All local fire departments and medical 9-1-1 operations have completed their move to the new Regional Fire Communications Center in Santa Barbara, which fire officials say will help streamline services by bringing multiple agencies under one roof.

Multiple dispatch centers were fielding law enforcement, fire and medical calls before the move to the RFCC, which will now act as a central dispatch center for fire and emergency medical services.

“The boundary drop will impact people who dial 9-1-1 the most. It’ll be the closest three engines, not just the closest engines in the city of Santa Barbara, for example,” Santa Barbara County Fire Chief Mark Hartwig said.

The departments began moving into the new facility in May, but the final move of dispatch services was on Tuesday. The RFCC was built as an add-on to the Emergency Operations Center at 4408 Cathedral Oaks Road, which is near the County Fire headquarters.

Scott Safechuck, the public information officer for County Fire, said the department is already seeing benefits from the new facility and system.

“The improvements are as expected. We are seeing the appropriate resources closest to that incident going to that call,” Safechuck said.

He explained that in the past, two departments might have sent out fire engines or ambulances if an incident was on the border of a jurisdiction. Now, the centralized facility will allow them to send the nearest engine without overlap.

He said the public may not notice the change itself, but for the agencies, it will allow them to better handle calls.

One of the departments moving into the RFCC is the Montecito Fire Protection District, which recently closed its South Coast Dispatch Center. It was in operation for 48 years.

“The South Coast Dispatch was a big core of our organization, but we’re proud to see that the services are able to continue with this collaboration between the … partners in one center,” Division Chief Anthony Hudley said.

Hudley said the new system is working well and allows them to be more efficient.

“(It) just continues to further enhance getting the closest appropriate unit to our community members. So, it has been working really well,” Hudley said.

The new facility has screens to watch the news or keep an eye on Alert California wildfire cameras. There is also an extended area for dispatch in case more staff are needed for wildfire events.

The construction project to build the RFCC also expanded the Emergency Operations Center. The center hosts Emergency Management staff and serves as a command center during major incidents. 

Another advantage Safechuck pointed out is that all dispatchers at the facility are now trained to provide lifesaving instructions over the phone, such as CPR.

The training, called emergency medical dispatching, allows the dispatcher to instruct callers on how to help someone until crews arrive. Some of the dispatchers from the different agencies were not trained before moving to the RFCC.

“We have already seen those efforts making lifesaving differences,” Safechuck said.