timers and page/repage rules and proposed that GIS or dispatch staff present options to the committee.
The committee agreed on several follow-up actions: request a detailed list of the 13 2025 no-response incidents (dates, times, incident numbers), ask dispatch whether incident numbers and incident logs can be provided monthly to volunteer chiefs, and develop an operational proposal (a potential duty-officer program and standard page/repage timers) to bring to the Fire Council and to the Director of Fire Services. Members also discussed training and standard operating guidelines for dispatch and volunteers as part of any solution.
No formal votes were taken on these operational proposals at the meeting; members directed staff to obtain the data and to continue coordination with the 911 manager and the Director of Fire Services.
