Due to budget reductions within the 2008 Interior Appropriations budget, the Bureau of Indian Affairs is reducing their hot shot crews from nine to seven. Effective immediately, according to a memo dated March 19, the Mescalero Hot Shots of their Southwest Region, and the Bear Paw Hot Shots of their Rocky Mountain Region, are disbanded. A Reduction-in-Force, which means employees may be fired, is to begin within 10 days.
Category: Uncategorized
European Union considers rapid reaction force
The European Union (EU), comprised of 27 member states, has been considering since April of 2007 the development of a rapid reaction force that could respond quickly to wildland fires, floods, and other emergencies. The parliament even passed a resolution to that effect, but little has taken place to make it happen.
I recently talked with someone in the UK who told me that in the last 2 weeks, due to last summer’s fires in Greece, the fire on the Greek island a couple of weeks ago, and the recent flooding in the UK, discussions along these lines have accelerated. In addition to other resources, they are considering a fleet of air tankers that could respond quickly to wildland fires in any of the 27 member states. The resources would be funded by the EU and is being advocated by the Directorate for Civil Protection.
Photo: Athens burning, July, 2007
California: Prescribed Fire Blog
The San Bernardino National Forest is conducting a multiple-day prescribed fire near Lytle Creek, California. What makes this one interesting is that they have an ongoing blog describing the actual daily events, along with lots of photos. One photo shows in the background snow on what I assume is a north-facing slope, while someone is running a drip torch in the foreground. It can be a luxury to do a prescribed fire when certain slopes or areas are unburnable due to differences in fuel moisture or snow cover.
Gabe Garcia, the Cajon District Ranger, and Deputy District Ranger Mary Long are providing the updates. This is the first time I have heard of daily blogging about a prescribed fire event, but I think it’s a great idea. It is not on a typical blog site, but is on the Wrightwood, California forum. It is worth a visit.
Firefighters’ distrust of digital radio system grows
When fire agencies began moving to trunked 700-800 MHz radio systems in larger numbers 5-7 years ago, I remember reading a study of similar systems used in
Australia which concluded that these systems have no business being used for emergency services, and that they should only be used, for example, for garbage pickup.
From Mobile Radio Technology (April 1, 2008):
On April 16, 2007, firefighter Kyle Wilson was part of a crew dispatched to fight a residential fire in Woodbridge, Va. He died in the line of duty.
A detailed report on the incident recently released by Prince William County Department of Fire and Rescue concluded that problems associated with the use of the county’s Motorola digital trunked radio system contributed to the tragedy. Issues reported by other firefighters during that incident, which was further complicated by strong winds, ranged from signal distortion and transmission failure to radios displaying “out of range” signals.
Fire safety advocates now are encouraging fire departments across the country to study the incident in hopes that future tragedies could be avoided. Prince William County’s fire department, through further tests, concluded that digital portable radios are “extremely vulnerable to poor environmental conditions and interference of digital noise from ambient sources, which negatively impact the ability of emergency personnel to effectively communicate.”
A handful of fire and police departments, fearing the loss of lives, have opted to continue using analog systems even when the rest of their county’s emergency personnel are using digital trunking systems.
The common complaint, which most affects fire departments, concerns the digital vocoder’s inability to differentiate between a voice transmission and background noise – whether a chain saw, sprayed water or personal alarm. Background noise renders the voice transmission distorted and often unintelligible. Another critical problem is that digital radios lose contact inside buildings. “In most cases, it is a very political and sensitive position to abandon expensive technology and go back to something that is old,” said Daryl Jones, owner and president of Telecommunications Engineering Associates, which manages public safety systems throughout the San Mateo area in California. “But many agencies are finding that complaints from line personnel, both in fire and police, are so significant.”
The Boise (Idaho) Fire Department spent about $1 million two years ago on mobile and portable radio equipment to join a cutting-edge countywide 700 MHz digital trunking system. While training users on the system, the fire department discovered problems with voice intelligibility when a firefighter’s low-air alarm went off. That led the department to investigate the issue further, and it found more instances where alarms interfered with the quality of voice transmissions. Today, the department and other fire departments in the county remain on analog VHF radios while the rest of the county operates on the 700 MHz digital trunking system.
