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Page 120 <br />Fire Station Location Considerations <br />As previously noted, appropriate fire station locations are necessary to ensure that <br />firefighters can respond rapidly and mitigate emergencies within survivable time frames <br />(See Figure 1 below). As the city has grown, Tukwila's fire stations have generally <br />provided an acceptable level of service. TFD's automatic aid agreements with Renton <br />Fire Authority and Puget Sound Fire Authority as well as Fire District 22, Burien and <br />Skyway have benefitted all organizations by providing essential resources to assemble <br />effective fire fighting forces, provide emergency medical services and special rescue <br />operations. <br />The key to the ability for firefighters to mitigate a fire or medical emergency is response <br />time. Response time is the interval of time that is broken down into three components. <br />First is call receiving/dispatching time. This segment includes the time from when the <br />telephone rings in the 911 center until dispatchers have gotten the information they <br />need and notified the appropriate resources to respond. NFPA 1710 specifies that calls <br />should be answered within 15 seconds 95 percent of the time and processed within 60 <br />seconds for 90 percent of alarms. <br />Second is turnout time. This is the elapsed time between when firefighters are notified <br />of an alarm, don their gear, and are on their truck moving out of the station. NFPA 1710 <br />specifies that turnout time should be no more than 80 seconds for fires and special <br />operations and no more than 60 seconds for medical emergencies. <br />Third is travel time. NFPA 1710 sets out a requirement that the first responding fire <br />company should travel no more than 240 seconds to an emergency. This four -minute <br />travel time for the first responding fire company is significant for two reasons. First, a <br />person in cardiac arrest will suffer brain damage without intervention within four to six <br />minutes after the heart stops. Second, a fire will reach flashover — when a room and its <br />contents erupt into flames — within six to eight minutes after ignition. Firefighters must <br />arrive quickly and be ready to act, to save lives. The chart in Figure 1 below highlights <br />response time with cardiac survival and fire development. <br />Tukwila Fire Department — Station Location Study <br />June 2017 <br />EYA <br />