[00:00:01] Speaker A: The Michael Hatfield Re Max team presents real estate and more.
[00:00:06] Speaker B: Bay Area real estate is different than in all of America. And why? What's up with homebuyers? What's on sellers minds? How is the market and much, much more.
[00:00:17] Speaker A: Now here's your host, Michael Hatfield.
[00:00:20] Speaker C: Welcome to our show and thanks for tuning in. We have an incredibly interesting show today.
[00:00:26] Speaker D: And not many people are as well.
[00:00:28] Speaker C: Qualified to speak on the subject as our guest today. He's a returned guest, a very good friend of ours. He is 37 year fire battalion chief on the peninsula, a man who's currently in charge of nine stations and 40 firefighter personnel. And Chief Novelli comes from a family of service to the community. Joe continues to give back to the community through serving as the co founder of the Future Fire Leaders organization. And welcome back, battalion chief Joe Novelli.
[00:00:59] Speaker A: Thanks, Michael. Great to be back with you.
[00:01:01] Speaker C: Oh, it is. Hey, it's been a while since we've talked. It was the 911 show you were on, talking about the services that our local fire departments provided to help assist with the 911 2001 event in New York City. So it's been a little while since we've been talking, but it's always a pleasure to see you and talk about such things. But today we have a very interesting topic that I can't wait to get to. So it's good to speak with you again.
[00:01:29] Speaker A: Yeah. Excited to be back here with you and share some things.
[00:01:31] Speaker C: Absolutely. Well, let's go with talking about your background, what you've been doing for a number of years. And I know how many years, you know, long time. A long time. And what you do now, what your actual focus is. And, you know, we'll take it from there.
[00:01:47] Speaker A: Yeah. So as mentioned, the youngest of five in a family that's been very involved in community service, as you've mentioned. So I first got involved with the fire service back in 1985, and that was my mom's suggestion after raising four other kids and kind of seeing our strengths and weaknesses. Mom was the one that originally said, hey, I think you should look into the fire service. And the interesting thing there was I had no uncles, no siblings. Nobody I knew was in the fire service. So back in 19, 86. 87, worked for Cal Fire and then was hired with the organization I work for now in 1988. And I've been still there and still an active battalion chief working operations as we speak.
[00:02:31] Speaker C: Yeah, I recall our talk with the 911 show, and it had to deal with the guys that went back and serviced, you know, the community of New York when the disaster happened in 2001. It was also interesting to me because I've never been involved in anything like that. You know, pilots don't get involved in that kind of stuff, and that's what I was doing back at the time, so to speak. But you've always been very helpful with coming forward with information that our listeners may be interested in. And, you know, today's subject is something that everybody should be interested in. Our homeowners, our community, our people that live here.
[00:03:11] Speaker A: Here.
[00:03:12] Speaker C: It's just so very important. You don't need water or food until you need it, and you don't need help until you need it. And then when you do disaster services or a 911 call is usually where you go for. So, you know, you've been involved with that for some time. Tell us a little bit about the 911 call services that we have here in the Bay Area, if you would be so kind.
[00:03:37] Speaker A: Yeah, and a lot's changed from back in 1985 till now. Even with the services, the call centers, and even the services that these folks will get in the greater Bay Area, the 911 system is robust.
They've instituted your ability to call 901 through your cell service. Now used to be home, and now your cell calls will be routed to the proper agency.
If I can, Michael, I thought I'd get into some of the services we provided then and what people can expect now.
[00:04:10] Speaker C: Absolutely.
[00:04:11] Speaker A: Please do so. Statistically, for a lot of people, they won't call me. It's. It's a very difficult number to come up with because you could take the, the sheer population in the United States, and then you can kind of do some arithmetic, which I'm not really good at, but, you know, it's kind of an odd thing to come up with, but what we've, what I've realized in the 37 years at my agency and almost 40 years overall, is a lot of people will never call 911. And when they do, most are shocked to learn how many services are available for them.
So back in 87, when we first got hired, I was a new recruit, and I was welcomed very graciously by the department because I was this new kid out of the block that had this title called an EMT. I was emergency medical technician. And so when I showed up, we had a tackle box, literally a fishing tackle box with some first aid gear, and we had an oxygen container, and we'd show up to medicals and provide service to give the listeners perspective. What's changed back in 87? 88, and don't quote me on the exact number, but we ran roughly 1000 to 1100 calls for the entire year for our organization. And just recently, at the end of 2023, we're running over 19,000 calls. And so one would think, has that, has your population gone up 19 fold?
