Illustration by Steve Berry, October 2001 JEMS

This weekend marks the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. We did not want to let the day pass by without remembering the 71 police officers, 343 firefighters, five officers and eight EMS providers killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center. In all, 2,749 people were killed at the WTC, another 189 people died in the attack on the Pentagon, and 44 people died when United Flight 93 was brought down near Shanksville, Pa.

After the attacks, the 9/11 Commission Report highlighted communications problems that contributed to the deaths at the WTC. Much of this has been reported in PSC in previous issues and is reposted now for your review. Below, APCO President Bill Carrow remembers the communications professionals who answered the calls for help, and Jack Daniel highlights advances in in-building technology and codes. We also offer links to related coverage.

Feel free to add your comments below.

–Keri Losavio, PSC Editor

Remember the Telecommunicators, by Bill Carrow
The horrific events that occurred on Sept. 11, 2001, had a great impact on not only the fire, police and EMS responders that day, but also on the 9-1-1 calltakers and radio dispatch personnel staffing the comm centers. All the training in the world couldn’t prepare them for what was about to unfold in three different areas of the country.

Callers were dialing in from airliners, advising that they had been hijacked and attempting to provide location information as they sped past landmarks. Others called in from the Twin Towers, advising telecommunicators that they were trapped and simply asking the calltaker to let their wife or husband know they loved them. And radio dispatch personnel frantically attempted to dispatch emergency resources on disparate radio networks.

The events of 9/11 will remain etched in our minds forever. We will all remember where we were and what we were doing that day. The true unsung heroes of that day were working behind the scenes as they do every day. The telecommunications professionals in New York, Pennsylvania and the Washington, D.C./Virginia area deserve a heartfelt thank you for the jobs they performed that day. We will never know how many lives were saved through their efforts.

In-building Communications Advances Since 9/11, by Jack Daniel

The need for first responder communications inside the World Trade Center (WTC) high-rise structures was brought to national attention on Sept. 11, 2001. One of these structures was equipped with inside wireless coverage enhancement that undoubtedly saved many lives that day, but few other buildings were equipped with radio communications coverage to provide that invaluable support for public safety personnel, as well as the public they protect.

Local fire codes have been the means of reducing the risks of inadequate radio communications since the first code was adopted by the City of Burbank, Calif., on Sept. 21, 1991.Prior to 9/11, the use of codes to protect our first responders was blossoming, starting with agencies mostly in the West and a little nationwide.

An in-depth analysis of what happened on 9/11 by the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) resulted in recommendations to prevent the difficulties that were encountered by responders at the WTC. These recommendations were accepted universally as marching orders for a much safer, more resilient U.S. Recommendation 22, released September 2005, placed national focus on improving in-building communications coverage for emergencies. NIST recommends the installation, inspection and testing of emergency communications systems, radio communications and associated operating protocols to ensure the systems and protocols:

• Are effective for large-scale emergencies in buildings with challenging radio frequency propagation environments; and
• Can be used to identify, locate and track emergency responders within indoor building environments and in the field. (To read the complete recommendations, click here.)

The national fire standards bodies have responded with a series of fire codes with ever-increasing specificity and sophistication as time passes. Today, there are two benchmark codes in play, IFC 2009, Section 510 and optional Appendix J, and the latest is NFPA 72 2010 Section 24.5.2, which fully incorporates in-building enhancement into the main code body.

It is universal practice for local agencies to adopt these national codes, making them the local code in the process. NFPA and IFC codes give every agency the tools to activate in-building codes locally. In time, these codes will become the national technical standard for hardware used and implementation and maintenance. Public communications service providers, such as cellular operators, should embrace the codes because when they are enforced, they provide reduced installation costs to add their services to a mandatory public safety system and vice versa.

Improved public safety coverage inside buildings, subways, basements, tunnels, etc. are a reality and coming to your community.

See additional resources at www.RFSolutions.com.

Interoperability
Interoperability between law enforcement, fire, EMS, emergency management and other first responders and emergency responders is still a huge issue being addressed by the public safety communications community, in the wakes of both 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina.

On Sept. 6, Edward Wyatt wrote an article in The New York Times that said the issue hasn’t been resolved. Wyatt writes, “Despite $7 billion in federal grants and other spending over the last seven years to improve the ability of public safety departments to talk to one another, most experts in such communications say that it will be years, if ever, before a single nationwide public safety radio system becomes a reality.

“In the meantime, public safety and homeland security officials have patched together voice networks in some regions, including New York, that link commanders at various agencies,” he continues. “But the focus in Washington has turned to the development of the next generation of emergency communications, wireless broadband, which seeks to succeed where radio has failed.”

The article touches on the controversy of the reallocation of D Block spectrum to public safety for a nationwide public safety broadband network, when commercial carries begin deploying 4G networks. Wyatt quotes FCC Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau Chief James A. Barnett Jr.’s address to Congress this summer, “There is nothing that is inevitable about having a nationwide, interoperable system. Indeed, the last 75 years of public safety communications teaches us that there are no natural or market forces [that will make it happen].”

Read Wyatt’s article, “9 Years After 9/11, Public Safety Radio Not Ready,” in its entirety.

More on 9/11
Read PSC’s earliest coverage of the attacks from the pages of the November 2001 and February 2002 issues. Coverage includes the initial reactions of APCO and members of the public safety community. Click here to read more.

Also read our coverage of the five-year anniversary of 9/11, originally published in the September 2006 issue of PSC:

• “The Way We Were Changed: Communications Challenges at the WTC & the Pentagon,” by Keri Losavio
• “How 9/11 Altered FDNY’s Emergency Communications,” by Chief Jace P. Pinkus
• “Where We Are Today: Better Equipped to Respond,” by Steve Souder

Originally published in Law Officer magazine, “Buried Alive: Officer Will Jimeno Discusses His Sept. 11 Ordeal & Movie it Inspired” is the true, yet almost unbelievable story of what happened to one New York/New Jersey Port Authority police officer on that day. This week, Law Officer Editor-in-Chief Dale Stockton addresses 9/11 and interviews survivor Will Jimeno, “A Survivor’s Thoughts on 9/11.”

In November 2002, The New York Times ran an article, “9/11 Tape Raised Added Questions on Radio Failures” by Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn, about the analysis of radio communications tapes recorded at the WTC during the response. Click here to read more.

Contributors

Keri Losavio, editor, Public Safety Communications; Natasha Yetman, associate editor, Public Safety Communications; Bill Carrow, president, APCO International; Jack Daniel, APCO Life Member and contributor to NPSTC, IFC and NFPA in-building task groups.