The need for greater mutual aid radio communications

The Station Fire has caused the need to once again re-evaluate the need for a communications system. Radio communications for the most part must be reevaluated so that all public safety participates can communicate freely with one another during any major disaster event. In the Station Fire, there were two firefighters that died. However, to say that better mutual aid radio communications could have saved their lives would be wrong, but the need for a better system may help to prevent future incidents, especially when life is the key.

When the Station Fire began on August Wednesday August 26th, 2009 approx 03:30 PM in the Los Angeles River Ranger District of the Angeles National Forest, no one knew that the fire would spread so quickly. As the fire continues to burn today, with an estimate containment to be around September 15, 2009, the need for personnel has spread to protect the homes and the residents surrounding areas. This call for aid has grown beyond the need for just firemen, but to police and other emergency agencies.

For instance, the Orange County Sheriff sent twenty-four deputies, three sergeants and one lieutenant to the area to help out as Mobile Field Force (MFF). The OCSD MFF was deployed to assist with evacuations, roadblocks, and directed patrol in communities affecting the Station Fire Area. All Orange County units were able to communicate with one another due to they had similar programmed channel in their radios, but they were not able to do it with their Los Angeles County counterparts. Thus, the need for common mutual aid communications is vital.

Normally, one would not think about communications as being an important factor in fighting fires, but it is. Furthermore, with the lack of mutual frequencies for fire and police could cause problems in emergencies like this. For example, if fire agencies could not communicate with one another how would they know which way to drive the fire? Additionally, what about police officers? How will the police know where to evacuate and when the residents will be allowed to return home?

In Los Angeles County, this lack of communications is well known. Los Angeles County police agencies are usually on a 400 MHz band while fire units are on an 800 MHz band. Now, with the request of having neighboring counties assist in the efforts, communications plays a top priority, especially when ensuring that evacuation plans are followed through correctly. The State of California does have a separate mutual aid law enforcement and fire channel; however, neither police, nor fire, share these frequencies on their radios. Lastly, to make matters worst, the radio repeater towers for these radio frequencies are being threatened by the rapid moving fire.

The towers that are being threatened by the Station Fire on located on Mount Wilson. (Mount Wilson is the site of many radio and television towers that broadcast signals throughout Southern California). The nervousness of the fires spreading to Mount Wilson is so evident that even local radio and television are telling listeners and viewers to be patience if their signal goes down. Thus, if these entities were worried, just think about the problems for fire and law enforcement radios that also use these towers on a daily basis.

What is more disturbing is that, even with these problems, a majority of fire and police agencies decided that the need to program their portable radios with common channels was not needed. Many agencies have listed that the lack of funds to purchase new radio equipment as perhaps one of the main reasons to live with what they have now.

One would think that in this world of rapidly developed technology that police and fire would have the most state-of-the-art equipment, but they do not. In fact, a lot of the radio equipment used goes back to the early 1990s, if not earlier! Even if an individual agency decides to replace their radio system, the likelihood that it will be compatible with another agency’s system is slim at best.

There has to be a better way.

So how do radio communications work then in incidents such as the Station Fire? The answer is multiple radios being used at one time. What will happen is that field personnel will have to heavily rely on their field command post personnel to relay information using many portable radios. If not, it will be the responsibility of [mobile] dispatch centers and their dispatchers to relay the details to all. The only problem with relaying messages, and in haste, is that many transmissions can be easily misinterpreted causing adverse effects in providing aid.

That is why there is a need for a mutual aid communication system that can allow for multiple channels and agencies to communicate freely. Every fire or police personnel’s portable radio should have channels programmed to ensure that everyone can heard and relay vital information throughout an incident.

There have been some strides made, like in Orange County where all city and county agencies came together and agreed to be under a county-wide coordinated system. Still, this has not caught on with other counties and state agencies. Thus, we can conclude that the radio system is considered to be only a secondary thought. One would think that even after tragedies like 9/11 and Katrina that we as a society have learned the need for mutual aid communications.

Los Angeles County is in need of a new communications system. We cannot sit back and allow neighboring cities, counties, or state agencies not to have the ability to communicate with one another when there are lives on the line. There should be a call for a communication system that is modern and flexible to help those on the front lines. It is necessary to development a system that allows for this and for many multi-mutual aid radio channels to communication freely and error free. We entrust fire and police personnel to do the right things, but if they cannot communicate with one another, then how can we be truly safe?

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