And we haven't. It hasn't. I think it's gone up by 20,000 people over all those years. So the bigger question is what has changed in the need and the calling of 911 for service? But if you're okay, I'd like to kind of get into what people can expect. So for a lot of people, when you call 911, I want them to feel comfortable with what to expect, especially some of the younger folks out there that are listening. And maybe some of us are getting a little older, like myself or even a bit older, like, like my mom and such. So when you call 911, the first thing you're going to do is you're going to be, the call's going to be answered by one of two folks, right, maybe three, a local police agency. It might get routed to them and then they reroute that to the dispatch center. That's going to serve for your needs. Maybe it's, we're talking about fire service or you might go through a CHP call center that they receive it through your cell phone because so many of us use our cell phones. And then they'll go ahead and reroute that as well. And oftentimes I want your listeners to be comfortable with hearing a couple voices on the background. So, you know, if they answer your call, they're going to transfer that to another call center. They're all staying on there to make sure that call doesn't get dropped. And then another call taker will come up and go, hey, what's your emergency? Okay, so once they do that, they're going to give you a list of questions to try to determine what's taking place. What is your emergency? What have you witnessed? Right. It could be. And we'll get into the type of services if you want, later on. But they're going to ask you a whole bunch of questions. Now. I don't want them to think that's a delay in service. Oftentimes your address will come up or if you give a stated address, they're typing in this information as that's being received, and oftentimes they're punching out that particular engine company or fire station, even the ambulance company, to get them up. Alert. Amazing. Yeah. It's all based on time frames. Right? And so that's how the 911 system takes place. I'd love to kind of discuss what they can expect as people arrive. Right. Because oftentimes they're like, okay, I see this fire engine and most of them are red and they're very clean more often than not, which we require. But I want people to expect to understand what can they expect as these.
[00:08:00] Speaker C: Folks pull in and go ahead, I have a question. There's a, San Ramona Valley has apparently a change in policy. If they have, they actually try to determine first, do they call the police or do they call the fire department first? And before a lot of the calls were going to the police, the police were having to respond, but now they've changed their program to where the fire department is responding first in a lot of those occasions. Is there a move towards that where you are in the peninsula?
[00:08:31] Speaker A: Yeah, I think there is because I think just like our call numbers have gone up, I think the services for the police agencies has gone up as well. And so I think that's based on individual cities. But one of our cities that we provide service for has a police officer that shows up to every call, but the other two cities don't. And I don't know if that's a drawdown on the number of calls they got or that's just an individual city policy, but I think it's going to be really dependent on where you live. And that would be nice to know, but it's really dependent on what city you work in. And like you said, the dispatcher, how they're going to determine what are the needs. Is there a call that's violent in nature or somebody maybe challenging with, are they confused? And so they'll send PD out there as well to assist with the fire service.
[00:09:20] Speaker C: So nowadays when the call comes in, it's actually assessed and they can say, well, you know, this is a fire in this area on Maple street, and they're actually punching in a number for the fire department to respond with the appropriate closest department. Is that how that works?
[00:09:37] Speaker A: Yes. Wow. So they'll pour you in there and it's all automated. They'll even do what's called a type code. So if it's a particular fire or a vehicle accident or medical, it'll come up with be who's responsible to respond. And then it's all automated to go ahead and hit that dispatch system. It alerts us whether we're on the air, driving around, doing inspections or in quarters, it alerts them.
