Fireground Communications and Life Safety Considerations

I highly recommend the article “Reliable Communications and the Hazard Zone” written by Leif Anderson and Doug Mummert of the Phoenix Fire Department. It should be a “must read” for all fire service professionals today.

This is a well-researched and well-written article. The findings cited certainly mirror my own experience, both practical/anecdotal from operational scenarios but also from studies in which I’ve participated, including one for Miami-Dade Fire/Rescue back in 2001/2002. I grow increasingly concerned as more and more fire agencies move radio communications entirely to trunked radio networks and particularly digital networks. The binary on/off nature of a digital signal – either it works and works pretty well, or it doesn’t work at all – has safety implications over an analog signal. When a firefighter (or any other public safety practitioner) using an analog radio starts moving into an area with degraded coverage, that degradation is noticeable in the quality of the received signal, giving the user distinct clues that coverage may become unreliable, a useful signal. With the digital signal either being there at a reasonably consistent quality or not there at all, there is no such warning. This characteristic is present either in a conventional or trunked environment.

Using a 700-800-900 MHz radio in simplex mode is at best a partial answer. While building penetration is theoretically superior at these parts of the spectrum due to the shorter wavelength of the frequency, range is quite limited compared to UHF and even more so to VHF. I’d say Phoenix’s “hybrid” approach of using VHF on the fireground is probably as close to an ideal as we’re going to see. And actuating the vehicular repeater based on an “at scene” status condition on the MDC is a stroke of genius.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Gary OldhamFireground Communications and Life Safety Considerations, 10.0 out of 10 based on 3 ratings

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