CODES

Codes and Acronyms *

A## Ambulance (e.g., A2 = Ambulance 2)

A/A Auto Aid or Automobile Accident

AFA Automatic Fire Alarm

ALS Advanced Life Support; medical treatment with higher level procedures (IV or intravenous, endotracheal intubation for airway, defibrillation, etc.) compare to BLS Basic Life Support.

AMA Against Medical Advice or medical refusal. Sometimes just called a refusal. Legal coverage term might be used when truly against medical advice, but is also used when there are no apparent injuries.

APERN Area Police Emergency Radio Network use mostly in north shore and near north Chicago suburbs.

Apparatus Numbers
See also ...
fire.chicagofiremap.net
ems.chicagofiremap.net
rescue.chicagofiremap.net
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A## Ambulance (e.g., A2 = Ambulance 2)
BC## Battalion Chief Vehicle (BC2)
E## Engine (e.g., E2 = Engine 2)
R## Rescue (R2 = Rescue 2)
S## Squad (e.g., S2 = Squad 2)
SQD## Squad (e.g., SQD2 = Squad 2)
T## Truck (e.g., T2 = Truck 2)
TL## Tower Ladder (e.g., TL = Tower Ladder 2)
TNK## Tanker or Tender (TNK2 = Tanker 2)
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ARA Automatic Response Agreement for "Auto Aid"

BC Battalion Chief -- a commanding officer at a fire station and often the commanding officer at a scene.

BC## Battalion Chief Vehicle (BC2)

CAD Computer Aided Dispatch

CCSPD Cook County Sheriff's Police Department

Code Colors (Triage)
See TRIAGE CODES below ...
Code Green
Code Yellow
Code Red

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TRIAGE CODES
Chicago Fire Department and area suburban fire departments use color coded tags to triage victims for treatment and transportation demands. Many times the physical tags aren't used. For example if there are three victims from a crash, the paramedic's or battalion chief's radio callout might use the sentence "Two Code Red and one Code Yellow" with no actual tags used. In a true multi-casualty setup, the tags are used. Some departments on routine calls simply use the term ALS or BLS patient or Level I patient -- indicating patient meets criteria for transportation to a Level I Trauma Center hospital.

RED TAGS - IMMEDIATE ADVANCED LIFE SUPPORT REQUIRED for victims who cannot survive without immediate treatment, but have a chance of survival. Often synonymous with critical condition or life-threatening.

YELLOW TAGS - Victims are treated and under observation for indication of worsening condition. 'Yellows' are not in immediate danger of death and are considered stable, unless observations prove otherwise. These victims will still require hospital care and would be treated immediately under normal circumstances without the overload of a mass casualty situation. Often synonymous with serious condition, but not life-threatening.

GREEN TAGS - Victims are ambulatory. The victims can wait for treatment and are considered "walking wounded" who will need medical care at some point, after more critical injuries have been treated in a mass casualty situation. Often synonymous with "Good Condition" and not life-threatening.

BLACK TAGS - Victims are deceased or have obvious fatal injuries that are so extensive they are not likely to survive given the care or resources that are available. Resources would be more likely to go to care for 'Reds' in a mass casualty situation.

WHITE TAGS - Victims are dismissed with minor injuries with no requirement of a doctor's care. White tags are not used in common practice (included for academic purposes).

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Code Number (Incidents)
Code numbers are used by some, but not all suburbs. For the complete information on fire, rescue, EMS assignment levels for Chicago and suburbs, see radio.chicagofiremap.net.

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Code 1 is an ambulance call for a psychiatric emergencies or medical emergencies due to trauma, injury or illness. Response is often one ambulance and one rescue squad or advanced life support fire engine. Often the ambulance crew will call off the additional help if the medical emergency is minor.

Code 2 is a fire that does not involve or threaten a residential or commercial structure or other non-fire emergency or public service call. Code 2 calls include car fires, dumpster fires, outside burns, lockouts of infants, etc. If a vehicle is close to a house or building and is threatening the building, then the alarm is a Code 3.

Code 3 Automatic Fire Alarm is an activated fire alarm with no confirmation of a fire. The fire engine or ladder truck that is first due to the address responds 'hot' with lights and sirens, but all other vehicles -- usually another fire engine and a rescue squad -- respond 'cold' (without lights and sirens and stopping at red lights and stop signs, etc). Some suburbs refer to automatic fire alarms as Code 3A calls.

Code 3 is a report of a fire. The response is usually a tower ladder, two fire engines, a rescue squad and an ambulance. Some fire departments use a quint instead of an engine or tower ladder vehicle. If the 9-1-1 center receives multiple calls or a credible report that a person is trapped or some other indication that the fire is well-involved, the alarm is upgraded to a Code 4 before firefighters arrive on the scene. Some smaller structure fires and even house fires remain at the Code 3 level.

