Response time as organizational performance of the protection and rescue service

Abstract

The paper proceeds from the fact that the performance of individuals and organizational units (organizations) affect their efficiency. Regarding the protection and rescue units, their key organizational performance is the response time, understood as the duration of time from the moment of receiving the fire warning until the firefighting and rescue team arrives at the place of engagement. The paper analyzes the impact of the response time of the firefighting and rescue unit on the duration of firefighting. For the analysis, operational data on fires for the area of the City of Belgrade (Serbia) were used, over a 24-year period (1986-2009). Data were processed using linear regression (Pearson Correlation) and its nonparametric alternative - Spearman's rank order correlation. It is concluded that the response time of the firefighting and rescue unit to arrive to the place of fire (organizational performance) affects the duration of firefighting, so that the shorter the response time, the shorter time it takes to extinguish the fire, with less damage caused and more goods rescued (organizational efficiency), and vice versa, the longer the response time - the longer the time of firefighting, with greater damage caused and less goods rescued.

Keywords

• fire
• firefighting and rescue teams
• response time
• intervention
• duration of fire fighting