Case Study: How Fairfield Fire Went from a Two-Month Pilot to a Department-Wide Agreement

Fairfield Fire Department (FFD) serves a mid-sized California city where people speak many languages. Like most fire departments, its crews are often first on scene. That created a problem they faced again and again.

The problem: first on scene, last to communicate

Fire crews arrive before the ambulance on many calls. But the ambulance crew often has the phone interpreter line. FFD firefighters had to wait with a patient they could not understand. First they waited for the ambulance. Then they waited on hold for an interpreter.

That delay was not rare. Calls could involve Spanish, Punjabi, Hindi, Italian, or another language spoken in the city.

Before vitalvoice, crews often asked a family member to translate. Fairfield paramedic intern Dawson Deldotto described the problem:

Usually we’re asking family on scene and they’re a little hectic, they’re all over the place.

The pilot: March to May, 61 real calls

In March 2026, FFD started a two-month pilot with vitalvoice. The department did not need new hardware. The app went on the phones crews already carried, and setup took days, not months.

By the time the pilot ended in May:

Crews had used vitalvoice 61 times — roughly once a day, on real calls.
The most-used languages were Spanish, Punjabi, Hindi, and Italian — a spread no bilingual-staffing plan covers.
The first crew on scene could start interpreting. They did not have to wait for the ambulance or sit in a hold queue.

Here is Dawson talking about a real call. His patient spoke Spanish, had fallen, and was under the influence:

It helped out tremendously… once we got in the back of the ambulance and it was just me and him, we were able to hit the questions that are important to me and what are going to be important to him getting better care. It honestly made a whole night and day difference with how that call performed.

The decision

Crews praised the app. At the end of the pilot, FFD signed an agreement with vitalvoice. Battalion Chief Donny Biro explained why:

In late 2025, vitalvoice offered a solution to a challenge that FFD — and first responders in general — often face: difficulty communicating effectively with patients due to language barriers, or delays in communication while waiting for ambulance crews to arrive and access their language line.

During the pilot, FFD crews used vitalvoice 61 times, with Spanish, Punjabi, Hindi, and Italian being the most frequently utilized languages. Crews reported high praise for the application overall, and as a result, FFD has now entered into an agreement with vitalvoice.

I believe vitalvoice will continue to grow into an even stronger tool for first responders as more agencies adopt the platform and provide feedback. Dr. Kory Kindle and his team have been excellent to work with. Dr. Kindle has been highly accessible and has completed multiple ride-alongs with FFD to speak directly with crews and identify opportunities for continuous improvement. FFD recognizes the value vitalvoice has already provided in enhancing patient care.

One detail matters here: the ride-alongs. We built vitalvoice by riding with crews and listening to them. Their feedback led to offline mode, automatic language detection, and narratives in each department’s format. Fairfield received the same hands-on support.

Why this matters if you run a department

We recommend Fairfield’s path to every chief. It lets a department test the app before making a full decision:

Run both tools during the pilot. Keep your language line. Put vitalvoice on the phones your crews already carry. They can be using it within the week.
Watch what crews choose. Fairfield crews used vitalvoice 61 times in two months. They chose it call after call.
Use your own results to decide. At the end of the pilot, you will know how often crews used it, which languages they needed, and what they thought.

Chiefs: Want to test vitalvoice with your own crews? Book a 15-minute demo. We can have your pilot running within the week, with ride-alongs included.

Crews: Download vitalvoice from the App Store. You get two free sessions in each mode. Try it on a real call, then show your chief what it wrote.