>>Valley Patriot>>
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Lawrence Fire
Department receives grant to network
emergency communications throughout state
Tom
Duggan
In 1995, a devastating
fire ripped through the Malden Mills factory on Broadway
in Methuen. Firefighters and police officers responded to
the emergency from allover
the Commonwealth.
As the out-of-town public safety officials began to
arrive at the scene, chaos ensued as it became nearly
impossible to coordinate which police and firefighters
would perform which emergency tasks in and around the
Malden Mills building. Because the two-way radio system
that fire and police departments use is on a separate and
unique frequency they were incapable of communicating
with each other.
In fact, contrary to popular perception, police and
firefighters within each individual city and town
dont even have the ability to talk to each other on
their two way radios because each departments radio
system uses a different frequency.
So, while the all-alarm fire at Malden Mills was raging
out of control, there was no way for North Andover
firefighters, for example, to communicate with Lawrence
and Methuen firefighters who were already in the
building. There was no way for emergency medial
responders from other communities to know where to set up
staging for victims of the fire because there was no
central communication system to coordinate the relief
effort.
But thanks to a Homeland Security grant awarded to the
city of Lawrence, now the chaos that ensued during the
Malden Mills fire will never happen again. The $100,000
grant received by the Lawrence Fire Department has paid
for equipment and training for what is called the ARINC
communication system.
The state grant was for $400,000 for four
communities, said Lawrence Fire Chief Takvorian.
$100,000 of that came to Lawrence to pay for
communication equipment called ARINC. What this equipment
does is, it allows radios systems from every other
community to be able to talk to teach other, which was
never available before, it was just never possible.
This system uses the same
technology as the aviation technology used in airports.
Using this technology in an emergency response
communication system means we can now talk to any fire
department, police department or ambulance on the same
channel so we can communicate with each other.
Before we had this system, we couldnt talk
directly to North Andover. So, for example, if Dracut has
a radio from Ipswich or Topsfield, those two communities
could talk to each other with just that one radio. But
nobody else in those units could communicate with anyone
else but the person who had the radio.
Now, with this ARINC communication system, we can
put every department responding to an emergency onto the
same frequency no matter where they are coming from. I
can even call in to the Fire Alarm [building] and they
can patch me into the system. I can talk to my men right
on the scene.
Under a plan designed by Homeland Security, Massachusetts
has been sectioned off into fire districts (see map) with
one community in each district being fire control points.
Currently there are four control points: Lawrence (in
district 15), Beverly (in district 5), Ashland (in
district 14) and Westford (in district 6).
The ARINC communication system was designed so that there
is enough redundancy to allow other targeted communities
to take over if there is a fire or other emergency tying
up emergency officials within a particular district.
If there is another explosion like the one in
Danvers last year, and Beverly [being the control point
in that district] is all tied up with their own fire or
emergency, they can hand off command and control to
Lawrence, Chief Takvorian continued. We have
all the information in our computer system so that we can
call up exactly what that community needs and which
neighboring communities to notify first.
For example, he continued, if a
community calls us and says they need a forestry truck,
we can pull up this system to see which community is
closest to the emergency and dispatch that forestry truck
to the community in need. Until we got the ARINC system
we would have to start calling other communities to see
who had a forestry truck and we lost valuable time
responding to that emergency.
Takvorian said that because Lawrence has an emergency
communication system which in a stand-alone building, (as
opposed to other communities that house their 911 call
centers in a police or fire station), Lawrence was chosen
as the first community in the state to receive the
funding and training.
Currently, Lawrence and Beverly are interoperable and
have nearly completed all their training and installation
of the ARINC communication system, with Ashland and
Westford scheduled to come on line early next year.
Right now we are working with cardboard cards that
tell us, if Danvers goes to a third alarm, here are the
pieces of equipment that Lawrence should call out for
help. But, later when we get this system all hooked up,
we will be able to use the computer program to give us
the list right away and the ARINC system will allow the
radios of everyone responding to be able to
communicate.
In March, The Valley Patriot will detail more about the
ARINC system and provide updated information as other
communities begin to train and use the emergency
communication system.
Tdugjr@aol.com
*Send your questions comments to ValleyPatriot@aol.com
The December 2007
Edition of the Valley Patriot
The Valley Patriot is a Monthly
Publication.
All Contents (C) 2007, Valley Patriot, Inc.
We publish 16,000 newspapers and distribute in Andover,
North Andover,
Methuen, Haverhill, Chelmsford, Georgetown, Groveland,
Boxford, Amesbury, Newburyport
Lawrence, Dracut, Tewksbury, Merrimack, Newburyport,
Westford, Acton, and Lowell.
Hampton & Salisbury Beach, (summers
only)
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