Mutual Aid

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◄ ► = REFERENCE = MUTUAL AID RUN CARDS=

Updated: May 15, 2023

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Mutual Aid Run Cards

BARNSTABLE COUNTY RUN CARDS

DEPARTMENT RUN CARDS

RUN CARDS
Click on Town name or Map for Run Cards. MAP
Barnstable Fire		Hyannis Fire
Bourne Fire		Joint Base Cape Cod
Brewster Fire		Mashpee Fire
Centerville (COMM) Fire		Orleans Fire
Chatham Fire		Provincetown Fire
Cotuit Fire		Sandwich Fire
Dennis Fire		Truro Fire
Eastham Fire		Wellfleet Fire
Falmouth Fire		West Barnstable Fire
Harwich Fire		Yarmouth Fire


	Dukes County Plan
	Nantucket Plan
	Plymouth
	State Task Forces


BARNSTABLE COUNTY CONTROL - RUN CARDS LOOK UP RUN CARDS LOOK UP SPECIAL CALL CARDS OUT OF SERVICE LIST
Massachusetts Fire & EMS Mobilization Plan Boston Area Metro Fire Mutual Aid System Plymouth County Control Mutual Aid Look Back at Great Provincetown Whaler's Wharf Fire Feb 10, 1998

Click on Dept Name to go to run cards.

UPDATES

May 15, 2023
Updated Mutual Aid Run Cards

01 - Bourne
02 - Sandwich
03 - Joint Base
04 - Falmouth
05 - Mashpee
06 - Cotuit
07 - COMM
08 - Hyannis
09 - West Barnstable
10 - Barnstable
11 - Yarmouth
12 - Dennis
13 - Brewster
14 - Harwich
15 - Chatham
16 - Orleans
17 - Eastham
18 - Wellfleet
19 - Truro
20 - Provincetown

METRO RUN CARDS
Most departments have updated their Mutual Aid Run Cards
to what are known as "Metro Run Cards."

The "Metro Cards" represent a considerable change in philosophy
from how mutual aid was done previously.

Typically, previous mutual aid Run Cards tended to use
the closest neighboring departments first and heavily
and then used a process of move-ups to cover those
departments according to a fairly complex plan
executed by the Mutual Aid Control Center
based on those preplanned run cards.

As long as those "specific" resources were available
and staffed the plan worked quite well.

In recent years, call volumes have increased considerably,
often creating a greater need for mutual aid, while
at the same time, making it more difficult to provide it.

Various changes in many department's dynamics have also
resulted in less personnel being available for off duty response
and the staffing of multiple apparatus for in town or for
out of town mutual aid responses as once happened.

The Metro Cards in many cases draw on resources
from greater distances (and longer response times)
in ways that attempt to take some of the difficulty of
staffing "lots of" apparatus off of any single department.

In some cases, departments may be skipped over
so that they may be more available later if an incident escalates.

The Cards tend to utilize more departments and
often move apparatus a significant distance
to directly provide cover assignments
rather than a move-up system.

One of the other major changes in recent years is the
early multiple department "automatic response"
also known as Line Box Response to make sure
sufficient personnel and equipment respond
early in the incident.

Where as many older run cards included 5th Alarms,
many of the Metro Card only go to a 4th Alarm,
even though the same or more apparatus
may be assigned.

Most departments still have a number of "Districts" within
the community that may alter the response order based
on geography or other need.

For the most part, this site provides just a single Sample Run Card
for each department to demonstrate the concept of mutual aid.

--------------

January 5, 2019
Updated some Mutual Aid Pages
Barnstable
Bourne
Brewster

Dec 13, 2013
Update Falmouth Cards new Dists

August 2010
Updated all Run Cards

March 2007
New West Barnstable Run Cards in effect 3/1/07

Sept 2006
New Hyannis Run Cards in effect 9/1/06
Updated info on
Cotuit, COMM, and W Barn Cards

Jan 2006
Sandwich Brush & Spec Call Updated
Task Forces Nantucket, Vineyard, Cuttyhunk
info added

Dec 2005
Sandwich Cards Updated

March 14, 2005
New Mashpee Run Cards in Place.
State Task Forces Posted.

Barnstable County Control, the Mutual Aid Center for Cape Cod, is located in the Barnstable Sheriff's Department Communications Center at the Public Safety Building in Barnstable village.

