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OEM is useless as tits on a bull. Same for EOC's the only 2 phone calls I got from the eoc was to tell me they were open and one to tell me they were closing. Great that they closed at least an hour before we were fixed, they must have been tired and didnt want to stay.
The county fire service should ALL write letters to Souzi about this and demand an answer on why there is NO back up for fire but there is back up for police.
The backup location and system, yes we need it....but to say it is sad that a lightning storm knocked out Firecomm and we weren't ready? It is a natural disaster...a lightning strike that hit the Mineola tower directly. I don't care how good your system is. A direct hit may take it out every time, at least for a little while.
Can you say that Firecomm is safe from an earthquake? Chualk it up to a great job by all departments who were pro active and manned their base stations. I was in ours from the onset until 01:10 and was listening to all. Good job for what we had.
hey chips- i agree with you, but in the age we live in today, with all thats going on around us, we should have a better back up plan !
The problem has grown to where it is and what happen last night. More and more departments have gone to firecom over the years and not much has changed with them as far as staffing and equipment (not due to them trying and I'm not saying it is anyone at firecom fault they have tried for years to make improvements). The people in charge of these departments see a big savings in salaries and have the impression that firecom has it all covered. As said above firecom is limited by the county government and what they are willing to give. As an example going back many years my department had it's own dispatch center with a back up in another department and a third backup with firecom. Each of those options were manned 24/7. Now take today were dispatched by firecom, shit hits the fan like last night and we have to scramble to get communications up and in the mean time alarms are backing up. This is what has happen to most departments; in an effort to save money they cut services without any thought to how it's going to work. Unless the county goverment is going to invest big money to both equipment and staffing were all kidding ourselves in thinking the system is going to work when it is really needed. Last night was and should be a wake up call to each and every department to get their ducks in order. That storm for the most part lasted an hour what's going to happen when we get hit by something bigger. The system is going to crash even bigger than it did. How many departments have spare equipment that can be used to get themselves back up and running? Do you have a spare antenna and cable that can get you back on the air after a major hurricane? That antenna can be lashed to a ladder or bucket truck and raised to get you back on the air after you antennas are blown off the roof. How many departments use the same service company whether under contract or not? There are only so many service people to go around they can't be at 10, 20 or 30 places at once.
I know I have rambled a bit but these are some of the fact and hopefully those in charge will wake up.
I was sitting at the beach watching most of the storm and listening to NHP & WPFD, then i heard Fire Com was down. I was also monitoring the Rant and saw reports of FC being down. I took a ride to see if anyone was hanging out in quarters. I had a crew at my sub station. We tried calling firecom's console and then the hotline which were both busy. So i assumed they were down. I then notified the Old Brookville PD to notify myself via cell or GCFD Disp and informed them that Firecom was down ( they were unaware). I then placed a call to NCPD, they tried firecom and had the same results. I was trying to get in touch with the CB Supvr to ask him to go next door and ask them what they would like us to do, but we received an alarm which turned out to be Jericho's dist. I contacted our Batt Chairman who was also unaware due to the communications failure. We also contacted the local RMPs's to respond to one of the firehouses or call one of the chief's in case they needed us. We Kept crews in place and manned our "booth" till 02:00 when I was informed that Fire Com was back up.
My hats off to the ops and commanders at Fire com. Whenever we spoke they remained calm and level headed as we all worked through this difficult situation.
This was certainly one of those occasions in which the phrase "Its not a matter of if it can happen, its a matter of WHEN it will happen" We must always be prepared !! And prepare for the worst scenario. Depts that use fireCom or another agency for disp should strongly consider having a back up of their own. Thank god there were no lives lost !
This was an isolated natural disaster that affected a major but isolated set of systems, just think what would have happened if cellphone and/or landline service was taken down too...sure you can talk about dispatching ourselves but could the public figure out that they need to call someone else besides 911 assuming the phones are working? What this is going to come down to is, if something like this or worse happens again, we are going to be reduced to getting in the rigs and circling our districts waiting to be flagged down...
