
{"id":20802,"date":"2011-09-15T10:01:31","date_gmt":"2011-09-15T14:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=20802"},"modified":"2011-10-21T11:18:03","modified_gmt":"2011-10-21T15:18:03","slug":"fire-departments-voice-concern-over-dysfunctional-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2011\/09\/15\/fire-departments-voice-concern-over-dysfunctional-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Fire departments voice concern over dysfunctional system"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Rose Laudicina<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a firefighter, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a strong chance you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve bravely gone into a burning building and temporarily lost communication with those outside, known as a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153busy-bonk.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>And if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re 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. <\/p>\n<p>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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fire, rescue and emergency services delivery and response model. <\/p>\n<p>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. <\/p>\n<p>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. <\/p>\n<p>Many who spoke at the meeting said the VIPER system is outdated and was created for use by police officers on patrol, not fire and rescue services.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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work well in large urban areas with tall building. <\/p>\n<p>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 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which come at a high cost. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We have already sunk so much money into [VIPER] that we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to throw it away, but now we have to make additional investments to fix it,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Chapel Hill Fire Chief Dan Jones. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think that a Dixie cup and wire system would work better than what we have now,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Jones added.<br \/>\nBoard 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.<\/p>\n<p>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. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The county needs to be part of the communication, we need to hear from all of you,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Commissioner Pam Hemminger said. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We 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,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she added.  <\/p>\n<p>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. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20802"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21525,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20802\/revisions\/21525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}