Published: October 16, 2006 12:34 am      

New system lets responders communicate

ASHLAND — Emergency personnel in Boyd County and in some areas of Lawrence County will be able to communicate with each other soon through wireless mobile data units, thanks to a Homeland Security grant awarded to the City of Ashland.

The Ashland Fire Department was recently notified it will receive $200,655 for a proposed regional mobile data project. The grant will be used to purchase the computers and related equipment to be installed in a limited number of emergency vehicles.

The units, according to Ashland Fire Chief David Sloan, have wireless connections to a statewide information network. The units will allow emergency personnel from all different departments to communicate with one another and with other statewide agencies using the system.

There has been a push nationwide in recent years toward interoperable communications between emergency agencies. Agencies are often not able to communicate directly with one another, making a coordinated response effort difficult.

The new units, although they won’t allow agencies to talk to one another, will permit them to share information directly.

According to Senior Capt. Scott Penick, who wrote the grant application, the fire, police and emergency medical agencies in the area currently communicate on 15 different radio frequencies on two different systems. In order for fire officials to communicate with police now, Penick said, a message must be relayed through a dispatcher.

“With each agency using a different frequency, communications can quickly become unmanageable during day-to-day operations or large-scale disaster response situations,” he said.

These units will cut down on some of that traffic by allowing police and firefighters to communicate directly via instant message, Penick said.

“Communication is the No. 1 reason responses are not as good as they should be,” Sloan added. “This is one more way for us to communicate with state agencies that would come down and help Ashland with an emergency.”

“From our point of view as the city’s emergency management agency, it will give us an idea during major incidents what’s going on in the community,” said Matt Adkins, director of Ashland Boyd County Catlettsburg Emergency Management. “Our role is to help coordinate.

“What I look forward to is to at a glance be able to see what units are out and intercommunicate,” he said. “I see it as an opportunity for us to better manage ourselves.

“This computer system is going to be key to helping us do a lot of those intercommunications. It’s a big move in the right direction,” Adkins said.

Interoperability, he added, is “not just being able to communicate. It’s being able to make sure your tools are the same. ... It’s basically getting everybody on the same sheet of music.”

In addition to allowing communication between agencies, the units will put a wealth of other resources at responders’ fingertips.

Tom Adams, director of Boyd County Emergency Ambulance Service, said the mapping capabilities will be extremely helpful to responders. Not only will they be able to see a picture of the location, in some instances the technology will also allow them to track other units and determine which one is closer for a faster response, he said.

Adkins added that responders can also access information about hazardous materials in an instant with the devices and even help protect the privacy of individuals receiving services by no longer having to share personal information over the radio.

According to Sloan, each fire department in Boyd County will receive at least one data unit, as will the Ashland Boyd County Catlettsburg Office of Emergency Management and Boyd County Emergency Ambulance Service. Three fire departments in Lawrence County will also receive units. They are Fallsburg Volunteer Fire Department, Webbville Volunteer Fire Department and Louisa Volunteer Fire Department.

According to Sloan, the units will be placed in command or strategic vehicles first and as more funds are secured eventually every vehicle will get a unit. The grant covers only about a third of the estimated cost of obtaining the units for all fire, ambulance and emergency management vehicles, he said.

According to Penick, the infrastructure needed for the units currently is in place only throughout Boyd and parts of Lawrence County, which is why Greenup agencies were not included in the grant.

Law enforcement agencies, including the Ashland Police Department, which has had a similar program in place for several years, have laid the groundwork and set up the infrastructure for the mobile network, he said.