Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ed Fox on February 5, 2008 at 5:51pm

Considering 3 of us have radios and 2 don't I'll leave that up to you to decide. But we all have cell phones that get used alot and that works pretty well. On our portables we can only transmit on two channels 6 and 9. 6 is truck to staion which can be heard county by and is monitoered by fire control, 9 is soley fire-police but is on all the radios in our fire units ambulances and chiefs cars.

Permalink Reply by Joe on February 5, 2008 at 6:32pm

is it your personal cell phones that you use? That to bad that your fire dept. doesn't have enough radio's for the fire police It's really a shame since fire police deal with all kind of situations & don't have proper communacations

Permalink Reply by Bob Kinne on February 9, 2008 at 1:19pm

Of the 12 Fire Police we have, 8 have radios. The others are older members and only show up for parades or other civic functions. We have 6 channels: countywide fire channel, countywide EMS channel, and countywide Police dispatch channel. We also have local EMS, Carbondale Local (utilized by local police and fire units), and our own local fire police channel. We can monitor and transmitt on all channels ... comes in quite handy.
Some of our members also wear Pass devices when operating in traffic. If a man is working a block away and goes down, unable to use his radio, a screaming Pass alarm will alert others to the problem.
The major problem with supplying fire police with radios is $$money$$. Most departments just don't have the financial resourses to give their fire police the tools they need to do the job we have been asked to do. OOOH ... don't get me started on that subject ...

Permalink Reply by Ed Fox on February 9, 2008 at 2:59pm

yes there our personal cells

Permalink Reply by Joe on February 9, 2008 at 11:41pm

Oh I know what you mean. We have to fight for everything we get. when we get a little money set aside for the fire police. it seems to disappear. But we have a great ems side that helps us out great. & so does the ladies auxuary. Its to bad the fire police don't get the respect that they deserve

Permalink Reply by Bob Kinne on February 10, 2008 at 9:24am

With an increase in traffic over the past couple decades and a change in the attitudes of drivers (i.e. "...it's my road so get out of my way before I run you over ! ), the role of the fire police is one of the most dangerous jobs in the fire service.
A great number of departments have taken the responsible action of supplying their fire police with the tools they need to do the job with the most efficiency and highest level of safety possible and, while understanding the issue, many more departments would truely love to supply their personnel with such equipment, but budget limitations make it extremely difficult.
Unfortunately there are far too many departments who will simply hand their people a traffic wand and a reflective vest and turn them loose in the street. They would never send a firefighter into a burning structure without full PPG and SCBA, but don't think twice about the dangers we face while trying to protect them. Departments need to wake up to the need to fully equip and protect their fire police, and the powers-that-be need to make the money available for underfunded departments to purchase the things needed for us to do our jobs safely.

Permalink Reply by Joe on February 10, 2008 at 10:03am

very true.Some fire companies don't look at our job is as dagerous as a fireman. Firemen run into a burning Bldgs. But firepolice have to put up with people that don't know how to drive which is more dangerous.Its not hard to figue out the answer. but some people don't look at it that way.

Permalink Reply by Bob Kinne on February 10, 2008 at 11:08am

We are extremely fortunate in that we have a chief and city administration who truely understand the situation and, dispite budget restraints, work with us in bringing our fire police unit into the 21st century.
Last year the chief helped us put together the material to have seven (7) 6 foot wooden rail barricades constructed for use in blocking off streets and crowd control ... cost to the department or the city ... nothing. They have made opperational changes which have enabled us to operate with a higher level of safety and have stood behind us 100% whenever we approached them with ideas for making our job easier and safer.
We recieved a $5,ooo. state grant to purchase 3 season high visibility coats for all our personnel as well as other safety equipment, and we are working on a new state grant to purchase portable lighting equipment so no person has to work on a dark or poorly lit street corner without giving drivers a clear view of the traffic control point in front of them.

Permalink Reply by Nigel Capon on April 5, 2008 at 12:00am

Down here in New Zealand, I have ten staff and they all have handhelds, we operate on two channels.

We have a repeater channel, and a simplex channel. the Officers and Senior Constable's have the fire ground channel

We also have two other radio's dedicated for the Police Incident Controller and one for the local roading contractor ( at major incident's )

We also have a number of spare handhelds for any additional firefighters assisting at the scene