TERT Standard Approved (6/15/09)
The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) International and the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) announced the approval of the American National Standard (ANS) to assist public-safety answering points (PSAPs) and governing 9-1-1 authorities with the information required for developing, training, equipping and deploying a Telecommunicator Emergency Response Taskforce (TERT) team. The Standard for TERT Deployment, APCO/NENA ANS 1.105.1-2009, was approved by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) May 29.

A challenge for public-safety communications centers is maintaining adequate staffing levels during disasters. To address this problem and expand on some individual state initiatives in place, APCO International and NENA joined to create the National Joint TERT Initiative (NJTI), to assist states in developing programs to establish predetermined, selected and trained teams of individuals who can mobilize quickly to assist communications centers during disasters.

“The unique nature of communications centers requires that daily operations continue regardless of circumstances,” APCO International President Chris Fischer said. “It is, therefore, imperative that PSAPs plan for emergency circumstances that adversely affect their ability to adequately staff their center.”

The ANS can be downloaded at www.apcointl.org/new/commcenter911/APCOstandards.php.

HAVANA, Ill. - Breaking the trend of inactivity which has marked the lawsuit brought against the city of Havana by the Mason County Emergency Telephone Board, Judge Thomas Brownfield has recused himself from the case.

The lawsuit, filed in January, stems from an extensive debate between the city and 911 board officials concerning the proposed construction of a new 180-foot communications tower at the Mason County Sheriff’s Office. The 911 board says the sheriff’s office is the best location to build the tower, but the city has disagreed, denying the board permission to build the tower within city limits.

The city of Havana had 30 days to respond to the suit after it was filed. Two months and no response later, the 911 board filed a motion for default against the city on March 27. Neither party involved in the suit has filed anything since then, but Brownfield filed a motion to recuse himself on June 5.

“I’ve had a policy for years and years to recuse myself from any case concerning the county or any county agency,” he said.

Although he is not required by any specific code of conduct to do so, he said, he is obligated to recuse himself when there could appear to be a conflict of interest. The fact that he works closely with the Mason County Board, and that board members sign his pay check, made him decide to remove himself from the matter in order to avoid any speculation about his impartiality, he said.

Brownfield, who is chief judge of the Eighth Judicial Circuit, assigned the case to Judge Scott Butler.

Brownfield  does not know the reasons behind the delays in the case, he said, but he does know that if the defendant is not responding in a timely manner, “in order for anything to happen, the plaintiff needs to file a motion.”

Defense attorney Blake Lindner said that a hearing is set for 9 a.m. July 6.

As for the delays involved in the case, Lindner said that “sometimes that’s the strategy behind things,” and that it is up to the emergency board to push the case as they see fit.
“They’re the plaintiffs. The fact that this has taken six months is completely them, not me,” he said. “This is their motion. I haven’t filed anything.”

Greg Griffin, chairman of the Mason County Emergency Telephone System Board, said that he is waiting until the July 6 hearing to learn what is going on.

“All we know right now is that we have a date set,” he said. “What’s going on behind the scenes with the two attorneys, I don’t know.”

John Kelly, a lawyer out of Naperville, is serving as the 911 board’s defense attorney.

“I’ve never been in this position, so I don’t really have anything to compare it to,” said Griffin, an electrician. “It’s a shame that we have to go through this to get due process. It’s taking a lot longer than I thought it would.”

When the 911 board originally requested permission to build the tower at the jail in 2005, the city denied the request based on an ordinance that prohibits any structure taller than 100 feet within city limits.

The city, which conducted its own study in 2005, determined that the best place for a new tower would be at a more central location in the county, about 12 miles east of Havana.

A zoning variance could allow a structure taller than 100 feet, said Havana Zoning Administrator John Kachanuk in an earlier interview, but there would have to be “a very good reason.”

Griffin said he still believes that building a new communications tower at the sheriff’s office is the right thing and that county residents ask him if they are “building the new tower yet” all the time.

Communities negatively affected by the old and, according to the 911 board, inadequate communications tower include Mason City, San Jose, Forest City and Manito — all of which use emergency systems that do not include a “repaging system” on the fire frequency, Griffin said.

“They’re the ones affected when the fire radio quits,” he said, “and it quits on a regular basis.”

If Butler finds that there was no legitimate reason for the city’s failure to respond to the complaint within 30 days, he can issue a default judgment against the city, giving the 911 board the opportunity to prove their complaint and possibly build the tower at the sheriff’s office, Kelly said.

Lindner said that he does not expect that the case will default.

Contact Tara Mattimoe at tmattimoe@pekintimes.com.

Network problems hampered Black Saturday bushfire efforts  

• Gary Hughes | June 22, 2009

 
VICTORIA'S Country Fire Authority pulled out of negotiations for Telstra to take over its despatch radio network prior to the Black Saturday bushfires, during which problems with the network hampered fire fighting efforts, the royal commission investigating the disaster was told today.

Telstra's national manager of radio networks, John Cowan, told the hearing that the CFA operates its own radio despatching network, which is used by CFA units during incidents to communicate with incident control centres.


The royal commission has previously been told by CFA brigade officers involved in fighting the Black Saturday fires that they had trouble getting details over the radio of the locations of the fires and other vital information because of communication problems.

Two incident control centres involved in attempting to combat the Kinglake Ranges fire, which killed 121 people, also had trouble communicating with each other by radio.