And so, you know, I do want to say this, and a great example of what your, your fire service is providing nowadays and certainly changes that we've, we've experienced. I've experienced, to give you an example that's really descriptive, I think that people can, can connect with. There are 56 fire stations in the county that I work with, which is the peninsula, and it's very similar in East Bay, North Bay, South Bay, there's 56 stations. Each one of those stations has a fire engine in it. And each one of those stations, for the most part, has a paramedic firefighter on that fire engine. So we provide kind of what we consider as an all risk service delivery system, certainly in the greater Bay Area. So when that call comes in, our goal, and certainly council members and the fire chiefs and the EMS folks, we want to get there as soon as we can. So there's standards. Right. For our industry, it's less than seven minutes. We want to, from the time the call comes in to the time we get on scene. So to describe the changes that have taken place in the greater Bay area, we are providing a robust service with paramedicine. So we can deal with anything from any medical call, from a broken arm to a heart attack, to shortness of breath. And we have all the medications and the ability to put an airway into your throat like they do at the hospital, administer morphine or different drugs to kind of address that. But I want to hit this number. There are 56 stations in the county that have paramedics now. So 20 years ago they didn't, but now they have paramedics on every engine company. So the level of service that are being provided to the general public, be it at your home or work or freeway, is significantly different. Now, any time in that same county, there could be nine to twelve, nine to 13 ambulances that are going to transport those people from your house to the hospital. So the difference is glaring, right, nine to twelve versus 56. Now, we work in conjunction with each other, but you can see just the sheer number of available fire engines with paramedics is significant. And that really benefits all of us because you're getting that trained personnel with all those medications to show up in a lot quicker time than before. Now, I should say this, and then I'll.
[00:12:22] Speaker C: Let me talk.
[00:12:24] Speaker A: I'll let you continue the show. It is really interesting where, you know, some cities provide transport, like you said. Over here in San Ramon, they have the firefighters and they have their own transport agency within their fire department. Others are contracted out. So it's really, it varies.
[00:12:42] Speaker C: We're going to take a short break.
[00:12:43] Speaker A: We'll be right back.
[00:12:48] Speaker E: Michael, why choose an experienced agent.
[00:12:50] Speaker F: Complex issues arise in a home buy or sell. Your agent guides you through issues in multiple offer situations. First time home buyer needs problems with inspections, financing and escrow experience. Agents sort and then solve problems.
[00:13:04] Speaker E: Do agents work differently now than in prior years?
[00:13:07] Speaker F: Buyers used to go to an office, thumb through a book, see pictures, then decide which homes to see. Nowadays, buyers identify properties themselves online so today's agent can focus on more critical priorities.
[00:13:19] Speaker E: How do you help clients?
[00:13:20] Speaker F: Michael we work with investment properties. Multiple offers, first time home buyers, sellers 1031 tax exchanges and relocations experience is pivotal.
[00:13:29] Speaker E: Call 925-32-2775 now to schedule an appointment or complimentary home analysis. Call the Michael Hatfield remax team at 925-32-2775 or go to michaelhatfieldhomes.com dot.
[00:13:54] Speaker C: The world of Bay Area real estate can be challenging. Buying, selling, renting, loan rates and more. To help sort all that out, listen to Michael Hatfield hosts real estate and.
[00:14:05] Speaker F: More Saturday mornings at nine, right here on KGO 810.
[00:14:08] Speaker C: The spread.
Now back to our show.
I understand, you know, ladies and gentlemen, we're speaking with battalion chief Joe Novelli, San Mateo on the peninsula, in charge of a lot of the nice eleven emergency services, sharing with us today what he knows, which is considerable from his 37 years of experience and community service. So we'll continue on. Now, I have a question. What about the incident response or the incident command system? How is that activated? Let's just say that some large scale event were to happen in the Bay area and then you get a call to 911.
And how is that determined? Okay, well, this is going to require large scale response, like a large earthquake or a significantly large one, other than, you know, someone passes out on the corner, how is that determined?
[00:15:06] Speaker A: Yeah. And so it's a system that we use that people are trained on throughout the whole country, right. It's called incident command system. And it really provides a, almost like a pyramid of sorts where you have a group of people that are working for us. It's a whole bunch of fire engines and ladder trucks and maybe ambulances that show up. And then at the top of that is the incident commander. And depending on the size of the call and depending on the availability of battalion chiefs like me that work in operations that are there 48 hours, you know, two days on, four days off. And those shifts vary around the barrier as well. But depending on who shows up, somebody establishes themselves as the commander or incident command and then everything kind of goes through them. The updates, what we're seeing, if you're saying like it's an earthquake and there's a significant building fire, there will be an incident commander that's pulling more resources in and then starts to kind of distribute and call for additional things, additional ambulances. I need a crane. I need six more fire engines. An earthquake is not the best example because you know that's going to be damaged throughout the whole community. I hope not too much, but a significant fire while in fire, a specific flood of sorts where it's isolated part of the city or town, that's where we go ahead and deploy that instant command system we're talking about.
