The Emergency Call Log is a quick report to document an emergency response to a false fire alarm, or to record your periodic fire drills during which the alarm system is activated as a test so that you may assess response times from EMS and fire personnel and make improvements as needed.
We often are asked, why not simply write an incident report for these fire drills and false alarms?
There are many reasons to log these activities here as opposed to writing an incident report (IR) and classifying it as a "Code 1" or "Code Red". First, when you classify an IR as a fire, this data rolls up in SOVA into the same charts and graphs as an actual fire. This can skew your data significantly, especially if you conduct multiple pull station alarm tests monthly, like many of our clients. Next, If you have added tasks to SOVA like "Fire Alarm Response" and have optionally set those tasks as Critical, or if your IR classification for Code Red is set to Critical, when your officers record these tasks and incidents these 'Critical Tasks" and "Critical IR's" can automatically generate emails and SMS messages to recipients listed in the Communication screen, if you have setup notifications in that manner. So recipients could be notified as if the drill were a real fire. Avoid the "Cry Wolf" effect, and log fire drills as an emergency call log instead.
Here is how you create an Emergency Call Log:
TIP: If there is an actual fire at your place of business, it's recommended to complete an incident report instead, and mark that incident type as "Critical" so your emergency response team (ERT) members can be notified of these events. Make sure the ERT members are listed in the correct tab in the Communication screen.