Mr Cowan, who is also a CFA volunteer, said all the radio channels involved in those communications problems were owned and operated by the CFA.

He said Telstra, which provides another radio network for parts of the CFA and other emergency services, had been involved in negotiations with the CFA about 12 months ago on taking over and operating the fire agency’s other despatch channels.

Asked what happened to the negotiations, Mr Cowan replied: "They were rejected by the CFA."

Mr Cowan said complaints by a Victoria Police officer at Marysville that he could not use his radio to find out about the Murrindindi fire, which killed 34 people in the township, were due to poor management of radio traffic rather than congestion problems with Telstra’s network.

The hearing was previously told that the officer could not contact Victoria Police’s radio operations centre because of the amount of radio calls coming from police involved in the Kinglake Ranges fire.

Mr Cowan said the large amount of radio traffic should have been better managed by Victoria Police radio operators.

He said communication problems previously raised at the royal commission regarding police operating on a digital network in metropolitan Melbourne and an incompatible analogue system in rural Victoria could easily be fixed by providing a technical "interface" to allow the two networks to talk to each other.

But Victoria Police had never requested such an interface be installed, Mr Cowan said.

The inquiry into the Black Saturday fires, which killed 173 people and destroyed more than 2000 homes, is continuing.

National 9-1-1 Office Announces Final Rules for ENHANCE 911 Act Grant Program
The joint NHTSA/NTIA National E9-1-1 Implementation and Coordination Office (ICO) has published final rules for a $43.5 million grant program authorized by the ENHANCE 911 Act of 2004. The Notice announces the availability of funds for the acquisition and deployment of hardware and software that cover the implementation and operation of Phase II E9-1-1 services and to enable the migration to an IP-enabled emergency network, and training for the use of such hardware and software. Applications from states must be submitted by August 4, 2009 with grant funds to be awarded no later than September 30, 2009.
 
Summary:
 
Due date: The State must submit the application documents identified in this section so that they are received by the ICO no later than August 4, 2009.  Failure to meet this deadline will preclude the State from receiving consideration for an E9-1-1 grant award.  The Administrator and Assistant Secretary will jointly approve and announce, in writing, grant awards to qualifying States no later than September 30, 2009.
 
The joint Final Rule implements the E9-1-1 grant program authorized under the ENHANCE 911 Act of 2004 (Pub. L. 108-494, codified at 47 U.S.C. 942). The Act authorizes grants for the implementation and operation of Phase II enhanced 9-1-1 services and for migration to an IP-enabled emergency network. To qualify for a grant, an applicant must submit a State 9-1-1 plan and project budget, designate an E9-1-1 coordinator, and certify, among other things, that the State and other taxing jurisdictions within the State have not diverted E9-1-1 charges for any other purpose within 180 days preceding the application date. This Final Rule establishes the requirements an applicant must meet and the procedures it must follow to receive an E9-1-1 grant.
 

The notice announces the availability of funds for the acquisition and deployment of hardware and software that cover the implementation and operation of Phase II E9-1-1 services, for the acquisition and deployment of hardware and software to enable the migration to an IP enabled network, and training for the use of such hardware and software.
 

Fire teams lose crucial minutes

 
Jun 06, 2009 04:30 AM


Kevin Donovan
STAFF REPORTER

When the Sunrise Propane explosion rocked the city last summer, it was more than nine minutes before the first Toronto Fire Services pumper truck made it to the blast site, just over two kilometres from the station house.

On Caledonia Rd. in the winter of 2008, firefighters arrived late, after police and ambulance, 10 minutes or more after a neighbour called 911. A father and two children died in the blaze.

Similarly, at a fire on Green Belt Dr. in May 2008, nine minutes – maybe more – passed before firefighters pulled up at the fatal blaze, also little more than two kilometres from the closest fire station.

"It seemed like an eternity," said Cheryl Dussault, who lived in the townhouse unit below the apartment gutted by fire at Don Mills Rd. and Eglinton Ave. She called 911. "It did seem they should have been there faster than they were," Dussault said of firefighters.

She has nothing but praise for how they battled the blaze once there. Three people died in what turned out to be a murder-suicide. The fire spread to six other units before firefighters got it under control.

The North American standard for urban firefighting states it should take six minutes or less from emergency call for the first pumper to arrive at a fire.

Toronto's problem, a Star investigation found, is the antiquated, poorly run Toronto Fire Services dispatch system that sometimes wastes precious minutes after a call comes in. The computer system requires dispatchers to take too many steps to process calls: to manage resources dispatchers must rely on a magnetic board with round fridge magnets representing fire trucks.

Fire Chief Bill Stewart and communications division chief Vera Maute said the fire service does a good job handling more than 142,000 calls a year. They said a consultant's review into improving "efficiencies" of the dispatch system is underway, with a report expected this fall.

In the Star's investigation of the dispatch system, we found records showing that, in most cases, the time it takes Toronto Fire Services to process an emergency call and get firefighters to the scene is at least a minute longer than the six-minute fire response standard. In four pockets of the city, the time is two minutes longer than the standard (new fire stations are to be built when land is found), and three or more minutes longer in some specific cases, including fires where people died.

The problem is much worse than revealed by Toronto Fire Services dispatch records obtained by the Star and a statistical analysis Stewart provided.