[00:16:25] Speaker C: Yeah, I remember the last time we were here, we were talking about the 911 and the response to that, and the communications were not optimal. I imagine that's come a long way since 911 event back in 2001. Would you agree?
[00:16:40] Speaker A: I would agree, yeah. There was lots of work and funding that went into have more agencies, agencies being able to talk to themselves on a whole bunch of different channels. And so, yeah, I think it has improved. I don't know if it's been tested since then, but I know there's lots of programs and policies and technology that have been purchased to kind of improve that.
[00:17:01] Speaker C: So you're right on top of that in what you do.
You're actually, I wouldn't say an administrator, but you're the actual manager of these disaster services in your area, I would think. And you would be one of the guys that would make the decision. Okay, well, do we activate the large scale response or is this just a local? Am I off on that or.
[00:17:23] Speaker A: No, you're spot on. You are. And so there's, as mentioned, there's different ranks. There's the firefighters and there's paramedics. There's typical what we call engineers, people that drive the fire engines or the big ladder trucks. And then you have a captain, like a lieutenant that's in charge of a particular station. And then you have folks like me that are labeled battalion chiefs that are operational battalion chiefs. So we actually live with the men and women that are on duty, and then we respond to calls. And not the fancy fire engine or fancy truck. It's typically an suv of sorts or a truck. And then we'll take command. Now, as those events get bigger, then we're the ones that are calling for additional resources.
What's great about the greater Bay Area is we have all those agreements in place, whether it's mutual aid, where we can call for as many resources as we need, we can call for strike teams, we can call for additional resources as this thing grows to ultimately help us to mitigate and protect life and property.
And it's been flexed here in California many times.
It started for me back in the Loma Prieta earthquake when I was on duty at station 23 in 1989. And then we flexed that system as a real young man.
[00:18:41] Speaker C: Well, I remember when the US Airways 1549 lost both engines after a complete power loss over the Hudson, and they put their airplane in there. It took a while, which is really a lesson for all of us, for the recognition of the captain in the seat to determine what did you really have? Because there'd never really been a full power loss like that. So he has to assess, well, can I get one back or can I not get one back? Can I make it to Teterboro? Can I get back to LaGuardia or somewhere like that? The recognition, the human factor right there has got to be a segment of time. So from the time that a call comes in from 911 to the time that it's being responded to, it has to be assessed very clearly. And that's why they need people like you and I imagine.
[00:19:34] Speaker A: Yeah. And it's always, you know, the simulations that you have gone through, I'm sure for hours and hours and hours that particular pilot went through. And we do the same thing. Right? We're constantly troubleshooting. What do we see, what do we have? And we're gathering information from our folks through 911 calls and it's head on the swivel. And as that information comes in, we continue to make decisions, again, focusing on life safety and trying to get people removed from the building through ladders or interior searches and rescues. And so, yeah, it really depends on the information that's coming in. And the first ten or 15 minutes of any incident in any town, USA, is the most challenging for folks in my position, or first due officers like lieutenants and captains, they are on the ground trying to determine what's taking place, and there's methodologies that they use to do that. There's doing a 360 around a building and they're reading smoke. You know, one smoke condition looks completely different than another, and we can determine how much energy is behind that smoke, color smoke, which could really help us determine what is burning and how much power is behind that and how quickly that's spreading. So there's lots of details that we can go through that I'm sure you can as a pilot as well, that's going to help us determine that.
[00:20:54] Speaker C: Well, that assessment period is absolutely critical because with an airliner you have pages and pages of immediate response procedures.
Believe it or not, some people think that these airplanes fly themselves, but there is an element of a human factor in there that is absolutely critical. You would not leave a machine. Well, they talk a lot about artificial intelligence nowadays, but I like the idea that there's a human person involved in making decisions. Well, do I call out these other three companies, or do I call the police or do I call out the military? Because if you recall correctly, when we were talking about 911, there was one guy calling, he says, call out the military. You remember that? And we were listening to the communications during that show. And so that human factor of being able to make those decisions quickly is something that you guys are underpaid for, in my view.
[00:21:54] Speaker A: Yeah. That comes with time on the job and experience seen, you know, multiple calls. Some people would describe it as this slight carousel you have in your. In your head. Right. And all these different experiences you've had. And after 39 years, I've had a ton. I don't think it's ever enough. But when responding to the Loma Peretta earthquake, or I was at the Oakland Hills fire, or the Tubbs fire in Napa, or the campfire in the paradise, you know, I go on and on through these list of fires that. That I've responded to and taken significant cruise to. You learn a lot, and it's catastrophic, and it's sad and it's damaging, and it creates scar tissue into your heart. But the flip side of that is, I watch men and women make a huge difference with what we do.
