At approximately 11 p.m. last Saturday night, Levittown firefighters got a call regarding a working house fire on Southberry Lane in Levittown. Upon receiving the call, firefighters learned that the fire was spreading on the second floor of the home and that at least one victim was possibly trapped inside. The report was initially reported by Nassau County Police Department patrol officers.

Levittown Deputy Chief Mark Janovsky established a command post upon his arrival and Chief John Rottkamp arrived minutes later and assumed command. This fire, which could have possibly ended with a fatality, was extinguished quickly and a life may have been saved thanks to a new system currently being used by the Levittown Fire Department.

As recently as a year ago, anytime somebody would call 911, the call would go to the police department, who would gather the information and then call Firecom, a company which alerts fire departments of emergency situations, who would then forward the information to the Levittown Fire Department and provide them with the information.

"At this time, police are already dispatched, our dispatcher would be getting the information, writing it down, and then alerting us," Chief Rottkamp said. "So sometimes, three, four or five minutes have gone by waiting for this transfer of information."

Since even seconds, let alone minutes, could be critical in an emergency situation, Chief Rottkamp contacted Firecom about a year ago to see if there was a way that the procedure could be changed. In January, the department started receiving calls directly from Firecom first, before the company contacted the department's dispatcher, allowing firefighters to arrive at a scene earlier than before.

"I had meetings with Firecom and [asked them] to alert us right away and then our dispatcher would take over the alarm. This way, our guys are already responding prior to our dispatcher even knowing that we have [an emergency]," Chief Rottkamp explained, noting that this new system may have very well saved the life of the resident trapped in the Southberry Lane fire last weekend.

In this case, Firecom notified the department of a house fire with people possibly trapped inside. The police department pulled up to the scene, as did ex-Chief Tim Courtney and a supervisor of the Nassau County Police Ambulance Bureau and got a report that somebody was trapped upstairs. Chief Rottkamp further noted that the trapped woman was found on the second story of the home and was taken outside where they began doing CPR on the woman. The victim was then transported by ambulance, together with the officer who found her, to the hospital.

"Because of the fact that Firecom alerted us right away, that brought our apparatus and manpower there quicker," Chief Rottkamp said, noting that the few minutes that were saved by Firecom alerting the department immediately of the fire may have very well saved this woman's life.

Chief Rottkamp noted that the department implemented this system in January and was working to instate it for six months prior. He further added that the department started to use this system to respond to car accidents about two years ago. He said that in the past, firefighters would pull up to the scene of a car accident with their heavy rescue equipment and the victims would sometimes already be in the process of being loaded into ambulances.

"We would pull up and say 'wait a second, this is way too long of a delay.' So we changed it to just car accidents, that Firecom alerts the Wantagh/Levittown Volunteer Ambulance Corps and us at the same time, which made a big difference. So I said we should do it for everything. It really works, we're getting there in a timely fashion," Chief Rottkamp said. "Firecom alerts us initially so the firemen are now responding while Firecom calls our dispatcher and gives them all the particulars."

The chief added that the police department did a great job in getting to the scene quickly, as did members of his department. In addition, he added that the Ladies Auxiliary responded immediately and brought down coffee and water in the middle of the night.

"They all did a great job," Chief Rottkamp said. "Luckily it had a happy ending. We're trying to be very proactive to best help the community as well as possible. I think this measure may have helped save this woman's life."