That's because these records do not reveal the time of the original 911 call or the time that call was transferred to Toronto Fire. Instead, the first time recorded is the point when an open call is first "saved" on the dispatcher's computer, often two minutes or more after the dispatcher began working on the call, a highly placed Toronto Fire Services source said. The source requested anonymity, fearing job repercussions.

Maute conceded in an interview that "a certain amount of processing happens before we enter the time," but said the only way to find out would be to review audio tapes maintained in the dispatch centre, which she and Stewart said they are not prepared to do for the Star. Chief Stewart also refused to answer questions on cases the Star found where people died and response time was slow. "You as a reporter should not be looking at this information," Stewart said. Toronto Fire Services is a publicly funded agency, part of the City of Toronto's municipal services.

Stewart, who was North York fire chief before six cities amalgamated into Toronto in 1998, said he is aware that Toronto's response times lag behind the guidelines recommended by the National Fire Protection Association.

"It's not just a Toronto problem, it's a North American problem," Stewart said. As president of the Metropolitan Fire Chiefs Association, he is backing a move to change the standard to allow firefighters longer to get out the door to a blaze.

Known as "Standard 1710," it allows one minute for dispatchers to handle a call (usually passed on by 911), one minute for firefighters to get to their truck, and four minutes for the first responding fire truck to arrive at the scene. The standard recommends a fire service should meet this guideline 90 per cent of the time. The standard is not legally binding, but in its master plan, Toronto Fire says it will try to adhere to it. Proposals to be discussed over the summer at the Massachusetts-based NFPA will allow 20 seconds more time for firefighters to get to their truck, and 15 seconds more for the dispatch process.

Regardless of the change, Toronto will still be slower than the standard, most of the time.

In some cases of fatal Toronto fires studied by the Star, they were 3-4 minutes behind the standard. In one non-fatal instance, there was a 20-minute delay in rescuing people trapped in an elevator because a dispatcher sent a rescue crew from the wrong part of the city, though the building was just a few blocks from a firehall.

It is not clear whether slow response time has caused fatalities. However, fire deaths in Toronto for the first five months of 2009 were 14, close to the total of 18 for 2008.

Cheryl Dussault, the woman who made the 911 call in the Green Belt Dr. fire, said she is quite certain – in fact she wrote it down – that she called 911 at 5:30 p.m. However, Toronto Fire Services records the call starting eight minutes later. Even without these extra eight minutes, firefighters took too long to get to the Green Belt Dr. blaze. Most of that time was used up by shoddy dispatching. Once alerted, firefighters took two minutes to get to their trucks and out of the firehall (the standard is one minute) but they made up for lost time by getting to the scene in three minutes, faster than the four-minute standard.

Officials with Toronto Fire and the Toronto Police Service (which manages the 911 call centre) refused to release the time of calls. Police information officer Mark Pugash cited "privacy reasons."

The Ontario Fire Marshal's Office, the public body that investigates fires, also refused to release this information, for Toronto or other parts of Ontario. Popular Fire Marshal Bill Hiscott initially offered to help a reporter during a phone call, but his supervisor called out "don't give it to him" when the reporter requested response time data.

These extra minutes are crucial because fires reach "flashover" (the point where combustible materials in a house or apartment reach ignition temperature and start burning freely) in 4-5 minutes. Some upholstery and fabrics reach flashover in less than three minutes.

The current standard is under review and will be discussed next week, with a final decision by the NFPA in August. NFPA official Curt Varone said the proposed standard provides clarity and a benchmark to fire services at each step of the dispatch process.

The wording of the current standard suits some.

"It's a good standard. The call should be dealt with in a minute. The firefighters should be dressed and ready to go in a minute and they have four minutes to get to the fire," said Fred LeBlanc, president of the Ontario Professional Fire Fighters Association.

 

THE TORONTO FIRE dispatch centre is located in a tired industrial complex at Dufferin Rd. and Finch Ave. in what was the city of North York. As soon as 911 sends Toronto Fire a call, dispatchers must locate and alert the closest fire hall with a first alarm call, then monitor the call, sending out more alarms if need be.

It's staffed by a mixture of former firefighters and City of Toronto employees moved over from other departments. A source says some know the city streets well; some do not, and there is not much training for those who don't. Division chief Maute, who runs the centre, said she hopes "better training" will come out of the consultant's review.

The dispatch centre uses a computer system designed for police but altered to handle fire calls. People who have worked there say the computer system has too many layers that hamper a fast dispatch.

Where some fire dispatch centres have a large digital display showing where each unit is at a given minute – plus where a working fire is – Toronto has a small paper map stuck to a metal board. Fridge magnets can be moved around to show where the city's resources are.

They are like Winston Churchill's WWII admirals overseeing destroyers on a map of the oceans.

Before amalgamation, the city of Toronto had a better dispatch system, but it was dismantled in favour of the more archaic North York dispatch system.

On a large blank wall where a state-of-the-art digital display could be placed to track firefighting resources, a dual-screen television projector plays hockey games, ball games or soap operas.

 

362 CALEDONIA RD. is a small, two-storey house near St. Clair Ave. A father, 44, and his two children, 4 and 5, died in a fire in the early hours of Feb. 23, 2008. The house still stands; the inside gutted.

The Toronto Fire Services "event chronology" shows the call began at 4:02:35 a.m. Police won't confirm, but it appears the emergency call to 911 came in at 3:58 a.m. or earlier, from a neighbour tw...  [  more  ]  

Atlanta residents complain of city’s slow response to house fire By Christian Boone

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Neighbors alerting 911 about a small house fire in west Atlanta Saturday afternoon say they waited on hold 20 minutes — so long that some decided to fight the blaze themselves with a garden hose.