I'll have to take a day or so to digest things, but I will say a few things off the top of my head..... in 35 years of Firecom being on the air, nothing like this has ever happened. When you have 71 different depts. most on their own freq.s things will take longer to repair then the old days.
Best advice is to have an operating base station, with an emergency plan of how it will be staffed and operated with trained people. Even if your on your own highband, have your units be able to transmit on low band, 12,20,32. Have some sort of audible alerting system. And be able to put units on the road, like patrols when the weather permits, use cell phones (that is if cell tower sites are not knocked out, like the black outs) have your local PD sector cars on board, exchange cell #'s with them, so they can call things into your base station. Every Dept. should and most do have backups that worked. Like others said if a hurricane hits we are screwed big time, look how crazy a normal thunder storm is.
The new field com truck will be able to tone out depts. in the truck...every one....but its not in service %100 right now. Bad timing but its the worst case scenero thaat happened. Aslo when Firecom moves to the new place...if ever....the old underground hole is going to be pushed as a backup by many.
Good job by all under ground and above ground, stay safe.
every department needs three things the ability to accept phone calls from their own districts, to be able to tone out themselves and surrounding departments, and the ability to interoporate with the PD...I just wonder how things are in such poor shape that it could take them 10 days to have a console back on the air..would it help if I donated my radio?
every department needs three things the ability to accept phone calls from their own districts, to be able to tone out themselves and surrounding departments, and the ability to interoporate with the PD...I just wonder how things are in such poor shape that it could take them 10 days to have a console back on the air..would it help if I donated my radio?
I'm going to guess and say that it the console that out of service, most likely due to issues with control cards (electronics). They may have not enough spares to get all back up and running. But again only a guess......
does anyone know what exactely happened at firecom last night? they have multiple towers throughout the county and a ton of dept freqs they can tx & rx on. was it a hit to the mineola tower? a county w/1.6 million people and no back up center for firecom.....suffolk firecom is in the same boat, no better.
does anyone know what exactely happened at firecom last night?
We experienced a direct hit and had total system failure. All the phones and dispatch equipment is now computerized and that posed a problem. Even the stuff that was on UPS failed to kick in for whatever reason. The control heads are all programmed through computer and possibly there is a problem with the smart card somewhere. Another part of the problem is every department now having their own freq, so there is a boatload of stuff to reprogram. Add to that the fact as Spin said that the new fieldcom unit is almost fully operational and can tone out departments but again, just happened at the wrong time. Also add to that the people who are up in Lake George and the fact that many of the staff was already in on OT because it was Fathers day weekend. Been dispatching for 23 years, 16 at the com and nothing like this has ever happened. Battalion EOC's and some fast thinking by the people down in the hole as it went down may not have been the plan, but it got people to their own base stations as quick as possible. There is still a great deal out but hopefully will be back up and running very soon. Gotta love modern technology...when it farts it causes big time problems.
We experienced a direct hit and had total system failure. All the phones and dispatch equipment is now computerized and that posed a problem. Even the stuff that was on UPS failed to kick in for whatever reason. The control heads are all programmed through computer and possibly there is a problem with the smart card somewhere. Another part of the problem is every department now having their own freq, so there is a boatload of stuff to reprogram. Add to that the fact as Spin said that the new fieldcom unit is almost fully operational and can tone out departments but again, just happened at the wrong time. Also add to that the people who are up in Lake George and the fact that many of the staff was already in on OT because it was Fathers day weekend. Been dispatching for 23 years, 16 at the com and nothing like this has ever happened. Battalion EOC's and some fast thinking by the people down in the hole as it went down may not have been the plan, but it got people to their own base stations as quick as possible. There is still a great deal out but hopefully will be back up and running very soon. Gotta love modern technology...when it farts it causes big time problems.
Well I would like to say thanks for doin it right! You guys handled a bad situation gracefully and everyone got it done and went home safe.
Sometimes the plan book must go out the window, cause you just cant plan for everything.
Re: Storm Knocks out FireCom
