by AllThingsECC.com | Sep 12, 2021 | Articles, Comm Center News
By Edward Parkinson, CEO First Responder Network Authority
Soon after the planes hit the World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001, Brad Morrell deployed from Utah to New York City as part of an urban search and rescue team.
Aboard the military airlift transporting rescuers, Brad remembers seeing otherwise empty skies except for the fighter jets escorting their plane. When they got to the fallen towers, the scene was unlike anything else he and his teammates had experienced.
In the initial days, cell service was non-existent, land-mobile radios were down, and repeaters to boost signals weren’t working. The only communications available to Brad and his team were two-way pagers they brought from Utah.
“We knew that comms was an issue. For the first few days, we couldn’t talk from Ground Zero back to our base of operations,” said Brad who now serves as the FirstNet Authority’s Director of Network and Technology Operations.
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by AllThingsECC.com | Sep 11, 2021 | Articles, Comm Center News
Twenty years ago, 9/11 changed our lives as we know it. Everyone who lived through the horrific events of that day will never forget what they witnessed.
As we take this time to reflect on the loss we all experienced that day, I also vividly recall what I, and countless others, observed in the immediate aftermath. I saw humanity working together at its best in the wake of immeasurable tragedy. I saw a fighting spirit that wouldn’t let evil get the best of them. I saw unyielding support for the heroes who ran toward danger to help their fellow man.
That’s why FirstNet ® is proud to work with the nonprofit 9/11 Day to channel the emotions from the annual remembrance of 9/11 into a worldwide day of unity and doing good…
by AllThingsECC.com | Sep 10, 2021 | Articles, Comm Center News
WAYLAND — For everyone old enough to remember Sept. 11, 2001, what started out as a perfectly normal day turned out to be harrowing. We can remember exactly where we were when we heard the news of the planes hitting the Twin Towers. As we commemorate the 20th anniversary of the largest attack on American soil, one local EMT shares his story of being in New York City on that day.
Fred Grambs, chief for Springwater-Wayland EMS, was a captain for Lindenwood Volunteer Ambulance Corps in Queens. He recalls arriving comfortably at work, and then, when the second plane hit, his boss immediately relieved him for duty with the ambulance service.
“I called the base to find out where our ambulances were, and couldn’t get through. I knew we had one crew on, we had two ambulances, so I sat back and being an officer, I had to think about what to do,” he remembered…
by AllThingsECC.com | Sep 10, 2021 | Articles, Comm Center News
When terrorists crashed a plane into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, it wasn’t a branch of the military that oversaw the massive emergency response operation—the lead agency was the 266-person Arlington County Fire Department in Virginia.
The emergency response at the Pentagon that day was largely considered a success, by the 9/11 Commission, due in part to the high level of regional cooperation among local, state and federal agencies that enabled first responders to quickly stand up an incident command system.
Twenty years later, emergency preparedness experts say the incorporation of regional training and communications into emergency planning is one of the most important takeaways for local governments from the deadly terrorist attacks…
![“Hello, this is 911, what is your emergency?” (ID) ([Editorial]](https://allthingsecc.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/61328af39f372.image_.jpg)
by AllThingsECC.com | Sep 9, 2021 | Articles, Comm Center News
I can’t say I remember it, but I had just celebrated my fifth birthday.
My parents, like all others, gave me some presents. I’d wager that there was also a Dairy Queen ice cream cake involved at some point.
It had to have been a happy day.
48 hours on from that day, the whole of America was a very somber place.
Four planes had been hijacked by Al-Qaeda, two of them destroying the World Trade Center, one smashing into the Pentagon, and one crash landing into a field in rural Pennsylvania.
Too young to remember the attacks for myself, I had to have been just as confused about the magnitude of the situation as every other child in the country.
Over the years, video of the attacks slowly but surely would be ingrained into my memory, filling in the blanks that eluded my younger mind.Firefighters about to be engulfed by a massive dust cloud. Police running over piles of shattered concrete and tangled, twisted metal beams. Dispatch call audio being played over alternating camera feeds of New York City….
by AllThingsECC.com | Sep 9, 2021 | Articles, Comm Center News
Drones—Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)
Concern is growing within the public-safety ranks about citizens flying drones over incidents that call for first responders. When incidents involve wildfires, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) usually declares no-fly zones up to 5,000 feet above the fires. I am told some drones can receive no-fly zone alerts and they will not fly into no-fly areas. Unfortunately, more common, less expensive drones do not have that capability.
When a drone is reported in the area of an incident, planes and helicopters (helos) are grounded and cannot assist when needed during wildfires and under certain other circumstances. Because of this, many within the public-safety community are calling for the FAA and potentially the FCC to permit public-safety personnel to disable drones flown by citizens or reporters and to recommend ways to do so. It is reckless for people to continue to fly drones into areas where public safety must be able to monitor the safety of equipment and personnel assisting them from above. There are hefty fines for violating FAA rules but first, someone has to find the person flying the drone and he/she must be arrested. Perhaps some of our military’s methods for disabling drones would be appropriate for public-safety use…