The house is a total loss, its owner said.

“The damage is extensive because they didn’t get here fast enough,” said Janice Black, who lives across the street from the charred bungalow at 526 Dollar Mill Road. She said she was on hold “20-to-25 minutes.”

“I was shocked when I finally got through to a real person,” Black said.

Witnesses are left wondering if they can count on the city’s emergency service. The target response time for calls to 911 is 10 seconds, according to Miles Bulter, the city’s 911 communications center director.

Addison Williams, who lives next door to the burned house, said he and his mother-in-law waited 15 minutes on hold. She timed the response by a clock on her bedroom wall, he said.

“That house burned at least 30 minutes before the first engine got over here,” said Williams, who said he called at 4:09 p.m., soon after the blaze was ignited. “They didn’t get there until 4:35.”

Butler referred questions to Atlanta police. Police spokeswoman Lisa Keyes said in an e-mail that an investigation was under way but would not elaborate.

“This is a world-class city,” said Courtney Martin, who, with her husband, owned the Dollar Mill Road house. “How something like this could happen is mind-boggling.”

The College Park attorney said she is pursuing legal action against the city.

“It’s frustrating because it didn’t have to happen,” said Martin, who was leasing the residence at the time of the fire. “It didn’t have to burn like that. It was just a small basement fire.”

So small, one witness said, neighbors initially went after it with a garden house.

“There wasn’t no one getting through to 911, so we took a hose down there” said Robert Ramey, who was at his brother’s house two doors away. “But by that time, it was starting to spread.”

A copy of the 911 audiotape from Saturday’s fire was not immediately available, Atlanta police said Wednesday.

On Jan. 29, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution asked the city for a copy of its database of 911 emergency response information for the last five years. The city has so far refused to make it available to the AJC.

That request followed a Jan. 24 Grant Park blaze that went unattended more than 20 minutes, destroying Wilford Reed’s home of 40 years.

Firefighters were sent to the wrong address and soon after the incident Butler acknowledged that an operator could have done a better job verifying the location.

“For us, this has been a learning experience,” Butler said afterwards.

At the time the 911 Center had staff of 138 employees, with 33 jobs unfilled. Atlanta, which is budgeted for 160 emergency operators, remained about three dozen operators short of a full staff as of April 20.

Some of the witnesses responding to Saturday’s fire say their calls were diverted to either Fulton or Cobb counties, who reported similar difficulties reaching Atlanta’s 911 Center.

“Even 911 couldn’t get hold of 911,” said Martin, noting her house sits less than three miles away from the nearest fire station, Number 9 on 3501 Martin L. King Jr. Dr.

Personnel from that station arrived in 5 minutes, 17 seconds after being dispatched, Atlanta Department of Fire Rescue spokesman Bill May said Wednesday. In all, three engines, three ladder trucks and two battalion chief vehicles reported to the blaze.

“From everything I heard, it went well,” May said.

HAMDEN — The town’s emergency dispatchers will be laid off June 30 if they cannot make concessions, according to Mayor Craig B. Henrici.

Henrici issued pink slips this week to the 16 dispatchers, who are members of CILU Local 49.

Meanwhile, the Legislative Council met in special session Wednesday night to approve concessions for the police, fire, public works, Town Hall, library and supervisors unions. The unions have agreed to no wage increases and five furlough days for the coming fiscal year in exchange for no layoffs and a two-year extension in their contracts. The concessions total $1.3 million.

According to Henrici, the dispatchers unit was one of six town employee unions that had reached a tentative agreement March 31. The tentative agreements had been meted out by town officials and union leadership. But when members of the dispatchers’ union voted last weekend, they rejected the tentative agreement.

As a result, Henrici issued pink slips to them Monday. But Thursday, union President Sean Duncan Courtney IV said that “in the last 24 hours there has been dialogue,” and the union is working on another arrangement it hopes will be agreeable to the administration.

CILU staff representative Cathy Granoth Thursday contacted Personnel Director Ken Kelley and asked for a meeting. Kelley said he and Granoth will set up an appointment today.

“The ball is in their court,” Henrici said.

Henrici said that a counterproposal the union had offered prior to voting last weekend would have cost the town money because the union included a request for compensatory days in the mix of holidays off. To grant the comp time, the town would have had to have pay overtime to fill slots, Henrici said. The town is seeking cuts of $40,480 from the dispatchers.

Police Chief Thomas J. Wydra, who oversees the dispatchers, said he was happy to hear that the dispatchers were coming back to the table. When Henrici threatened the layoffs Monday, he had directed Wydra to have enough of his sworn personnel “ready and trained” to take over the communications center as of July 1.

Wydra said he hoped he wouldn’t have to find a way to cover the work done by the dispatchers, who he said “do an outstanding job every day.” The dispatchers handle 911 emergency calls for Hamden police and fire. “I hope that they reconsider. They are a very valuable work force and collectively they are very talented,” the chief said.

In attempting to balance the 2009-10 budget, Henrici also asked Board of Education employees for concessions. Superintendent of Schools Frances M. Rabinowitz said she is still meeting with union leaders. Teachers, for example, have not yet received concession information from union leaders.

 



.

