Jeffeson Co. - Large Brush Fire

[mike_s104]

~12:00 Noon - Large brush fire; rapidly growing. close to 6298 Leetown Road. Berkeley Co. alerted and toned to assist.

Traffic on Jefferson Co. TAC1 (TG 1533). TAC1 on the WVIRP is patched to the analog Fire 2 153.8900MHz (162.2).

12:16 - Fire contained.

For some odd reason, the Berkeley trucks are not able to communicate with Jefferson. Isn't this the whole point with the WVIRP? Shouldn't Berkeley Co. dispatch be able to patch their TAC1 to Jefferson TAC1 or vice/versa? Better yet, shouldn't the Berkeley Co. units be able to switch all radios to Jefferson TAC1? Or another brilliant idea would to have a common channel for both?

 

[jaybotoo]

They should have switched to the regional channels. Sounds like the learning curve is still there.

 

[mike_s104]

They should have switched to the regional channels. Sounds like the learning curve is still there.

yep...maybe once Morgan and Hampshire are fully on the WVIRP, they need a regional meeting and discuss how to use the radios with other counties and agencies.

 

[atlong]

I'd bet that the Berkeley County radios don't have the Jefferson County zone programmed into them yet. Why not? That's a good question.

 

[mike_s104]

I'd bet that the Berkeley County radios don't have the Jefferson County zone programmed into them yet. Why not? That's a good question.

Good point, but that brings up another...do the Jefferson radios have the Berkeley channels? They sure as hell associate with the Berkeley site as well as the Jefferson site (linked I guess). It was kinda dumb...I was able to hear BOTH on the same site and BOTH had to go through the dispatcher and a phone call. Millions of dollars and they are not better off than before. They'd be better off all having scanners to listen to the other side and use it as a duplex mode. I'll set it up for them for a few million.

 

[atlong]

Yes, I believe Berkeley County is Zone 3 on Jefferson County's fire radios. Zone 1 is probably the fire talkgroups and Zone 2 could be the county talkgroups they share with the Sheriff's department, or a blending of all of them.

 

[jaybotoo]

I know that Jefferson County dispatch can patch channels together. Not sure why they didn't do it in this case. The regional incident channels are also designed for this type of incident. Not sure on why they weren't used either.