May 14, 2020 Ct State Forestry Fire Suppression frequencies; UPDATE

[n1chu]

This is an update of a 5 year old post;

Northeast fire compact.
159.285 MHz

I ran into Tony Flamio, seasonal employee, Ct. Forest Fire Service today (April 10, 2025). Tony was a full time member of the Town of Farmington Fire Dept. for years before he retired, who also responded with the Northeast Fire Compact nationwide, now doing seasonal work for DEEP. After we caught up with what each of us was doing these days I quizzed him on where he was going with a Ct. Forest Fire Service utility body 2013 Ford F-350 with about 40K miles on its odometer and trailer carrying a Koboda off-road fire suppression buggy. They were off to the northwest part of the state to conduct a controlled burn of about 200 acres. (Tony has driven this rig all over the country, its primary purpose to support the national campaign on suppression.) He also confirmed the vehicle has two comms radio’s… the Northeast Fire Compact frequency of 159.285 MHz and an 800MHz radio (which I imagine is for the federal 800 MHz frequencies and CLMRN. It’s not known if the radio is solely for CLMRN or if it also supports the federal simplex frequencies, my guess is why not both? The radio does have the capability of supporting both. Todays activity will have Tony working with the State of Ma and he expects the 159.285MHz frequency will be their mutual aid channel for comms.

Just thought it worth mentioning.



The National Regional Planning Council(NRPC) also uses 800 MHz frequencies, specifically 806.0125/851.0125 MHz, for hailing, with CTCSS 156.7 Hz.

 

[cg]

That would be 8CALL90

An inside look at DEEP's prescribed burning program around Connecticut

The state is starting fires in specific locations to help the environment. It’s all part of the state’s prescribed burn program and they allowed us access to observe the work being done. Conditions had to be perfect, and Thursday morning, a window opened for the group to burn in specific...

www.nbcconnecticut.com

 

[n1chu]

CG, Thanks for the input on controlled burns. As a former Ct. Fire Warden for the Town of Farmington, my crew would respond to fires in other local towns such as Bristol, Wolcott, Burlington, etc. …we would roll with the state fire suppression crews out of the old Farmington location on Scott Swamp Rd, (Ct. Rt. 6) with their pickup truck (designated “39”) with a slip-on unit (tank, portable pump, hose, tools) to just about every fire where manpower was needed. We spent a week on Canaan Mtn one year! The Farmington Depot also responded with a military surplus 2 1/2 ton truck w/slip-on unit & and a previous Air Force 6 by 6 (3 tires on each side which were all drive wheels when necessary). Those old surplus vehicles could climb the side of a Mtn right through the woods without any unimproved roads. They didn’t go too fast and never used any traffic clearing equipment such as lights and sirens. There was a pumper (designated 108) that did. But it was old, needed water for a leaky radiator which caused a need to stop and add water. It was comical, driving on Rt. 8 with lights and siren, passing traffic only to need to pull off the road to add water and watch all the traffic we passed pass us! Wardens crews were fed every 4 hours as necessary. There were times where suppression activities would last much longer and an order would go down the hill to (in my area) the Bristol Burger King for 100 Whoppers, 100 French fries and 200 sodas or water! Any leftovers were brought back to the Farmington depot for the next morning when we would gather to head back up on the hill. A cold Whopper tasted pretty good to us… it was our breakfast most times. And when the task was to pull thousands of feet of forestry hose off a burn site, the woods weren’t the only thing burned… we burned some calories!

The fire warden program came to an end eventually, the state asking the local fire depts to dedicate their equipment and manpower for at least the first two hours giving the state time to pull their maintainers together to respond. Although there was legislation on the books, the state DEP was strapped for cash at the time, we didn’t get what was prescribed for support in both our equipment needs and personal needs, but the state fire control officers at the state office building and the supervisors on the line did the best they could by us.

 

[Dan6071]

Good morning all would you happen to have the the frequency for state forestry fire for New London County.

 

[bmeehan282]

That would be 8CALL90

An inside look at DEEP's prescribed burning program around Connecticut

The state is starting fires in specific locations to help the environment. It’s all part of the state’s prescribed burn program and they allowed us access to observe the work being done. Conditions had to be perfect, and Thursday morning, a window opened for the group to burn in specific...

www.nbcconnecticut.com

CTS Updated the radios in some of the Forestry Division vehicles. You'll hear the West Fire Officer "436" every so often..

 

[n1chu]

CTS Updated the radios in some of the Forestry Division vehicles. You'll hear the West Fire Officer "436" every so often..

When you say “west” are you referring to the entire state or maybe the western section of New London County?

A recent fire in Berlin could be monitored using the Forestry Division of DEEP talkgroups on CLMRN along with certain Interoperability talkgroups, assigned on a case-by-case basis (meaning just for that particular incidence. They may use the same interoperability talkgroups for Forestry again, or not, depending upon if they get assigned to Forestry or are already assigned to another CLMRN user… on a “first come first served” basis if you will. You just need to monitor the bank of interoperability talkgroups along with the DEEP Forestry talkgroups.