Philadelphia to Get $34M Upgrade for Emergency Radio System  
 

By DAVID GAMBACORTA
The Philadelphia Daily News
Philadelphia cops, firefighters and prison officials will receive about 2,700 new radios as part of a proposed upgrade to the city's Motorola emergency radio system. The new radios are among several other perks included in the upgrade that Frank Punzo, deputy commissioner for the Department of Public Property, will detail to City Council today.

Punzo will reintroduce an ordinance for the $34 million upgrade because the city now plans to lease the new equipment and technology from Motorola over four years.

"This allows us to stretch out the cost a little bit, as opposed to the initial plan to pay it off over two years," Punzo said.

Much of the upgrade will be paid with money from the state's "911 Fund," which is used for law enforcement communication needs.

All of the city's firefighters will get new radios, which will be colored yellow to make them easier to spot in case they are dropped or lost at fire scenes, Punzo noted.

The remaining new radios will be divided between cops and the city's prisons.

Punzo said the prisons, which currently rely on outdated analog radios, will be able to link up with the citywide digital Motorola system after the upgrade.

The city will also receive 50 digitial repeaters, which will boost reception in "dead spots" for signals and allow firefighters to maintain communications whether they go underground or up in high rises, Punzo said.

The planned upgrade has the support of police and fire unions - an idea that was once unthinkable. Union officials loudly criticized the exisiting $62 million Motorola system because of a seemingly endless series of malfunctions and crashes.

Dave Kearney, a recording secretary for Firefighters Local 22, said the upgrade represents "a step forward, not sideways. Sometimes, these things do progress."

Because of the maligned history of the current Motorola system, Punzo said he expects public hearings will be held before the upgrade is approved by City Council. *

Pennsylvania County's New 911 Paging System Fails During Blaze  
MIKE HOOVER
York Daily Record, Pa.
 

YORK COUNTY, Penn. -- An investigation is under way into why the county's new 911 emergency communication system failed to alert some firefighters to a blaze that destroyed the home of a Dover Township woman and her six children late Wednesday night.
Representatives from two York County fire companies said they were unaware of the initial call just before 11 p.m. because the county's new emergency paging system did not work.

Firefighters had to find out through the old paging system, by listening to scanner traffic or by being contacted about the emergency by phone, which delayed their response to the call in the 3500 block of West Canal Road, they said.

Eric Bistline, the executive director of York County Emergency Services, said he is baffled at what happened.

A preliminary investigation at the 911 center showed a text page went out to fire companies Wednesday night, but Bistline later learned from firefighters Thursday morning that they never got the message.

"It is very puzzling," Bistline said.

Communication and radio technicians are checking operations at the 911 center and several transmission sites designed to send the page, he said.

"Nothing is infallible. I wish I could say it was," Bistline said. "This stuff is wireless technology. It is not 100 percent. Things will go wrong, but they will go wrong a lot less with the new system."

As he inspected the damage today, Dover Township Fire Chief Wayne Latchaw -- the incident commander -- said he did not believe the communication snafu hampered firefighting efforts. He said he believed had enough manpower and equipment to fight the fire, which was knocked down in 20 minutes.

Dover Township was one of the few companies that received a text page sent with the new radio system and was out of the station within a minute, Latchaw said. About 15 minutes into the fire, he said, he began to hear some firefighters complaining about problems with the pagers.

While concerned, Latchaw said he kept his focus on firefighting efforts. He said firefighters were fortunate this time because the malfunction didn't make a difference with the fire. But he said he is concerned about the next time, when a few minutes may mean the difference between life and death.

"That's a big concern," he said.

Increasingly, the county has been under pressure by police, fire and other emergency service providers to fix the problems with the new, $36 million 911 radio system.

Workers from system manufacturer M/A-COM and parent company Tyco Electronics have been working out glitches, Bistline said. The known glitches include lost or garbled transmissions.

Some of the county fire departments are using the old, analog system, while others such as Dover

Township rely completely on the new text paging system.

County Commissioner Doug Hoke said the public has the right to demand accountability.

"If there was a breakdown of the system and it had an effect on emergency response times, I certainly want to know what happened and what is being done to correct this," Hoke said. "People rely on this system. The county has a responsibility to make sure it is working properly."

West Manchester Township Fire Chief David Nichols said there was a three-minute delay in notifying his department's firefighters of the call. He said the new text paging system did not go off at all, and he had to rely on his old pager.

"This wasn't the first time we had a problem with an alert," Nichols said.

Joe Stevens, fire chief at the Union Fire Co. in Manchester, said he was "angry" and "disgusted" that the new pagers did not go off. He said firefighters were unaware they were needed to help at the call in Dover Township until someone overheard some scanner traffic.

The on-duty supervisor had to call firefighters on their cell phones to make sure there was enough manpower to send a crew, Stevens said. A crew with just four firefighters went out the door when, Stevens said, he would have been more comfortable with six.

Stevens said he will tell his firefighters to carry both pagers from the old and new alert system until the problems can be worked out. He said he is also considering activating the old 1940s siren atop the fire hall to send an air-raid-like blast to get firefighters to respond.

"I have to rely on 1940s technology and my big old fire siren to get my guys out of bed. Something is wrong there," Stevens said.

"The whole system is hanging by a threat because the new pagers didn't work. This is suppose to be the best thing since sliced bread. We keep hearing that. But it is not working to its full potential."

THE FIRE

Carol Cousins and her six children have been displaced and are staying with relatives after the fire at their home in Dover Township.

