Story originally published by The Daily Journal

Every second counts in an emergency, and the San Bruno Fire Department is working on cutting response times for the city’s 45,000 residents through new technology, data analysis, updating fire stations and also looking for a new station location.

During a meeting last week, the City Council discussed a study that found turnout time, how long it takes for firefighters to hear the emergency bell and push the response button in the emergency vehicle, should be on average, one minute and 20 seconds. However, the department is averaging a turnout time of around two minutes and five seconds, which it seeks to cut down.

Fire Chief Ari Delay is already working toward making improvements first by using data to analyze areas for improvement so the department can better understand its weaknesses.

“Simply put, it’s a report card that comes out on a daily basis and it allows us to actively improve performance,” Delay said.

The first inefficiency Delay is addressing is turnout times for the departments’ 4,500 emergency calls it receives each year. The department has already updated the firefighters with apps they will carry on their smartphones in their pockets, which offers critical information that mirrors the information they will see in the emergency vehicles.

Additionally, the department has installed, and is in the process of installing, software for a digital dashboard. The dashboard acts as a kiosk that offers real-time information about the nature of the call, the units dispatched, response routes and a turnout clock, which displays the time passed since the bell first rings for an emergency. The dashboard is in the hallway of the station that’s in between the dormitories to the apparatus bay, where the vehicles are stored.

“We have already made significant improvements in our turnout times,” Delay said.

An additional benefit of the dashboard is it will be equipped with the real-time data firefighters can use to see response times and adjust tactics accordingly, he added.

Another concern for Delay is addressing travel times. The goal is to get from the emergency vehicle to the incident within four minutes in the city’s 5 1/2 mile radius. However, the department is averaging five minute response times.

The data suggest the department’s low turnout time is due to the extra PPE they wore during COVID, non-optimal facility layout and the needs for additional training, Delay said.

To address improving travel times, the department has installed a new system called HAAS Alert. It is a system that alerts nearby drivers that an emergency vehicle is en route and behind them, using apps such as Waze, Google Maps, Apple Maps and other technologies. Also, the app will notify the vehicles when the emergency vehicle turns its lights on. During October, the app notified more than 2,000 cars that an emergency vehicle was behind them.

“It is really an important piece for collision avoidance for us,” Delay said.

Still, response times for Station 52, on the western side of the city near Skyline Boulevard, is exacerbated when backing up eastside calls because of the facility’s layout and traffic congestion. Traveling down Sneath Lane is difficult because it is a steep hill, has seven stop lights, two stop signs, is not equipped with traffic control preemption devices, is one lane each way and has a 30 mph speed limit.

Both Station 51 on El Camino Real and 52 near Skyline Boulevard are outdated. Built in the mid-1950s, they lack many of the modern amenities considered necessary for fire service delivery. That includes ADA compliance, a security system, a turnout storage room and a sprinkler system. The gym is in the apparatus bay and station 52 is located near the San Andreas Fault and is not upgraded for seismic retrofitting.

The long-term solution is to relocate station 52 to a Caltrans-owned lot on the corner of Glenview Drive and West San Bruno Avenue and reconstruct station 51 in the same location.