Published: September 27, 2008 11:01 pm            

Fire, ambulance responders cite ongoing 911 glitches

The activation of fire and ambulance sirens and pagers remains a persistent, troubling problem for the Cambria County 911 dispatch center, particularly in the northeastern part of the county, officials concede.

A week after Cresson fire Chief John Briel complained about inconsistent radio communications during a church fire in Coupon, emergency responders contend the issues need to be addressed immediately.

“If we don’t do something, we’re going to be going to a fireman’s funeral,” Briel said in renewing the criticisms during a meeting of the Volunteer Firemen’s Association of Cambria County & Vicinity.

Association members are asking for a meeting with the county commissioners, 911 officials and engineers and vendors of the radio system.

County officials are willing to meet with the group, as they have in the past, said Brian Feist, Cambria’s Emergency Services director. But Feist said that the department has not ignored the problems: He said he and his staff are working continuously to correct the problems, an often time-consuming process.

But Steven Bakajz, manager of the Patton Area Ambulance, counters that emergency responders have been patient enough.

“It’s important we get our calls, and it’s going on (nearly) six months now” since Cambria’s high-tech UHF radio frequencies went into service, Bakajz said.

There are days when Briel barely can communicate on his radio. But then, there are times, “I can sit in Johnstown and hear my trucks in Cresson.” For a 10-day span during the summer, the siren at the Cresson fire station failed to activate on the first try by the 911 center, company President Joe Adams said.

Cresson Ambulance Service, while not missing any calls, has had problems with the pagers not being activated, particularly for volunteers who live in the Ashville area and man the Ashville substation, manager Jim Effinger said.

“The system is a good system on paper, but it’s not here yet,” he said. “I’m just frustrated.”

Cresson Ambulance went to the expense of installing a $1,300 internal alert system at its building to make sure that the service was being activated, he said.

These simmering problems surfaced again in the aftermath of a Coupon church fire on Sept. 21.

After the fire, Ashville fire Chief Rick Zupon complained that firefighters couldn’t communicate with each other, endangering their lives as they fought the blaze inside the structure. He also contended that he couldn’t communicate with 911.

But Feist, who reviewed the tapes with communications director Carol Peretin, said the problems were user-oriented, not equipment failure. Too often, he said the firefighters were attempting to talk at the same time on the handheld radios.

The small, handheld radios are sophisticated pieces of equipment designed for hundreds of frequencies with multiple capabilities, he said.

In an update last week, Feist gave the following highlights:

• To address activation problems in the Hastings-Patton area, a new tower site came on line Thursday at St. Boniface. Cambria is leasing space on the WBXQ tower. It has the potential of improving the situation in Cresson.

• In Johnstown, an additional receiver has been placed on one of the towers to improve both Johnstown fire and metro police communications. There were complaints of interference problems in the Moxham and 8th Ward areas.

• Also in Johnstown, a receiver was added to the Industrial Park Tower to improve communications inside the Solomon Homes housing project.

• As a temporary solution for the Cresson Ambulance pagers in the Ashville area, Cambria 911 is activating tones for the Ashville fire department to page from there.

The Cresson area is challenging because the tower, located at SCI-Cresson, sits on top of the steep Cresson Mountain and doesn’t reach down into the valley.

“And we’re not only challenged by the terrain there and elsewhere, but also by buildings and by vegetation. Leaves on trees reflect radio signals,” Feist said.

Currently, the county is looking at getting on a 300-foot tower which a cell phone company plans to build in the Loretto area. Feist said it would help in Ashville-Cresson areas.

“We want to make it the best system we can, and we’ve been continually addressing these concerns,” he said.

But he added solutions can’t be found and completed overnight: Engineers have to be brought in to address the problems, and equipment might have to be purchased and installed by specialized tower workers.

“Everybody thinks there’s a quick fix,” he said. “But it’s not that easy.”

        

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