The Cape has a well developed mutual aid system that saw its beginnings in the 1950s when area fire chiefs made agreements with each other to provide help should it be needed. Large forest fires across the Cape required the response of help from many departments as did large building fires.

The Yarmouth Fire Department served as the mutual aid center for decades, keeping track of apparatus and equipment lists, vehicle in and out of service status, and dispatching of mutual aid by basic run cards.

In 1994, the mutual aid center went to the "County" at the "Radio Shack" in the Sheriff's Department. This center had been the CMED center since 1974 and was well adapted to assume the responsibilities for mutual aid as well.

The system has continued to evolve over the years. Computers are now used to determine mutual aid moves and to track vehicle status. A magnetic map board is also used to show visually where apparatus is and where "holes" in coverage may exist on the major incidents. The Center conducts a daily roll call of stations at 0915 daily to verify radio operability and vehicle status. The first Sunday of each month is also a tone test day when each department's mutual aid tones are also tested.

Originally the "county" radio frequency 33.70 was also used by most of the towns for ordinary operations. As departments began to get busier, they migrated to their own channels. The "county" channel has been maintained for mutual aid dispatch and inter- department communications. Several years ago the Cape went to an 800 mhz trucked radio system. This improved communications in a number of ways.

There is a "Mutual Aid Dispatch" channel on talk group 38032. This is the primary mutual aid dispatch and inter department channel. There are now also (3) OPS or operations channels used for fire ground or other incidents. OPS 1 (Channel C4) is talk group 38064. OPS 2 (Channel C6) is 37978. OPS 3 (Channel C8) is 38000. The first available channel is assigned on request by BCC.

Barnstable County Control serves a number of rolls during mutual aid incidents. Departments contact BCC via radio and request aid for their specific incident and district area. The run cards for those types of incidents (Structure, brush, special calls, etc) and the districts are all kept on the computer. The BCC dispatcher looks up the run card and verifies the availability of the assignmed apparatus and tone dispatches the assignment (ie: 2nd alarm, 3rd alarm, etc...) Units are then dispatched by the individual departments. They respond to the scene on the assigned OPS channel or for cover age on the talk group of the town being covered.

The run cards within this website carry data on file at BCC as of the date recorded on each card. They were effective by the implementing department on the date "revised" They are posted on the more recent date on the page. In some cases, run cards may be outdated (apparatus listed that is no longer in service, has been assigned to another station, etc..) It is the responsibility of each department to write and provide their own run cards to the county via the Fire Chief's Mutual Aid Committee. In some cases there cards may need to be updated. It is also possible that the cards on this site contain errors or can be out of date. They are here for general information and are not definitive or guaranteed to be followed exactly for a variety of reasons.

We hope however that they will demonstrate the systematic use of the mutual aid system and provide a reference point for understanding the mutual aid system.

Click on Cape Cod Department names to go to run cards.

DEPARTMENT PROFILE

SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT

OLD RADIO ROOM

NEW RADIO ROOM AT OTIS

THE NEW RADIO SHACK

On July 11, 2007 the Barnstable Sheriff's Department communications center moved to its new home
within the new Otis Fire Headquarters. The radio room is located about in the middle of the building
just to the left of the antenna.

View of the antenna from the radio room.

One of the 8 dispatch work stations within the room.

Barnstable County Control mutual aid dispatch, as well as dispatch for the District 1 Haz Mat Team
and Barnstable & West Barnstable Fire Alarms, as well as all police / sheriff functions happen
it this console.

Lt . James Fletcher enters data into the Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) program .

The radio room overlooks the runways and is equipped with some very high tech equipment.
Barnstable CMED is located at this console.

THE OLD SHACK

The Communications Center was located here,
below the large radio antenna in Barnstable village.

The "County" Dispatcher at the old Barnstable County Control handled mutual aid calls
as well as a variety of police, sheriff, haz mat, fire alarm, and other duties.

The Motorola Centracom Elite dispatching system is mouse controlled
computer screen driven. By clicking on the desired channel, dispatchers
as able to transmit, sound tones, and monitor communications.

In addition to the "Communications Center" there Sheriff's Department also
operates this mobile communications and command center known as S-39.
This vehicle has many radio capabilities and can be dispatched to large
incidents as needed.