Memphis, TN - Shelby County Fire Department seeks to change fire code

[Thunderbolt]

Rule would require radio boosters for commercial buildings

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Decades ago, a firefighter who became trapped or lost inside a burning building had one way to signal to friends outside: throw a helmet out a window and hope someone noticed, said Shelby County Fire Department spokesman Brent Perkins.

Shelby County Fire Department seeks to change fire code : Local News : Memphis Commercial Appeal

 

[littona]

Excellent! I wish more places would adopt codes like this.

 

[APTN]

Boosters

It sounds like a good idea, but I'm sure it's expensive. Also, what about parking garages ? I've been in some where it's impossible to get a radio or cellular signal on the lower levels.

 

[ofd8001]

It's all owing to how much value you put on the life of a trapped firefighter, or an EMS person with a combative patient or a cop fighting with a shoplifter in a shopping mall. Seriously injured emergency responders mean a raise in worker's compensation rates, and that raise is borne by the taxpayers.

One should also bear in mind that he or she could be in one of these buildings that is on fire, and is on the phone with the dispatcher center saying "I'm trapped in room 310", but the dispatcher can't tell that to the firefighter in room 309 because the radio coverage sucks.

I imagine when you compare the costs of the RF amplification stuff to the cost of a building large enough and constructed with concrete and steel, you are talking peanuts. They probably will spend more on landscaping than radio equipment. Also owing to what they put in, I've been led to believe that coincidentally may improve cell coverage too. So that may be helpful to Joe Average Citizen too.

Lastly most likely the radio coverage was there before the building. If a building goes up and that degrades radio coverage, the costs to overcome that should be paid for by the person who created the problem and not me the taxpayer. After all, I'm not getting a share of the profit from the building's construction.

I'm trying like heck to get Louisville to do the same.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.