Dispatch!

It was a seemingly peaceful night in the watchroom of Bukit Batok Fire Station...

*Bzzzkrt!*

The watchroom personnel was unceremoniously awaken from his slumber by a violent buzz coming from the intercom.

The intercom beeped thrice loudly. With his many hours spent in the watchroom throughout his career, he immediately recognised the tone of the beep.

It was a fire call.

Surely enough, the fire coding alarm blared throughout the station.

*Piii~ Poo~ Pii~ Poo~*

The watchroom operator glanced at the wall clock. Dammit! It was barely 2am in the morning. But duty calls.

"Station 44, turn out DO pump, CPL and 2 Fire Bikers," said a sharp female voice from the intercom. "Location... Block XXX, Bukit Batok Avenue X, smoke showing from unit, over."

Calmly, he took the intercom mic and responded to the message from the HQ Control Room. Squeaks could be heard from the sliding pole as the firefighters descended from the dormitories and scrambled on to their appliances.

"Roger... PL441, CP441, Fire Bike 441 and 442 responding, over."

The shutter doors were opened.

"Roger..." replied the voice from Control which was followed a flurry of beeps.

The watchroom operator pressed a button and the fire coding alarm blared throughout the station again.

"Good morning Station 44!" greeted the watchroom operator almost cheerfully. "Turn out PL441, CP441, Fire Bike 441, Fire Bike 442 to location..."

He glanced at the cubicon screen for the newly retrieved incident from HQ. Loud roars could now be heard from the engine of the Pump Ladder as the driver warms up the engine. Beacon lights started to flash throughout the engine bay.

"Block XXX, Bukit Batok Avenue X, smoke showing from unit," announced the watchroom operator before activating the fire coding alarm one last time.

With a press of a button, the traffic lights turned red and within a single minute, all four appliances were out racing towards the incident site.

As the siren from the appliances died out from earshot, the watchroom operator closes the shutters. Hoping it was just another false alarm, he slumped on to his chair and monitors the incident closely on his computer screen...

***

And that is how things are usually like for a watchroom operator.

One interesting point that I would like to note is Callsigns. Why is Bukit Batok Fire Station is given the number 44? And how do appliances get their callsigns?

Well, let's take an example - PL441.

The first 2 alphabets represents the appliance. There are all sorts of appliances in the Force. PL refers to a Pump Ladder, your typical fire engine. Following this fashion, FB refers to Fire Bikes and CP referes to Combined Platform Ladders (CPL).

But wait, why CP441 and not CPL441? Cos apparently the cubicon system can only accomodate 2 alphabets for callsigns, so the "L" had to dropped. Same goes to Breathing Apparatus Tenders, Fast Response Paramedics and Tracked Fire Vehicles (Guess their callsigns?)

The first number in the callsign refers to the Division in which the station is in. The whole of Singapore is divided into 4 Divisions.

1st Div - East
2nd Div - South
3rd Div - North
and 4th Div - West

The second number represents the station number in that division. Therefore, the first 2 numbers on an appliance's callsign determines which station does the appliance belong to. In our example, the 44 in PL441 means that PL441 is from the 4th Station of the 4th Division which is non other than Bukit Batok Fire Station.

The last number represents the appliance number in the station. For example, in Station 44, there are 2 PLs, PL441 and PL442. The 1st PL is usually under the command of the Duty Officer of the station while the 2nd PL is under the command of a Non-commissioned Officer. There also 2 Fire Bikes, FB441 and FB442 and 3 ambulances- A441 (pronounced "Alpha 441"), A442 and A443. With exception of the ambulances, appliances are numbered according to their importance ie. who will be in charge if they are dispatched together for the same incident.

Now, by combining all this, we now know that PL441 is the 1st Pump Ladder from Station 44.

Well then, I hope the next time you see a Civil Defence appliance on the roads you can somewhat determine the type of appliance and from which station does it come from!

Here's the list of all the current 13 station callsigns;
11 - Central FS
12 - Alexandra FS
13 - Clementi FS
14 - Jurong Island FS
15 - Bishan FS

21 - Payar Lebar FS
22 - Changi FS
23 - Tampines FS

31 - Yishun FS
32 - Ang Mo Kio FS
33 - Sengkang FS

41 - Jurong FS
42 - Tuas FS
43 - Woodlands FS
44 - Bukit Batok FS

Question: You see A311 zooming along the street. What appliance is that & where does it come from?