Code 4 is a report of a working fire. It is usually called by an officer at the scene of a Code 3 under conditions of a working fire. Most Code 4 responses are extinguished within about 15 to 45 minutes. A Code 4 involves a response that moves a third fire engine to the scene or a nearby fire station, and brings one or two fire engines or ladder towers or quints from an adjacent community. The responses depend on the size of the community and how many fire stations a community operates. A community with five fire stations might not need assistance on a Code 4. A community with two or three fire stations is more likely to need assistance from another community for the third and fourth apparatus response.

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CMD Command

CO Carbon Monoxide

COQ Change Of Quarters

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Directions Shorthand
JSO Just South Of
JNO Just North Of
JWO Just West Of
JEO Just East Of
EO East of
SO South of
WO West of
NO North of
IAO -In Area Of

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DOA Dead on Arrival (compare to Triple Zero)

E## Engine (e.g., E2 = Engine 2)

FD Fire Department

E## Engine (e.g., E2 = Engine 2)

EMS Emergency Medical Service

FFL Flight For Life or medevac medical helicopter transport.

HazMat Hazardous Materials

IC Incident Command

IFERN Interagency Fire Emergency Radio Network (formerly NIFERN or Northern Illinois Emergency Radio Network) used to assign MABAS mutual aid fire, rescue, EMS units to major fires or disasters on

ILEAS Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System mutual aid plan and response for major police and disaster incidents (www.ileas.org).

IREACH Illinois Regional Emergency Answering Channel used for interagency emergency notification and helicopter to ground communications.

ISPERN Illinois State Police Emergency Radio Network used to broadcast All Points Bulletins, pursuits, major crime incident notifications, and other alerts, etc.

The following eight types of ISPERN communications are listed in priority ranking:
1. emergency;
2. disaster;
3. pursuits;
4. criminal/traffic offense or missing persons;
5. hit alerts;
6. mobile-to-mobile coordination;
7. itinerant;
8. testing.



LCSO Lake County Sheriff's Office

LSO Line Stretched & Operating (hose line led out)

LZ Landing Zone for medical helicopter or police helicopter

M/A Mutual Aid

MABAS Mutual Aid Box Alarm System -- a system of box alarm assignments that are pre-planned responses according to geographic areas and specific type of responses (large fire, hazmat, water rescue/recovery, major crash, mass casualty, etc)

MCAT Major Case Assistance Team used for major crashes and violent crime investigation

MCAT Major Crash Assistance Team (of Lake County) for major accident investigation

MCI Mass Casualty Incident

MDT Mobile Data Terminal used to transmit information from dispatch to mobile vehicles. Especially effective for transmitting private information that should not be transmitted over public radio airwaves. MDTs also transmit frequently used communications, such as ENROUTE, ON SCENE, TRANSPORTING TO HOSPITAL, AVAILABLE. Also has been known as a KDT.

MERCI Medical Emergency Radio Communications for Illinois used by paramedics to communicate with hospitals -- usually BLS calls.

MICU Mobile Intensive Care Unit

MVA Motor Vehicle Accident

MVC Motor Vehicle Collision

NIPAS Northern Illinois Police Alarm System (Level 1 requires five officers to respond; Level 10 requires fifty). Special teams include Emergency Services Team (for hostage/barricade incidents, high-risk warrant service, major crime scene searches, search and rescue missions, dignitary protection) and Mobile Field Force (for major civil disturbances, union conflicts, public demonstrations, and other events involving large or disorderly crowds).

NWCDS Northwest Central Dispatch System for fire, EMS, police for Arlington Heights, Buffalo Grove, Elk Grove Village, Hoffman Estates, Mount Prospect, Palatine, Prospect Heights (police only), Rolling Meadows, Schaumburg, Streamwood

O/S On-Scene

PD Police

PNB Pulseless Non Breather

R## Rescue (R2 = Rescue 2)

RIT Rapid Intervention Team -- a team that is ready to rescue firefighters that are trapped or have become incapacitated while on a fire or rescue assignment.

S## Squad (e.g., S2 = Squad 2)

SQD## Squad (e.g., SQD2 = Squad 2)

T## Truck (e.g., T2 = Truck 2)

TL## Tower Ladder (e.g., TL = Tower Ladder 2)

TNK## Tanker or Tender (TNK2 = Tanker 2)

TKO IV To Keep Open for quick infusion of medication.

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Triple Zero No vital signs and irreversible biological death, indicated by a patient who is unconscious, non-breathing, pulseless, has no breath or heart sounds and exhibits one or more of the following long-term indications of death:

A. Decapitation or essential decapitation
B. Thoracic/abdominal transection
C. Massive cranial/cerebral destruction with brain extruded from open skull
D. Rigor mortis without profound hypothermia
E. Profound (widespread) dependent lividity
F. Skin decomposition
G. Mummification or dehydration, especially in infants
H. Putrification or putrefaction
I. Incineration
J. Frozen state
K. Trauma where CPR is impossible

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U/D Update

Y/O Year Old


* Updated 2/19/2016