When firefighters from multiple companies arrive at a scene in the Mon Valley, chances are they're not operating on the same radio system. That means communication between departments has to be relayed through a person who has multiple sets of radios.
It's a situation that U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair, likened to "The Tower of Babel," and was the same problem that plagued emergency crews after the terrorist attacks of Sep. 11, 2001.
But by the end of the year, 27 companies in the Mon-Yough Fire Defense Council will receive new radios that operate at a 400 mhz bandwidth through the Public Safety Interoperable Communication Federal Grant Program, Rep. Murphy and U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills, announced Tuesday in McKeesport.
Nationwide, nearly a billion dollars in grants have been designated for local emergency agencies to improve communications.
The radios will not only enable communication between departments, it also will speed the delivery of messages between dispatchers and firefighters because the dispatcher only has to send one message on a single bandwidth.
The Motorola radios operate at a much higher frequency than most of the companies' current radio systems, which means they can operate over longer distances -- at least a half-mile -- and they can work anywhere, even in low-lying areas, where lower-frequency signals have trouble reaching.
Currently, some of the departments' lower-frequency radios can't operate in these "dead zones," and only work over short distances.
"We'd have to be within one city block to hear each other," said McKeesport Fire Chief Kevin Lust. This means that on occasion, chiefs have to send volunteers into dangerous situations without the benefit of communication.
At the news conference, Wayne Lewis, the chief of Glassport's Citizen Hose Co. 1, recalled "sending volunteers into burning buildings and not being able to communicate with them."
And after rains from Hurricane Ivan flooded Millvale, his company went to assist other emergency crews, but had difficulty coordinating with them.
In a region with so many fire departments -- Allegheny County has 203 -- the ability to communicate with one another is crucial.
Allegheny County Chief of Emergency Services Bob Full said after the 27 departments receive the radios, about 95 percent of the county's emergency services will be on the 400 mhz system.
