Newtown Hosts Fire Course

Fourteen dispatchers from Connecticut, New York and Massachusetts attended a fire dispatch course hosted by the town of Newtown and the APCO Institute, Inc., at the Booth Library this week.

Jim Crouch, director of Newtown’s 911 emergency dispatch center, said the two-day course provided dispatchers with information about fire equipment terminology, fire incident call-taking and dispatching procedures, information about the basics of incident command, follow-up dispatch in major fires, and other related topics.

“Not every dispatcher is a fireman – I’m not,” Mr Crouch said. “So a class like this is a big help.”

Tuition for the class, held on November 15 and 16 from 8 am to 5 pm, was $199.

“By hosting the class, we received free tuition for one student,” Mr Crouch said. “Unfortunately, that person was ill and couldn’t attend. But we received credit for a dispatcher to attend a class in another location in the future.”

APCO, the Association of Public Safety Communications Officers, is headquartered in South Daytona, Florida.