Radio Issues Delay Ambulance for Hurt Miss. Firefighter

Sept. 20--NATCHEZ -- While Adams County Supervisor David Carter said the area firefighters did an excellent job this past weekend attempting to save the Kingston School, one major issue did come to light.

A firefighter was injured while fighting the fire, and Natchez Fire Department's radio system could not get through to dispatch to call for an ambulance, Carter said.

Firefighters complain of several other areas in the county in which the radio system does not work well either.

"That's not the most rural area in the county, and they couldn't get the radio to work," Carter said during Monday's board of supervisors' meeting. "To me that is totally unacceptable."

Emergency Management Director Robert Bradford said the problem is the range of NFD's antenna on Ogden Road has a problem, and because the antenna is located on an AT&T tower, he cannot easily fix the problem.

"I have to wait on AT&T," Bradford said. "I can't go in and touch their equipment."

Bradford said he has reached out to the corporate office and a work order has been put in to replace a broken cable, though the repair could take several weeks.

Carter said dealing with large companies such as AT&T, he has learned delays often occur.

"I don't want to get into a situation where in eight months, we're saying we will take care of it six months from now," Carter said. "The firefighter is OK. Luckily, it was not something life-threatening."

A temporary solution does exist, Bradford said. Though the Adams County Sheriff's Office also uses Motorola Passport radios, the tower they use in the Doloroso area gets a signal county-wide. The sheriff's office has a deputy on scene for every major fire.

"If they are on the scene and the sheriff's office is there, I have said they can ask the deputy," Bradford said. "They don't want to ask because it is the city and the county, but they need to get beyond that."

Carter said the firefighters did ask a deputy to call in the ambulance, but the deputy was a good distance away from the fire truck.

"They did ask (the deputy), but they shouldn't have to," Carter said.

Bradford said by the end of 2017, the county emergency management office will be moving to the Mississippi Wireless Integrated Network (MSWIN), which should take care of the communications problems.

"Those towers we don't have to maintain," he said. "They are maintained by the state. This is a statewide communication system."

In other news from Monday's meeting, Adams County Election Commissioner Larry Gardner asked supervisors to purchase an electronic pollbook system for approximately $43,000.

Due to eliminating the need for equipment currently used with the county's existing electronic ballot system, some poll workers and costs saved on paper and printing, Gardner estimated the system would pay for itself in less than three years.

Bill Lowe with Election Systems said to have the system in place by the November election, the supervisors would have to take action this week.

The supervisors tabled the decision for due diligence to call counties using the software and inquire about any issues.

Copyright 2016 - The Natchez Democrat, Miss.