When it comes to being notified of emergencies over the county's new narrowband radios, one phrase comes to mind for West Burlington Fire Chief Mike Heim.
"Hit and miss," he said, describing a federally mandated radio system full of bugs his department has had to work around with cell phone text messages.
Tired of missing pages with the system, firefighters in Heim's department have been notified of emergencies via text message for the last two weeks. Using cell phones has worked well for the department, but before that, it wasn't uncommon for more than half of Heim's firefighters to have silent pagers during an emergency.
The Hawk Eye
"Hit and miss," he said, describing a federally mandated radio system full of bugs his department has had to work around with cell phone text messages.
Tired of missing pages with the system, firefighters in Heim's department have been notified of emergencies via text message for the last two weeks. Using cell phones has worked well for the department, but before that, it wasn't uncommon for more than half of Heim's firefighters to have silent pagers during an emergency.
The Hawk Eye
