The Redding Emergency Command Center (ECC) is a secondary Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP). It is staffed 24/7 with a minimum of two personnel during the winter and three personnel during the summer months to facilitate dispatching appropriate resources to emergencies countywide. The Redding ECC is staffed with 12 permanent employees. Overseeing the operation is one Battalion Chief, six Fire Captains, and five Communications Operators working alternating shifts. Collectively, these employees have the field experience, local historical knowledge, and technical expertise to take full advantage of the state-of-the-art Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) System.
These dedicated employees dispatch for 14 State Fire Stations, 18 Shasta County Volunteer Fire Companies, and 10 Fire Protection Districts throughout Shasta and Trinity Counties. Dispatch plans are tailored to the type of incident being dispatched in each area. However, information gathered from 911 callers, weather monitoring, and fire history for a given area are also used to determine the appropriate amount of resources being dispatched to an incident. The ECC Captain provides input and oversight while functioning as a 24-hour duty officer. The Captain uses their field experience to initially command the incident prior to the first arriving field unit and is given full authority to modify a response based on the information received. The ECC is co-located with the U.S. Forest Service dispatch center for the Shasta-Trinity National Forest.
In 2021, the ECC answered a total of 72,119 telephone calls of which 16,427 were emergency calls resulting in 14,582 incidents within the unit. The ECC processed 15,879 out of unit requests for resources to assist with over 503 non-local emergency incidents statewide. Locally, the ECC maintained the resource ordering and status for the Fawn incident and assisted the United States Forest Service in the ordering of resources for the Salt, McFarland and Monument Fires. Along with the local emergency dispatching needs of the SHU, ECC staff was committed for 117 days out of the area to assist other units with resource ordering for expanding incidents. Our ECC staff communicates daily with the Northern Region Geographic Area Coordination Center to provide staffing information, personnel availability, ground/air resources availability, and local incident resource needs.
We look forward to the challenges and successes 2022 may bring and stand ready to provide the citizens of Shasta County with the most professional services that fire service can provide.
