JACKSONVILLE, Fla. –
August 2011.
There was total confusion as a series of explosions rocked a St. Augustine gas station.
What followed was a roaring fire that brought everything in it’s path to the ground. More than 60 responders from around the region rushed to the scene.
In the midst of the battle, they were forced to ditch their radios and use hand signals instead.
“The system wasn't built to run a department this size - a county this size,” says Interim Fire Chief Carl Shank.
At best, Chief Shank describes St. Johns County's VHF radio system as old and unreliable--a system that put his team, and the public in danger that day. It's a problem Jeffrey Alexander, Director of Emergency Preparedness for seven area counties, sees time and time again.
“If they cannot communicate and work together as a coordinated element, then you have a mess.”
Alexander says there are as many types of radios here as there are agencies, and communication isn't as easy as it seems.
“We don't often think about the radio that the policeman carries...when he pushes that button, will there be somebody on the other side to hear him? We just assume there will be, and we don't realize the massive infrastructure that's required to make that happen.”
But the infrastructure doesn't always work.
Florida once led the country in radio technology. During Jacksonville's 2005 Super Bowl, we were the first to successfully connect radios from different agencies together over the internet. But the internet-based system isn’t perfect.
While it's good for planned events, FHP Captain Keith Gaston, whose district spans 18 counties, says the system wastes time he doesn't have when every second counts.
“If we can make communications work without the patch, that's the best way to do it,” says Captain Gaston.
No one agrees more than Clay County Fire Chief Lorin Mock.
As wildfires roared through parts of St. Johns county this summer, his team raced over to help. But Clay County's 800 MHz system had trouble connecting with St. Johns.
And the problems don't stop there.
Even though Duval also has an 800 MHz system, it's made by different manufacturer and that's a big problem for families living right on the county line. The closest responder may not be the one getting the call.
Finding them could take time.
“I think the real challenge for public safety as a whole is because we have cloistered, proprietary systems,” said Mock.
While Clay and Duval have agreements to help with coordination, there are still critical communications problems that Mock believes will take many years and dollars to correct.
“As many tens of millions of dollars that have been invested, when you look at a statewide or God forbid a nationwide plan, you're talking billions of dollars that would be required to link and make all those systems uniform.”
And while the government has plans to fund a nationwide public safety network, including $10 billion in President Obama's American Jobs Act, some say it's not moving fast enough to save lives.
“Technology is there, the money is not there - it's so expensive to do the upgrades and the infrastructure,” says Captain Gaston.
“It's going to be really challenging in the difficult economic times that they nation finds itself in,” says Chief Mock.
But it's a challenge Chief Shank says he can't wait any longer to take on. Too many lives were threatened when the gas station suddenly exploded that day, and wasting money to mend a system that put them even more at risk, simply isn't worth it.
“Do you want to throw good money after bad? Or do you want to invest in a system that will take us well into the future that's able to handle the job at hand?”
