Rock Down To Electric Avenue

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According to the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch^® (IAED^™) Data Center, from April 2022 to April 2025, Fire Priority Dispatch System^™ (FPDS^®) Protocol 55: Electrical Hazard was used to triage 109,682 calls out of the 2.12 million collected from 175 agencies across the globe. The majority of those events were assigned a BRAVO priority level (67%), followed by CHARLIE (27%), ALPHA (5%), and then DELTA (1%). It’s in the top 10 most commonly used Chief Complaints, right after Protocol 60: Gas Leak/Gas Odor (Natural and LP Gases) and before Protocol 82: Vegetation/Wildland/Brush/Grass Fire.

Because of its common usage, it’s likely that as an Emergency Fire Dispatcher (EFD), you’re already familiar with this Chief Complaint. However, you might not be aware of some changes that were made to it in recent updates. This article will make sure that the first time you learn about these revisions is not when someone calls with an emergency.

Proposals for Change

You might know that any updates to the protocols suggested by members are submitted as Proposals for Change (PFCs), but did you also know that the same method applies for changes suggested by subject matter experts or members of the standards committee? By clearly laying out the proposed modification along with any supporting data or anecdotes, the IAED ensures that there is always proper documentation, safeguarding the protocols so they stay evidence-based and up to industry standards.

Some of the PFCs submitted regarding Protocol 55: Electrical Hazard were specifically about what to do when trees or other objects are blown into power lines. This situation is different from wires down both with or without smoke or ARCING (which is defined in the protocol as “a luminous discharge of current that is formed when a strong current jumps a gap in a circuit or between two electrodes”). These situations are now handled with 55-C-2 “Trees/Objects into power lines/ wires with fire/smoke or ARCING” or 55-B-4 “Trees/Objects into power lines/wires without fire/smoke or ARCING.”

Another PFC that resulted in a change was updating the wording of Determinant Code 55-A-1 from “Transformer outside (wire or pole)” to “Transformer problem (investigation).” An example of this is receiving a call from someone who lives near a power plant during a windstorm. The caller says that the transformer blew and made a loud bang, but it’s not showing signs of ARCING and there’s no smoke coming from it. Although the fire department will still want to take a look into whatever caused the noise, it might not be as high a priority as some of the other weather-related emergencies. The updated Determinant Code 55-A-1 “Transformer problem (investigation)” allows the fire department to send a single engine/apparatus in a COLD response.

If the caller does report ARCING and you use Determinant Code 55-B-1 “Electrical ARCING,” the fire department might still send a single engine response, but they have the option to run HOT because of the presence of—and potential hazard presented by—ARCING.

Scene safety and suffixes

Electricity can be extremely dangerous. On average there are 150 reported workplace fatalities due to electrocution in the United States every year. In 2021 and 2022, there were 3,260 non-fatal electrical injuries reported that resulted in days away from work. While stricter safety laws and better building codes have decreased those numbers by nearly half since 1990, electrical issues still present a considerable hazard to workers and civilians alike.¹

Although the number of Key Questions on this protocol remains the same, their order has been shifted to better account for the dangers to life and limb presented by electricity. After asking the caller if they see flames or smoke and receiving a “no” to both, you will ask if anyone is in contact with the electrical hazard. If the answer is yes, you’ll ask how many, and then you’ll ask if there are any other injured people at the scene.

A big part of ensuring scene safety in these cases is being aware of any water involved with or near it. Because water conducts electricity, the reach of the electrical hazard is much farther than it would otherwise be. In previous versions of the FPDS, if there was anything in or near water, EFDs were tied to a singular Determinant Code. The presence of water is now denoted with three new suffixes: suffix W means that there is water involved with or near the hazard, suffix S means that water is involved with or near the hazard and there is a Single (other) injured person, and suffix T means that water is involved with or near the hazard and there are Multiple (other) injured people.

The introduction of these suffixes means that individual fire agencies have flexibility to respond to unique and expansive situations in the way that makes the most sense for their agency. In FPDS v7.0, if you received a report of a flooded solar farm, you would have chosen 55-C-1 “Electrical hazard with or near water” and included the fact that it was at a solar farm in your notes to the responders. Now you can choose a Determinant Code that better fits the location and details of the emergency (55- C-5 “Solar farm”) while also addressing the fact that the presence of water will inform how responders handle the situation and what resources they will bring to the scene.

In instances when water isn’t involved, suffix X still indicates that there is a Single (other) injured person and suffix Y still indicates Multiple (other) injured persons.

Determinant Codes

As previously stated in the introduction, DELTA-level Determinant Codes make up around 1% of calls handled on Protocol 55: Electrical Hazard. Being able to assign calls to a DELTA priority level is also a product of the recent updates: The new Determinant Codes are 55-D-1 “Multiple persons in contact with electrical hazard” and 55-D- 2 “Single person in contact with electrical hazard.” After receiving the caller’s answers for the first four Key Questions, you will dispatch the applicable DELTA-level code.

Remember that being in contact with an electrical hazard doesn’t always mean the victim or victims have been electrocuted. The new DELTA-level Determinant Codes indicate high potential for electrocution—for the caller and the responding firefighters.

“We had a suffix in FPDS v7.0 that said, ‘This person is in contact with it,’” said Angela Burrer, Priority Dispatch Corp.™ (PDC™) Implementations Project Manager. “So we wanted to know how to convey a sense of urgency to the firefighters. How do we add a specific Determinant Code to add more information for the responders?”

For example, say a family of four is driving in a vehicle and it comes in contact with a downed power line on the road. They call 911 and are told to stay in the car since they are trapped by the power line and it’s not safe for them to leave. They haven’t been electrocuted, but they are in contact with a big electrical hazard. You would assign this call 55-D-1 “Multiple persons in contact with electrical hazard.”

“There are people in the car who are in danger, and the situation can change at a moment's notice,” Burrer said. “What we did was give the fire departments the ability to respond to those situations with a heightened level of awareness.”

Conclusion

While most FPDS Protocols can be divided into incidents confined to either inside (Protocol 69: Structure Fire) or outside (Protocol 82: Vegetation/Wildland/Brush/ Grass Fire), remember that Protocol 55: Electrical Hazard can apply to both situations. While ARCING is more likely to happen in concealed spaces (as per Axiom 8 in FPDS v8), it can also occur in living spaces or outside. Stay sharp by running some test calls and make sure that you’re ready when your next electrical hazard emergency comes in.

Source

1. Majano D. “Workplace Injury & Fatality Statistics.” Electrical Safety Foundation International. 2025; March 23. esfi.org/workplace-safety/workplace-injury-fatality-statistics (accessed May 12, 2025).