“Right now our dispatch center wants to dump VHF,” said Paul Roberts, a captain with the Boise Fire Department, “[and] we are trying to look at alternatives to at least get on a system that will lessen the load on dispatchers having to patch all of this together. … But until there is a solution to the digital processing of speech when you have competing noises, we have to stay on analog.”
The problems associated with digital systems became known in 2006. Since then, the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) established a Digital Problem Working Group and appointed Chief Charles Werner of Charlottesville, Va., to serve as its chair. So far, the working group has explored the creation of a best practices solution to work around the problem until a long-term solution can be found. Prince William County’s findings have been forwarded to that group for inclusion in the process.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) also is analyzing the problem, as are radio manufacturers such as M/A-COM and Motorola. They are expected to jointly release a formal analysis – in conjunction with the IAFC – that encompasses best practices to help departments to minimize the problems.
“We’re running through this scientifically and hope to distribute a wrap-up summary shortly,” Werner said.
Roberts, who chairs the IAFC testing group, says the testing – conducted by radio engineers – involves taking words that sound alike and requiring the listener to distinguish which word is being said over the background noise of chainsaws and hose sprays.
Motorola declined to comment, saying it was cooperating with the testing and awaiting the conclusions from NIST and the IAFC.
But Chris Lougee, vice president with LMR vendor Icom America, thinks older technology would help solve these background noise problems. “Everyone knew from the beginning that the P25 vocoder was a half-rate vocoder. As you speak into the microphone, you are converting human voice into a data stream that is reassembled at the end,” Lougee said. “TIA … is encouraging a move to a full-rate vocoder, which we are doing. It vastly improves the amount of audio and quality.”
Rapid City Journal: "Keep fire center at airport"
The Rapid City Journal has taken sides in the battle between the Federal Aviation Administration and the wildland fire agencies in the FAA’s efforts to evict the Northern Great Plains Interagency Dispatch Center from the Rapid City Regional Airport.
The FAA wants to evict the dispatch center, tear down the building, and then allow a private company to use the space to build an aircraft hanger.
An editorial in today’s Rapid City Journal calls this “bad fiscal policy and bad firefighting policy”. And:
“…public safety issues of wildfire suppression should take precedence over the needs of the private sector for bigger and better hangar space.”
They are absolutely right. All involved parties agreed to have the dispatch center at the airport. They spent $1.8 million to build it, and to tear it down after just a few years would be an incredible waste of taxpayers’ dollars.
CIA pays full cost of liability insurance for employees
The federal land management agencies pay only 50% of the the cost of professional liability insurance for their fire personnel, but the CIA recently decided to pay 100% in a new policy reported on March 17 by the Associated Press. It’s good to see that a priority in the CIA is taking care of their own.
“WASHINGTON (AP) — The CIA announced Monday that it will now pay the full cost of legal liability insurance for about two-thirds of the agency workforce.
The insurance costs about $300 a year. Until now the CIA has paid just half of the premium annually. Only about 15 percent of eligible employees actually apply for reimbursement.
One shift is already looming: A change in administrations could make it more likely lawsuits will be filed against CIA interrogators for a controversial program approved by the Bush White House — the use of harsh interrogation techniques and the secret movement of prisoners, known as extraordinary rendition.
The insurance comes from private companies to cover legal expenses that arise out of actions undertaken in the course of a CIA officer’s official duties. It is meant to cover potential litigation expenses including damages. It covers legal expenses associated only with those activities undertaken after liability insurance is taken. The reimbursement program began in 2000.
Agency Director Michael Hayden on Monday announced that he had expanded the pool of those eligible to be reimbursed for insurance to include all employees involved in covert activities, not just those involved in counterterrorism and counterproliferation.
Any agency employee who supervises one or more employees is eligible to be reimbursed as will attorneys, grievance officers, equal employment opportunity counselors, auditors, IG inspectors and investigators, polygraph examiners, recruiters or hiring advisers and security officers.
“This benefit will help keep agency employees focused on accomplishing the mission, rather than being concerned about potential litigation costs that might arise as a result of doing their jobs,” said CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield.”
