Some firefighters in the county would have to pull out of their stations within four minutes of being dispatched — instead of the current eight minutes — under new tighter targets for fire crew response times being considered by the County Council.
For stations in the city of Frederick and other towns, the new goal for response times — how long it takes from the moment a call is dispatched until a truck rolls out of the station house — would be cut in half under changes to county law proposed by the Frederick County Division of Fire & Rescue Services and the Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association.
Right now, county code has a one-size-fits-all approach to measuring response times.
All stations in the county are expected to meet an 8-minute response 90 percent of the time. If not, they are considered to have failed to meet the county’s response standard.
The new response-time targets, which were also supported by the county’s Frederick County Fire and Rescue Advisory Board, would set different targets for urban, suburban and rural stations.