And I might be alone in saying this, but I truly think it's one of the last lines of work where you walk into somebody's house and there's a significant amount of trust when you walk in. And I always stress that with our new hires, with our company officers, which are amazing people, but we can't take advantage of that. You have to realize, when you're walking into somebody's home, I think the trust factor continues to be amazing, that they. They know you're going to make something better and they trust you. Right. And because we're grounded with our service delivery model, our business is delivering service and hope. We know that that's what we do, and we can't ever lose sight of that. And as we hire new people, we have to constantly have them see through those lenses that we can't ruin that. And we have to honor that, because it's something that can be lost right away.
[00:23:37] Speaker C: Being a firefighter, you're gonna see a lot of things are there any programs now to help with PTSD from seeing some of the things that they see, you know, that they see a lot. And is there any better programs for firefighters to help them when they deal with these emotional type situations?
[00:23:56] Speaker A: There is. And sadly, it came about because of our, you know, in the fire service only. That's like, that's the only numbers I can speak to. Our, our rate of suicides are, has spiked. It has gone up tremendously. And it makes sense, Michael, when you think about 1100 calls in 1988 and 19,000 calls a year now, we're being exposed to a lot more trauma.
And we're like, as I mentioned, we're an all risk agency. You call 911 for anything, we're responding to it. So we've always had what they call as like EAP employee assistant programs. But now we have programs that are called fire strong. They're training firefighters around the country to actually support others. Right. And so we have networks of resources available for them to call. I can talk to somebody that's a captain in a different city. I can share my struggles with a potential suicide call that I ran on or perhaps a baby that didn't survive. I had that very early on. I had a Sid's death with a baby that I was doing CPR probably my first year and a half in, and the baby didn't survive. But I, it's still impactful to me now, all these years later. And it's interesting to, I still can't recall a certain section, a moment in time when I was running out with the baby into the ambulance and I was still doing CPR all the way to the hospital. I can't recall running out. I, of just, I don't. And so taking advantage of these services should no longer be considered weak or not, you know, not manly or womanly, to quote both sexes.
We want people taking advantage of it. And so the International association of Firefighters and Local Agencies and certainly our organization has taken its head on and I think we're going to benefit from, from that long term. I really do.
[00:25:56] Speaker C: Unbelievable. It's so much a pleasure to have you on the show today. Is there some thoughts that you would like to add to that to help us conclude, Chief Novelli?
[00:26:06] Speaker A: No, I think it's just great. There's a few things that I wanted to share with your audience, things that you can make a huge impact into the community.
First and foremost, get on whatever Internet site that you prefer and pull up what's called an automatic external defibrillator. Look at an AED there's probably a three minute video on airplanes, too. On airplanes, too. And, you know, you can have your, your kids in junior high all the way up to your mom, look at how an AED works because that is a, a piece of equipment that you're going to find at parks, on airplanes, in airports, malls. They're everywhere, in restaurants. And it can make a significant difference in somebody's life. And so it's an easy skill to learn. So that's the first thing I tell you to do. Second thing is continue to try to get CPR trained. And the last thing I would tell them to do is check your smoke detectors because the impact with a new battery in your smoke detector is, is massive. It could save your family's life. And we've seen where people have taken them out, and it doesn't go well. So please take on those three challenges over the next couple months to see if can make a huge impact to your community.
[00:27:13] Speaker C: All very good, good things to know. And, boy, we're so grateful that you came back on the show today and, and help us with these. We're going to have to have you back and, and share some more as the time goes on. So thank you again for being on the show today. Chief Novelli. Appreciate it, Michael.
[00:27:29] Speaker A: Yeah. Thanks for having me.
[00:27:30] Speaker C: Thank you, sir.
[00:27:31] Speaker D: Not many people are as well qualified to speak on fire and rescue as this man.
It's time for a short break. You've been listening to real estate and more interesting people, important topics, and we do talk real estate, listen to archive real estate and more
[email protected]. Radio we'll be right back with our next special guest.
[00:27:54] Speaker A: Stay tuned.