The fire caused an estimated $200,000 in damage, Dover Township Fire Chief Wayne Latchaw said.

The state police fire marshal has been asked to help establish a cause, Latchaw said, but the fire is not believed to be suspicious.

McClatchy-Tribune News Service

I don't think anyone in the fire service is unfamiliar with the term back-up. For example, we routinely strech another line and assign a RIT team just in case. And, we typically do a pretty decent job of providing back-up generators and transmitters for our dispatch centers. However, how comfortable are you with the redundancy of critical infrastructure that is out of your control? Recently, a decent size chunk of California was without telephones due to an intentional act. Needless to say, this impacted a number of things upon which we have come to rely like alarms, radio circuits, and 9-1-1. Whle this doesn't happen frequently, it happens often enough that fire service executives ought to give thought to the "what if?" Given these conditions, how would your citizens report fires and medical emergencies? Are any of your communications systems (radio, alarm, Mobile Data Terminals and Computer Aided Dispatch)dependent upon telephone circuits? What do you do if you lose them all? There's no single solution for every department, but now is as good a time as any to ask, "what's your back-up plan?"

I'm a little late in posting this because the week is halfway over, but the overworked folks in your dispatch center will appreciate a kind word at any time. April 12 - 18 has been officially declared as National Telecommunicators Week; a time to recognize the "first" first responders who get the ball rolling on every run. It's estimated that there are more than 6,100 PSAPs (Public Safety Answering Points) in the United States, and that more than 240,000,000 9-1-1 calls are made every year. So, if your jurisdiction doesn't do anything special for this week, consider starting something next year. And, even if you do, a kudo here and there never hurt; especially when it's delviered to someone who is directly responsible for your safety.

Essex County supervisors approve new public-safety radio system in 16-2 vote The Essex County Board of Supervisors voted 16 to 2 on Monday to approve an up-to-$10 million new public-safety radio system. 
    County Manager Dan Palmer said he expects the new “high band” system to cost about $9 million. The current system was put in place in the 1950s and needs to be replaced, he said.
    “The low-band tends to get a lot of interference,” he said. “It’s way past its prime.”
    Palmer said the new system will take about two years to put in place, after the county completes the civil engineering and acquires Adirondack Park Agency permits. 
    “Overall there are, like, 10 tower sites,” Palmer said. “We are not proposing any new tower sites, but we have to put up new towers.”
    Lake Placid Fire Chief Brad Jacques said his department is already operating on a high-band system, but that a new county-wide system will be a welcome addition. 
    “It’s definitely going to be a positive thing for the emergency services,” Jacques said. “There are some towns that have extremely poor coverage. Lake Placid has just been pro-active.”
    The new system will require some additional equipment for the department, which will be purchased by the county, Jacques said. Jacques said the new system will be especially useful when the department gets mutual aid calls.
    “We will be able to operate on one channel and have communication with everyone,” he said. “It may enhance our coverage.”
    Moriah town Supervisor Tom Scozzafava and North Elba town Supervisor Roby Politi voted no to the measure. 
    “I think these are extreme economic times and I think it sends the wrong message to the taxpayers to spend $10 million,” Politi said. “If the economic climate was better, I don’t think anyone would be against the concept of having better emergency services in our county. I don’t think it’s wise to be doing it.”

Sabotage attacks knock out phone service
Nanette Asimov, Ryan Kim,Kevin Fagan, Chronicle Staff Writers

Friday, April 10, 2009


(04-09) 17:16 PDT SAN JOSE --

Police are hunting for vandals who chopped fiber-optic cables and killed landlines, cell phones and Internet service for tens of thousands of people in Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties on Thursday.



 
The sabotage essentially froze operations in parts of the three counties at hospitals, stores, banks and police and fire departments that rely on 911 calls, computerized medical records, ATMs and credit and debit cards.

The full extent of the havoc might not be known for days, emergency officials said as they finished repairing the damage late Thursday.

Whatever the final toll, one thing is certain: Whoever did this is in a world of trouble if he, she or they get caught.

"I pity the individuals who have done this," said San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis.

Ten fiber-optic cables carrying were cut at four locations in the predawn darkness. Residential and business customers quickly found that telephone service was perhaps more laced into their everyday needs than they thought. Suddenly they couldn't draw out money, send text messages, check e-mail or Web sites, call anyone for help, or even check on friends or relatives down the road.

Several people had to be driven to hospitals because they were unable to summon ambulances. Many businesses lapsed into idleness for hours, without the ability to contact associates or customers.

More than 50,000 landline customers lost service - some were residential, others were business lines that needed the connections for ATMs, Internet and bank card transactions. One line alone could affect hundreds of users.

"It was substantial," said John Britton, spokesman for AT&T.

Authorities throughout the area said Thursday night that nobody had sought help from fire or police officials. But only the coming hours, and maybe days, will tell if there were emergencies nobody knows about yet. Officials worried that some people might have become incapacitated before they were able to summon help without a phone.

"We don't know what this has done to people's lives," said Liz Kniss, president of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. "I'm incredibly troubled by it.

"We haven't experienced a major catastrophic emergency today. But we don't know."

FBI agents, phone company managers and local police said they were scouring the vandalism sites for evidence and aggressively searching for the perpetrators. Potential penalties include criminal charges of vandalism, heavy restitution payments and possibly even worse consequences if someone winds up being hurt directly by the outage.

