More Fire Departments Improve Response Time with Amerilert First Responder

CHICAGO, Aug. 15, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- From Fire Rescue International 2013, Omnilert announced more fire departments that have recently implemented Amerilert First Responder to improve reliability of dispatching and shorten response times to emergencies. Personal demonstrations of the SMS text message dispatch service can be seen in booth #4541 at IAFC's Annual Conference and Expo, FRI 2013, in Chicago from August 16-17. Visitors can also enter a chance to win an instant grant of Amerilert First Responder for their department free for two years for up to 50 users. There will be two instant grant winners announced, one each day.

(Photo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130815/PH64603)

Kolby Arnold is the Fire Chief at Cherokee Volunteer Fire Department in Cherokee, Oklahoma. Mr. Arnold said, "I am really impressed with how reliable and effective the Amerilert First Responder service has been for us. It sends text message dispatches from our county's PSAPs to my crew's cell phones in seconds. We use it countywide for primary and secondary alerts, plus I can use it locally for reminders about events or apparatus out of service.

"The previous dispatching service was unreliable and sent dispatches as phone calls, so you only heard it one time and couldn't listen to it again. If you missed something, you were out of luck. Before that, we had alpha pagers that were even more unreliable – and they didn't provide much detail. With Amerilert, we get the dispatch as a text message in literally seconds, and all the details are there for reviewing anytime. My firemen already have cell phones and love how Amerilert works. As a backup, we also get the dispatches as emails, so if we hear a siren we can check there as well.

"Amerilert is very reliable. In fact, one time the dispatch center had a fire and the power and communications were out. I accessed the cloud-based Amerilert from my own smartphone and dispatched my firemen in one minute. It would have taken a half-hour or more if I had to call everyone and explain everything.

"They say 'time is money,' but in our business 'time is lives,' and Amerilert has greatly reduced the time it takes for us to respond to emergencies. Amerilert can shave as much as 10 minutes off our response time.

"Besides the technology, everybody I've dealt with at Amerilert is on top of things, getting it done, ready to be there and work for you. If I had any problems, they've been there as quick as possible. They care as much as we do.

"We recently consolidated all nine fire departments across Alfalfa County into one Amerilert system. We did this for the cost savings, but also because it makes countywide dispatching much easier and faster. The feedback from the fire chiefs and fire fighters has been very positive. Our new E911 system coming online soon will fit perfectly with Amerilert. If you want something fast, reliable, and cost effective, then I would recommend Amerilert for any volunteer fire department."

New Customers of Amerilert First Responder

• Amorita Byron Fire and Rescue
• Carmen Volunteer Fire Department
• Cherokee Fire Department
• City of Colstrip, MT Volunteer Fire Department
• City of Guthrie Fire-EMS
• Fire Academy of South Dakota
• Goltry OK Volunteer Fire Department
• Grundy Fire Department
• Jet Oklahoma Fire Department
• Olympic Ambulance Service, Inc.
• Platte Canyon Fire Department
• Poe Community Volunteer Fire Department
• Saraland Fire Department
• Shipshewana Fire Department
• Thurston County Medic One
• Union Valley Fire Department
• Winters, TX Volunteer Fire Department

About Omnilert        
Omnilert, LLC invented the world's first campus emergency notification system and now supports all industries to keep communities safe and connected. Their award-winning flagship service enables a single person to communicate critical information to thousands of people anywhere, anytime, on any device or service. This affords better crisis communications, emergency management, business continuity, disaster recovery, and crime solving. The company's 13,000 clients include the U.S. Army, Verizon Wireless, Bayer, Mazda, University of Virginia, Cal Poly, YMCA, American Red Cross, and UNICEF. Omnilert solutions are sold under the brand names e2Campus, Amerilert, and RainedOut. The privately held company is headquartered in Leesburg, Va., and at www.omnilert.com online.

SOURCE Omnilert