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Should all members of a department have portable radio's
I am on a small department in south west Iowa. We have 25 members and cover 2.2 sqaure miles. 22 of our 25 members live in town. Only officer's can respond to the scene and everybody else goes to the station. Our chief issued a HT 1000 portable radios to all the members . My idea was to mount chargers on the wall near the trucks if it's a fire call grab a radio on your way out the door because I dont think that all members need a radio assigned to them. But he wanted everybody to take a radio home with them even though the rules he laid out says that only officers will go enroute over the radio for all calls, EMT's /paramedics for medical, and divers for water rescue. The firefighters are not allowed to talk on the main dispatch channel only our fireground channel. I also think that there is more potential for these radios to be broken or stolen just lying around somebodys house or left in a POV. Does anybody else have an opinion on this.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by BillySFCVFD on
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All the problems I have heard here rarely, if ever, exist with my VFD. Different channels are used for different reasons plus scan. Radios for all, those who act reasonably, which is every member, works great here. Wish it was true everywhere. Training, knowledge and situational awareness might make it work in more VFDs. TCSS and god bless all FFs.
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Permalink Reply by Brian Dumser on
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That's where common sense, radio SOP's and training come into play. You can't advocate people NOT having radios because of what might happen!
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Permalink Reply by Justin Buck on
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everbody on our dept. has a radio, pager and a moble that goes in there cars
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Permalink Reply by PFC Harmon on
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No me and 2 other ff's that live far out carry tools and gear in our trucks. On a brush or forest fire we have rakes flappers pulaskis and chainsaws. On ems calls me and another ff are also emts so we both have jump bags. On a structure fire we get there size the scene up make sure everyone is out shut off propane or gas lines. Its not the best idea but if a call is at the end of my district and I leave my house to go to the sation (truck would pass me before I got there) get in the engine I'm looking at a 35 to 45 min eta. I think in most cases its better to get on scene and see whats going on
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That would be great. But we don't have the money to do that. I used to have a minipumper parked at my house year around that we would drain the water out of in the winter but the transmission went out and we sold the truck. We are trying to get a new station but its a long uphill battle.
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Permalink Reply by John on
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Our Officers are the only ones that carry a radio all the time as for the vollys we get pagers that is tuned in to our Deptartments frequency to alert us when needed. I would like to be able to have one but with the transmit button disabled in order to hear the Ops channels. As for when we are out on a call we have enough radios on the engine for all crews, but only the officer is supposed to make any radio transmission to dispatch or to the IC.
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Right on Brian.
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Permalink Reply by Joseph Gardner on
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Me personally I believe all members should have a radio as part of their gear. It's kinda like a second life line to have when something goes wrong.
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Permalink Reply by Ray Edwards on
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We have radios for everyone.We have 5 stations and 2 boat docks.We cover a large area and 2 lakes.Yes, once and awhile,maybe 2-3 times a year,we have to remind everybody about the radio traffic.However, the risks of not having the radio are not worth taking.What if something happens enroute?What if you are cancelled and the responding units don't have a radio to hear about the cancel?I was in a perfect situation the other night which was proof of the need for radios.I was on my way back to the station after a mva around 1:00a.m. when I drove by the house that our dept. had just bought.I noticed the alarm was going off.I radioed to my chief that the alarm was sounding and he said he would be on the way to shut it off.(no , not the fire house,a real house with 5 acres we bought next to our station to use for training)He asked me to do a drive around while he was enroute.Do to the layout of the land, I parked the truck off the side lighting up the house.There were no curtains or lights.Everything looked good.All doors locked and windows secure.As I rounded the last corner back to the front, a male came out the door.I got on my radio and yelled that I needed help as someone was in the house.Thanks to me blinding him with a powerfull spotlight and a neighbor across the street coming to my aid, We convinced the suspect to get on the ground until more help arrived.Yes, this could have turned out bad.I was unable to backoff do to were I was versus the truck.I was not going to get shot in the back if he had a gun.I was covered by a tree and my flashlight.Without the radio, how would I have called for help.It also helps when you let medics know about a patiant while they are enroute.Be safe.
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Permalink Reply by Fire Capt. 1304 on
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Don't get me wrong I dont mind Having a radio for everybody I just dont know if they should be taken home. Simply because nobody except officers respond to the scene and only officers can talk on the main dispatch channel for fire calls, Officers and EMT/paramedics for medical, Officers and divers for water rescue. So for the basic FF responding to the station has no use for that radio. Until a couple of years ago we only had enough radios for officers but a large paid department that boarders us went to an 800 system so the gave us 28 HT1000's. I do think we should have a radio for every person and wouldnt mind them having the radio at home if they were allowed to use it.
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Oh no I havent given him any crap about it. The chief before him wouldnt even get these radios programed for us because he did not want everyone to have a radio at all. He put one on each truck and none of our trucks roll with anyless than three people so that didnt really work out well. I do applaud the new chief for getting these radios programmed for us. Maybe the issue is'nt everbody having one to take home but instead changing the rules he laid out to make them more useful for the basic firefighter. Espescially since out of 375 calls last year only 73 of them were fire calls.
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Take my radio and just issue me an officer with one. Hahaha
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