'We will find who did it' There is no indication so far of terrorism being involved, said FBI spokesman Chris Carroll.

"Someone purposely cut these cables," said Britton. "They didn't have concern for anyone. We will find who did it."

The first four fiber-optic cables were cut shortly before 1:30 a.m. in an underground vault along Monterey Highway north of Blossom Hill Road in south San Jose, police Sgt. Ronnie Lopez said. The cables belong to AT&T, and most of the service disruption came from this attack.

Four more underground cables, at least two of which belong to AT&T, were cut about two hours later at two locations near each other along Old County Road near Bing Street in San Carlos, authorities said. Two additional lines were sliced on Hayes Avenue in south San Jose.

In each case, the vandals had to pry up heavy manhole covers with a special tool, climb down a shaft and chop through heavy cables. Britton said the four cables cut in San Jose were about the width of a silver dollar and were encased in tough plastic sheath. One cable contained 360 fibers, and the other three had 48 fibers each.

At least 500 total fiber-optic strands were sliced, and each had to be painstakingly spliced back together, requiring hours of work.

Police in San Jose and San Carlos are sharing information, said Cmdr. Rich Cinfio, a spokesman for San Carlos police. Investigators said they had no suspects.

AT&T announced a $100,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of the perpetrators, and Santa Clara County officials declared a local state of emergency.

Extra police, firefighters on hand Verizon, which depends on AT&T cables in the South Bay, reported that its 52,214 landline customers who lost service in southern Santa Clara County came back online just before 4:30 p.m. Britton said AT&T restored service to all but a couple hundred customers in South San Jose by 7 p.m., and that the remaining lines should be up and running by this morning.

Extra sheriff's deputies, firefighters and police officers heavily patrolled the streets in the affected areas, authorities said. Additional ambulances were on hand at St. Louise Hospital in Gilroy.

"We're having a more visual presence out there in the field," said Sgt. Don Morrissey, Santa Clara County sheriff's spokesman. "We're out there to be the conduit, if you will. We're trying to bridge that communication gap between emergency services and citizens."

The outage was nearly tragic in at least a couple of instances.

Destiny Evans of Gilroy felt faint Thursday morning at her job as an office manager at Ortho Sports in Gilroy. Her boss, Joseph Abmont, called 911 on a landline and cell phone but couldn't get through.

So he put Evans in his car and drove her to St. Louise Hospital, where she was diagnosed with a kidney infection.

"He was my savior," Evans said as she left the hospital later in the day with her boyfriend.

St. Louise spokeswoman Jasmine Nguyen said the hospital was rescheduling elective surgeries out of concern that if something went wrong, it would have no way to contact doctors.

Among those affected by the outage were customers of Verizon, Verizon Wireless and Sprint wireless, which rely on AT&T to carry their phone traffic back to their networks. Cell phone customers at T-Mobile and AboveNet also were affected.

Verizon spokesman Jon Davies said the outage was first reported to the company at 1:25 a.m. He said customers were affected in the Gilroy and Morgan Hill areas. Verizon is the sole provider of landlines in southern Santa Clara County.

Verizon Wireless customers also were affected in southern Santa Clara County and from Watsonville to Scotts Valley in Santa Cruz County.

Rerouting restores some service At least one of the severed San Carlos lines belongs to Sprint, which lost service to several thousand landline business customers. Crystal Davis, a crisis communications manager for Sprint, said the company was able to restore service to some of its customers by rerouting traffic.

The vandalism comes as AT&T is in talks with the Communications Workers of America for a contract covering more than 80,000 employees, who have been working under their old deal since it expired at 11:59 p.m. Saturday. Union members voted in late March to authorize a strike but have not scheduled one.

Candice Johnson, spokeswoman for the CWA, said union members were not involved in the incidents.

"I can state that CWA members have nothing to do with this at all," Johnson said. "There is an investigation going on, and we'll fully cooperate. But our members are working. They're on the job."

Britton said AT&T has a good relationship with the CWA and was continuing to negotiate with the union on their contract.

Can you help? Anyone with information that could lead to the capture of those responsible for Thursday's sabotage can call (408) 947-7867 or (650) 802-4423.

 
M/A-COM lawsuit: NY system worked as contracted
Mar 31, 2009 12:10 PM, By Donny Jackson

New York state terminated a $2 billion contract with Tyco Electronics M/A-COM for a statewide wireless network (SWN) because the state was seeking financial relief during a time of unprecedented budgetary deficits, not because the land mobile radio, or LMR, system failed to operate as contracted, M/A-COM claims in a lawsuit against the state.
Made available to Urgent Communications last Friday, the litigation — filed in the New York State Court of Claims on Feb. 13 — also alleges that testing of the initial buildout phase of the SWN project was executed poorly and was largely inappropriate, because the tests targeted portable-radio functionality on a system that was only contracted to provide mobile-radio coverage. In addition, M/A-COM claims that the state ignored its independent consultant's findings that the system worked properly in three of the 19 areas cited by the state as being deficient.

Other aspects of the lawsuit reiterate M/A-COM claims that the company has made public previously: that the New York state Office for Technology (OFT) hindered its ability to build out the SWN in a timely manner, that state officials defamed M/A-COM with statements claiming that the company's technology did not work and that the state inappropriately drew down $50 million from the standby letter of credit that M/A-COM had established for the project.

