Franklin County Commissioners have agreed to investigate communications issues that may be putting local Volunteer Firefighters at risk.
The issue was raised by Apalachicola Volunteer fireman Bruce Hoffman who told commissioners that there is a communications issue between fire departments, as well as EMS, the sheriff’s office, and dispatch.
The issue may be a tower at the Apalachicola airport that was damaged during hurricane Michael which removed a repeater from the communications system.
Hoffman said the issue not only endangers the safety of firefighters, but can also slow the response time because when they get a call out – they get static and then have to call dispatch to find out what the call is.
County coordinator Michael Moron said there are 2 issues; one is a radio issue so that firefighters can communicate with one another.
The other is a problem with dispatch being able to communicate with fire departments, and that is a problem that has been going on for a few years.
He said the county needs to upgrade the fire departments radio system so they stop using pagers and move to cell phone texts which would also allow firefighters to be tracked by dispatch.
The County Commission agreed that Michael Moron should collect the needed information to solve the communications issues and bring them to their next meeting.
If needed the county will then set up a meeting with dispatch and local fire chiefs to figure out the best way to move forward.
No comments:
Post a Comment