Local
emergency responders have had a problem with communications for over a
month and say the problem will continue until their vendor fixes the
problem.
George
Pruett, representing the Franklin County United Firefighters group
said Franklin County firefighters have had no communications and no
paging for over 30 days because of a lightning strike at the dispatch
center at the Franklin County sheriff's office in September.
That
strike also took out 911 capabilities and damaged 2 consoles which
took out paging capabilities.
Right
now, the firefighters are being called out on their cell phone which
takes more time and is not very effective.
Basically
dispatch calls one firefighter who then has to alert the rest of the
department.
Even
the sheriff's office is still running at limited capabilities because
of the strike.
George
said he has been in contact with Williams Communications which
provides radio service to the firefighters and they assure him they
are working on the problem, but it hasn't been fixed yet.
The
sheriff's department said they are also waiting on Williams
Communications to fix the issue – they do not know when the repairs
will be complete though they hope it will be this week.
Pruett
said another issue is maintaining the radio system which he does not
feel should be the fire department's job.
All
of the fire departments in Franklin County are volunteer and they
have enough work to do – he added that if this was a problem with
police radios it would be fixed immediately.
He
pointed out that firefighters jobs are just as important for the
public as other emergency responders.
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