By Doug Kesseli
Bangor Daily News (Maine)
Copyright 2006 Bangor Daily News
BANGOR, Maine — From a minivan with cellular and satellite communications capabilities to a behemoth 42-foot van with computer-aided dispatching and video surveillance, emergency management response equipment was on display in Bangor Monday.
The idea for the gathering, which drew about 40 emergency management and first responder officials from Piscataquis, Hancock, Waldo and Penobscot counties, was a chance to better coordinate and plan resources that are available in the Incident Management Assistance Team that is served by the four counties.
“This allows us to see what everyone else has, what everyone can bring to the table,” Tom Robertson, director of the Penobscot County Emergency Management Agency, said during the program, held at the Bangor Civic Center.
More than a half dozen vehicles, including one from the Penobscot Amateur Radio Emergency Service program, were spread out in the civic center’s Buck Street parking lot.
Dwarfing all of them was Bangor’s incident command vehicle, which police and fire department officials say is one of four regional command vehicles in the state.
The vehicle comes equipped with phone, television and Internet access via satellite, as well as 110 radio frequencies and the ability to patch into other systems to allow communications between equipment that normally wouldn’t be able to be connected, said Lt. Tom Higgins of the Bangor Fire Department and Lt. Mark Hathaway of the Bangor Police Department.
“We are able to talk to virtually anybody from this truck,” Hathaway said.
The incident command vehicle comes equipped with two 40-inch monitors, one on the inside and one on the outside, to aid in developing plans of attack for handling hazardous materials or other dangerous situations. A camera mounted on the top can be raised, providing a bird’s eye view of the area.