Orangeburg County fire officials say they’ve waited patiently for problems with their radio system to be fixed. Now something needs to be done.
Kirk Davis, a member of the county’s Fire Advisory Board, tells of not being able to hear his fellow firefighters inside a burning residence.
“I don’t want to have to go to a funeral in Orangeburg County for a firefighter because he can’t get to or talk to you in an emergency,” Davis said.
To address the problem, the county Fire Commission and Fire Advisory Board have decided to send officials to speak with the Vidalia, Ga. police department, where most of the interference is coming from.
“Vidalia (Ga.) has so much traffic – they chased a 600-pound bull around town for an hour last week on the radio,” Fire Advisory Board Chairman Clinton Metts told commissioners Monday night.
And Metts said it does not stop there.
“Someone locked someone in the closet and they talk about it on the radio,” Metts said. “They talk about it all day.”
Both boards are unanimous in their agreement to tackle the issue head-on. On Monday, they gave Orangeburg County Fire System Coordinator Gene Ball and other district appointees authority to meet with the Vidalia police department to discuss and, if need be, help address the radio communication issues within the next two weeks.
Some of the issues looked at will be elevation, radio tower location and positional placement.
The Fire Commission is also considering chipping in for adjustments to the Vidalia radio system to limit interference with Orangeburg County radios. Ball estimates any adjustments could cost about $5,000.
Orangeburg County Emergency Services Director John Smith, who was unable to attend the Monday night meeting due to previous obligations, urged the commission not to promise any assistance to the Vidalia police department, citing liability exposure.
“Our office does not recommend taking this route because you can’t be guarded against other problems it will create,” Smith said, noting that if one thing is changed there is not guarantee that another problem would not arise. “It could be an endless money pit.”
Ball said the visit to Vidalia will be strictly a fact-finding mission to discover what may be causing the radio problems.
“This is a learning experience and we don’t want to repeat this learning curve,” Ball said.
Smith noted the county is making progress testing another frequency that has proven clearer and more effective. He said the only interference is coming from an Asheboro, N.C. utility company.
“We have identified what we think is the most likely frequency and listening to it,” Smith said.
Smith said his department has been checking the frequency for about three weeks and has had little interference from the Asheboro utility. He said any interference would most likely peak in April or May and has yet to be a significant problem.
“We are comfortable this is the best route,” Smith said.
Ball said reprogramming existing radios to a different channel would cost an estimated $10,000.
In the interim, what really concerns Metts is that the radio interference could prove hazardous in the event of an emergency when communications are crucial.
“The problem with the Vidalia traffic is that it continues to override both our hand-held and mobile radios and all communications in between,” Metts said. “We need to think about a real situation and that is there are 400 firefighters in this county and they are providing this service both in the medical area and firefighting area at essentially no cost to the citizens in this county.
“I don’t believe we can continue to have this condition alienate this valuable work force.”
Smith said even if changes are made in Vidalia, there are other areas that would also interfere with that frequency.
Metts told of a case of not being able to talk inside a residence while performing CPR on a patient.
“We had to turn the radios off in the house because there was so much skip on the radio,” Metts said. “It needs to be changed.”
Fire Advisory Board member Jim Logan said, “We are constantly thinking of the radio problems rather than the problems of the wreck down the road or where is the patient we are going after and do I have the right address?
“We are worrying about whether or not people are answering the radio or are going to arrive.”
Ball agreed that “something needs to be done.”
“I have continued to be patient until this point ... but we have seen that apparently we have not really solved anything,” Ball said. “There is a time when we react and there is a time when we pro-act.”
“I am tired of the piddle-paddling around with it,” Ball continued. “What we are doing right now is that we are playing with lives of people and we don’t want to do that.”
Ball said it is in the county’s best interests to ensure top-notch radio communications in light of the expected growth.
“Maybe we need to have a wireless system out there,” Ball said. “This is a big county. There is a lot of potential here in this county as far as future growth and infrastructure. Somewhere, the emergency service and the fire service needs to be ready to meet the challenge.”
The fire district upgraded the fire radio system in February from a one-channel system to a six-channel repeater system. The upgrade cost about $60,000, which required the purchase of new radios, the reprogramming of radios and the purchase of pagers.
In addition to the radios, Ball said another issue of concern is visibility of road signs and residential addresses. Ball said many of the home address numbers are not easily visible and that many road signs have disappeared through vandalism.
“It is a problem when responding to a fire or a medical emergency. A lot of times we have difficulty finding the address,” Ball said.
In other business:
T&D Staff Writer Gene Zaleski can be reached by e-mail at gzaleski@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5551. Discuss this and other stories at TheTandD.com.