Emergency communications: New vehicle assists in crises

Written by Brian Shea   
Wednesday, September 10, 2008

John Krozar, Wilton firefighter, sits at the communications control center inside a new vehicle being used by regional fire departments to allow for better communications at large scale incidents. The vehicle, among other things, allows different agencies using different radios to all talk to each other at such incidents. —Brian Shea photo

Hurricanes, chemical spills, and other large scale incidents can now be better addressed by the Wilton Fire Department and other towns in the region through the use of a new communications vehicle, according to Fire Chief Paul Milositz.

“It’s a communications base for the whole region,” said Chief Milositz. He said the vehicle would be useful in times of crisis because it would allow for several agencies, all with different radios, to communicate by putting all the radios through one channel, as well as provide department heads a place to make decisions.

“This is for a long-term event,” said Chief Milositz. To assist in making those decisions, the vehicle has a wireless remote weather station to be set up nearby, along with 25 antennas on its roof for communication. The vehicle also has a wireless Internet connection and four surveillance cameras.

The vehicle, while a regional asset, is technically owned by the Fairfield County Hazardous Materials Team, based in Westport. The vehicle cost $650,000, but most of it was paid for from Department of Homeland Security grants. The hazardous materials team contributed $115,000 towards its purchase. Though it was acquired in December, it wasn’t ready until this past February.

Chief Milositz said the vehicle would be used about once a month around the region. William Dingee, assistant fire chief for Westport, said the vehicle could be used to replace a dispatch center in case of an emergency in which one was lost.

The interior of the vehicle is full of communications equipment and has a room dedicated as a conference room for department heads and staff. The room is outfitted with Smartboards and computers to allow for discussion and analysis.

“The incident commanders really need to have some peace and quiet,” said Assistant Chief Dingee. “In the past there were a lot of command posts. A lot of redundancies” and the vehicle will reduce those redundancies, he said.

Chief Milositz said in the past, when there have been incidents involving multiple departments, it was difficult to coordinate communications and with sometimes freezing cold conditions, it was hard to make decisions in concert with other agencies as well.

Among the types of events he could foresee the vehicle being used at are the town fireworks on the Fourth of July and large gatherings similar to the Israel at 60 event the town hosted this year.

“Anytime there’s a big function we’ll try to set this up,” said Wilton Firefighter John Krozar. Chief Milositz said due to the complexity of the vehicle, there was an intense amount of training involved in learning how to use it.

Assistant Chief Dingee said the vehicle could be set up in 30 minutes and all the instruments onboard fine tuned within 45 minutes.

“You can mold it into almost anything you want to do as far as communications go,” said Assistant Chief Dingee.