By Rose Laudicina
Staff Writer
If you live more than 6 miles away from a fire department, your insurance rates are significantly higher than if you were to live within a 6-mile radius of a department.
If you’re a firefighter, there’s a strong chance you’ve bravely gone into a burning building and temporarily lost communication with those outside, known as a “busy-bonk.â€
And if you’re a member of the Orange County Board of Commissioners, you heard fire chiefs, chairs and presidents of the boards of directors of individual fire stations from across the county stress these and other concerns at a meeting Tuesday night.
Earlier this year, the board heard results of a study completed by the MMA Consulting Group assessing the fire, rescue and emergency services of Orange County. The study highlighted both successes and pitfalls of the county’s fire, rescue and emergency services delivery and response model.
Board Chair Bernadette Pelissier said that it was important to address how the departments were adapting to their changing environments and what is still needed to be done to make the fire and rescue services in the county better. In March 2010, county EMS reported that it was failing to meet performance goals and would remain unable to do so unless additional resources were allocated to the department.
Concerns addressed Tuesday included major problems with the Voice Interoperability Plan for Emergency Response (VIPER) communication system, which allows fire and rescue teams to communicate with one another when out responding to calls and when in dangerous situations.
Many who spoke at the meeting said the VIPER system is outdated and was created for use by police officers on patrol, not fire and rescue services. As a result, the system doesn’t work well in large urban areas with tall building.
A number of fire chiefs expressed frustration with the system, sharing stories of how they have lost communication in critical times and saying that in order to make this system work more towers need to be installed – which come at a high cost.
“We have already sunk so much money into [VIPER] that we don’t want to throw it away, but now we have to make additional investments to fix it,†said Chapel Hill Fire Chief Dan Jones.
“I think that a Dixie cup and wire system would work better than what we have now,†Jones added.
Board members emphasized that in order to help the fire and rescue services and EMS improve, they would need fire chiefs to develop a strategic plan.
Since most of what needs to be fixed comes with a high price tag, the commissioners said it would be important for the fire chiefs to help them determine the highest priority and a long-term fix.
“The county needs to be part of the communication, we need to hear from all of you,†Commissioner Pam Hemminger said.
“We need your help to understand what needs fixing first. It is hard for an average citizen and for an average commissioner to understand all of this,†she added.
While the ability to address the board at the meeting on Tuesday night was limited to fire chiefs and board presidents and chairs, Commissioner Earl McKee urged residents in attendance with concerns to address those with the board at a non-work session meeting.
Fixing the county’s call center and paper card dispatch system is essential to the safety of every firefighter and first responder in Orange County – including Carrboro and Chapel Hill. Upgrading the card system to a digital dispatch system should have the added benefit of improving the county’s ambulance response times – which are below the state average of 12 minutes. More towers and other technologies are needed to eliminate the traffic jams that are creating radio outages.
These improvements are not cheap – but its one of the few life and death decisions that our elected officials need to make. Hopefully the county will pursue these improvements quickly, and find the money -without raising taxes. There’s no need to wait for the fire departments. The county’s EMS director knows what to do. If he wants help, he can ask representatives from fire, police, and sheriff in the towns and the county to form a project steering committee.
The EMS project is unrelated to the strategic plan that the eight rural fire deptartment are developing. These departments are independent organizations that operate under contract with the county. They are focused on improving preparedness, standards, and service levels which are already pretty impressive. For example, they are seeking faster ways to haul water to rural homes who lack high pressure fire hydrants.
Because of new rules from the Dept of Insurance, the fire departments are also working to get all residents within the six miles of a fire station. The Orange Grove Fire Department mentioned that they plan to have two new substations built in the next 12 months.
The county and the fire departments are on separate paths and should keep each other informed on progress. “Too much cooperation”: will bog down the process and delay critical results.
Routine bureaucracy and political posturing don’t work with we’re playing with fire. Hopefully the county will act quickly on the critical EMS issues and let the fire departments do their work on their service provision.