By Sven Berg, Idaho State Journal
Original publication date: May 31, 2011

Last year, as crews from across eastern Idaho responded to the record-setting Jefferson Fire on the Idaho National Laboratory site, they found themselves confronted with a nuisance that made their work more difficult: They couldn’t easily talk to each other.

In order for crews from one fire department to communicate with firefighters from the other myriad departments on site, they had to have several different radios on site.

Because of the delays and potential for confusion that has complicated situations like the Jefferson Fire, INL now plans to put in place a radio system that will allow emergency-response personnel to communicate on a single frequency.

Instead of buying the equipment Ã’ towers, antennas, repeaters , etc. Ã’ needed to support this new system, the lab will pay a private supplier for use of the system, said Tony Pascavage, one of INL’s information management directors.

Pascavage said he expects the system to be operational in late 2012.

INL’s emergency response crews are partners in a mutualaid agreement with their counterparts in the surrounding areas, including county and city fire departments and law-enforcement agencies. Crisp, reliable communication between all of the responding crews can be crucial to effective response to emergencies such as fires and crashes on the highway that crosses the 900-square-mile INL site.

“It became very clear maybe five years ago that we needed a better way to do interoperations,” Pascavage said. “This really is a radio system that covers several thousand square miles.” 

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