abbreviations - trs = trunked radio system - FG = fireground / short range some hot dry windy day there will be a big fire - maybe in a residential area or a wooded area - the hard part will be trying to stop the fire - plenty of people will stand around and take pictures - very few will try to stop the fires
aircraft will not be able to fly - so the hard part will be to coordinate the people fighting the fire on the ground there are actually very few common fire mutual aid radio channels in Massachusetts - there are no dedicated air to ground channels for structure fires afaik - no county has more than 5 common channels - the nationwide channels can be over run by local dpw and civil defense forces - or even by local fire ops there are still no radio drills conducted on any of the mutual aid channels - they could do these drills in conjunction with every fire truck parade question - how many counties have countywide fireground channels that actually cover their entire county? - barnstable county has 3 or 4 because they are on the state trs - norfolk county has 2 because they have built a countywide synchronized simulcast system - franklin county has 3 or 4 because they are now on the state trs (maybe) - the vast majority of Massachusetts counties DO NOT have countywide fireground channels this gross deficiency will show up big time when some chief tries to tackle a wildfire that is covering 1 square mile or more - suddenly the simplex fireground channels will be next to useless - and there will be no aircraft in the air to relay messages - and no one knows how to relay messages from a hilltop - and the mobile command posts will all set up in the gullies and valleys - arriving too late to do any good - and effectively creating huge radio dead spots its gonna be a total shit show - nothing has changed since the lawrence gas explosions all of the news media will get off on saying "no action was ever taken on the needed improvements that were documented after the lawrence incident" - in other words - screw you all ================ action plan - do these things TODAY 1. run radio drills with mobile command posts - ensure that high spots are preplanned - and that channels are clear - and that commanders have working radios on the right channels 2. preplan the use of FG channels by every task force and every strike team - at the best each task force leader and every strike team leader will be able to talk to the incident commander via 151.145R or via 800T or via cellphone or via a county mutual aid channel - the use of FG channels will be highly problematic - task forces and strike teams might find their way into the correct neighborhoods and locations - but they will have very few useable fireground channels - and there will be no dedicated mayday channels - and direct coordination with police and ems via radio will be nonexistant - there is a chance that some task forces and strike teams can use their home FG channels - but it seems unlikely 3, teach everyone that the basic communications plan will be - A. use local channels - B. when the local channels are full, use county channels - C. when the county channels are full (which is a given as stated above) then communications have to revert to messengers - or to prepositioned mobile command posts with temporary bases and repeaters (but this will be nearly impossible since it is never practiced) 4. immediately begin giving state trs radios to every fire dispatch center so that all 'dispatcher to dispatcher' comms will flow via the state trs - this will free up a few more radio channels for mutual aid comms - such as the metrofire channels and the countywide fire mutual aid channels (1 in essex county - 3 in plymouth county - 4 in bristol county - 1 in middlesex county - 2 in worcester county - 1 in hampden county - etc) ========================= all of this info is also applicable to any major disaster - nuke explosion or tsunami or earthquake or multi terror attacks etc -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "massfire" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/massfire/CAFXWwKaHwEafdjzGDA0mgs58k_77mDbUSaiHaQbHrQ56aWKKOg%40mail.gmail.com.
