911 calls go to Rancho Santa Fe now

FALLBROOK — Effective June 28 at 10 a.m., all 911 calls in the greater Fallbrook area began being routed to a regional dispatch center in Rancho Santa Fe. North County Fire turned out the lights on their dispatch center at 10 a.m. that morning. The calls are now routing to the North County Dispatch Joint Powers Authority (formerly known as Rancho Fire Dispatch), who will now serve just under 400,000 residents in various communities. Citizens should not notice any difference in service when dialing 9-1-1 for an emergency, as it has been North County Fire Protection District’s goal to implement a seamless transition. The agency’s business line remains unchanged at (760) 723-2005.

The original dispatch system was started in 1950 with pull boxes that rang at then-Chief Bill Thurber’s home. In 1955, the first PBX dispatch operator was installed at the main fire station, 1019 S. Main Avenue, which is now the Firehouse Broiler restaurant. In 1963, dispatch was moved to the current headquarters station on Ivy Street. In 1992, the dispatch center was updated and remodeled to its current condition.

As a result of the change, the district loses three valued employees, most of them having nearly 18 years on the job. Two of these employees will continue to serve in other capacities for North County Fire and one will be instructing at Palomar Community College. The district will be gaining a state of the art communication facility, which is located in the heart of Rancho Santa Fe and currently dispatches seven other Fire Agencies.

Captain Don Stevens of North County Fire, who is the project coordinator for this transition, stated that approximately $450,000 has been spent for this transition. The decision to transfer dispatch services to North County Dispatch was made after an exhaustive third-party analysis, which determined that continuation of in-house services would have been far more costly.