"Facing a potential $2 billion expenditure for the SWN, termination of the master agreement presented the state with a convenient opportunity not only to avoid future billions of dollars in payments but also to seek a $50 million windfall by drawing down on a standby letter of credit issued in connection with the master agreement," the M/A-COM lawsuit states.

According to the lawsuit, the OFT indicated its expectation to accept the initial phase of the SWN — covering Erie County and Chautauqua County — as late as April 10, 2008. On April 25, 2008, Chautauqua County Sheriff Joseph Gerace sent a letter to a trade association stating that he was "very impressed with the system" and planned to use it "as soon as OFT gives the green light."

But the relationship between the state and the vendor seemed to change during the following months. As the New York state budget office projected a $21.5 billion shortfall for the next three years in early May, OFT announced the hiring of Federal Engineering as an independent consultant to verify and validate the performance of the SWN, the lawsuit states.

In a July 2008 test of the initial buildout phase of SWN that the state would use to determine whether to accept the network and begin to pay M/A-COM, the state cited 19 deficiencies. November 2008 tests demonstrated that M/A-COM fixed four of these items, but the state terminated the SWN contract with the vendor in January because of the other deficiencies.

According to M/A-COM's lawsuit, Federal Engineering said the system fully complied in three key areas — vehicular repeaters, emergency calls and gateways — but the OFT deemed these tests as failures. Seven of the cited deficiencies were not part of the contract, the lawsuit states.

"Indeed, virtually all of the technical deficiencies cited by OFT as a basis for termination of the master agreement relate to limitations of a portable radio used on a mobile system, which is the system OFT knowingly purchased," according to the litigation.

In addition, M/A-COM contends that some of the tests were not executed appropriately, claiming that "some testers intentionally misused the equipment in order to ensure that it would not work properly." In particular, the vendor claims some testers held down the push-to-talk button for several minutes as they traveled through the initial buildout phase.

"By intentionally keeping the push-to-talk button depressed over long periods of time (which is in no manner representative of the regular use of the system), the system could not be expected to transition optimally between sites," the lawsuit states.

Urgent Communications spoke with an OFT spokesman on Friday and Monday, but the state did not provide any comments in time to be included in this article.

Tyco Electronics M/A-COM also declined interview requests from Urgent Communications but provided the following prepared statement from spokeswoman Victoria Dillon.

"It is not Tyco Electronics' practice or preference to take legal action against our customers, but the N.Y. Office for Technology left us no alternative," Dillon said. "Despite repeated attempts on our part to resolve this contract dispute amicably, we have received no response from the state. Our complaint, filed with the N.Y. State Court of Claims, accurately represents Tyco Electronics' position in this dispute and our firm belief that we have delivered on all our obligations under our contract with the N.Y. Office for Technology."

Lawyer for fired 911 operator points at troubled system By D.L. BENNETT

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Blame Fulton County.

Blame the county’s 911 managers. Blame a 911 center that devolved into a soap opera.

Blame poor training.

But don’t blame former 911 operator Gina Conteh for misdirecting emergency help to a Johns Creek woman who died last August.

That was the case laid out by Conteh’s lawyer Thursday before the county’s personnel board. A ruling could come next month. The board could reinstate her with back pay.

Rory Starkey, Conteh’s lawyer, said if his client were cleared she’d be happy to retire immediately.

Starkey argued that Conteh was working in a job she wasn’t qualified for, was overworked because the 911 center wasn’t properly staffed and wasn’t properly trained or managed.

“The county is attempting to place the weight of this incident on a $30,000-a-year employee,” Starkey said. “I think that’s horrible. … Training wasn’t done right. Management wasn’t done right.”

Conteh, he noted, was only qualified to take calls, not dispatch ambulances as she did last Aug. 2, when Darlene Dukes called unable to breath, suffering from a blood clot in her lung.

Dukes, a 39-year-old mother of two, gasping for breath, waited an hour for an ambulance to arrive because Conteh sent help to southwest Atlanta rather than Johns Creek.

Conteh testified for about 45 minutes, wrapping up the five-hour meeting, and accepted no blame for her actions last Aug. 2.

She acknowledged that she could see the cell phone call was coming from a tower in north Fulton. But Conteh said Dukes verified the incorrect address in Southwest Atlanta when Conteh herself spelled it back to her.

“I felt like there was no discrepancy,” Conteh said.

She argued that supervisors monitored her closely and should also have relieved her of the call before Dukes’ death.

“We were trained not to go by cellphones,” Conteh said.

County officials painted Conteh as a chronic screwup. They noted during 12 years of county employ, she remained in an entry-level position after facing repeated efforts to reprimand, suspend and fire her. At various times she was disciplined for sleeping on the job, fighting with co-workers, absenteeism and other transgressions.

“She had been at this position for 12 years,” said Nwakaego Okparaeke, who is with the county attorney’s office. “She still couldn’t get it right. You can’t get it right, it’s time for you to go.”

The incident led to intense scrutiny of the 911 center, the firing of Conteh and the forced resignation of the center’s director, Alfred “Rocky” Moore.

An investigation by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution found widespread disciplinary problems, absenteeism, fighting, insubordination and dispatch errors.

The county also commissioned a look at the center and came back with similar findings.

Crystal Williams, interim director of the Fulton 911 Center, testified that Conteh made a series of mistakes that delayed help to an Johns Creek woman who later died.

“She failed to use her training,” Williams said. “She just failed.”