By Joseph Deinlein
The Evening Sun
NEW YORK — Linda Stonesifer was direct in her criticism of the New York County digital 911 radios.
Some calls just don’t seem to be getting through.
“If this fire had happened the day before, a 92-year-old lady would have been dead,” said the Hanover Borough councilwoman. “When I got to her, fire was already licking her back door.”
Stonesifer was talking about a fire last week that displaced four people in a duplex at 421 and 423 Locust St. The fire scene is just a few doors from her home, so she witnessed the fire fighting first hand. The 92-year-old, Stonesifer’s former Latin teacher, was in a house next door.
The two-alarm fire brought out companies from Hanover and Penn Township, but also Southeastern Adams Volunteer Emergency Services, Porters Sideling, United Hook & Ladder Co. 33 and Pleasant Hill fire companies. The Red Cross and Hanover Hospital’s Medic 46 were also on scene. No one was injured.
But the unreliability of the new radio system, which went into full-time service in July, had Stonesifer concerned. She made a motion, approved unanimously, to send a letter to the York County Commissioners expressing the council’s concern about the radios.
“I don’t want a death on my shoulders,” she told the council before the vote. “It’s got to be done.”
Her concern stemmed from an incident the day previous to the fire.
She said almost 24 hours before the 3:30 p.m. blaze, there was a vehicle accident with confinement on Broadway. A passing firefighter saw the accident and used his radio to call the York County dispatch center, Stonesifer said.
“They weren’t dispatched,” she said, referring to Hanover’s Fire Department. “Thank God (the firefighters at the station) heard him call York in the first place.”
After the meeting, she also noted a recent incident in West Manheim Township where the Manchester, Md., fire department was dispatched for a struck gas line before Pleasant Hill Fire Co., which is in the township. In fact, fire company officials said publicly they saw the Manchester fire engine fly past their fire house on Baltimore Pike before even realizing there was a call in the township.
Since it was installed, the new 911 system has drawn criticism from police, fire and EMS responders.
Police departments across the county started using the digital system earlier in the year. Their experience helped work out glitches, county officials have said. Fire and EMS came on the system in July.
The system is similar to modern cell-phone communication. Unlike the old radio system, the portable unit has to broadcast to the county’s tower - in the Hanover area, there is an omni-directional antenna atop the Iron Ridge area of the Pigeon Hills - then down to the county control or to another radio unit.
There are features that allow units to communicate between each other - known as “talk-around” channels. But several buttons have to be pressed to bring up that function, said Hanover Fire Commissioner James Roth.
Dispatching to firefighters - volunteer and paid - is done over the radio and by digital pager.
Harris Corp., the company that installed the P-25 trunk system, guaranteed 95-percent coverage.
But Stonesifer was skeptical.
“Ninety-five percent is not good enough for me,” she said. “We’re gonna lose a life, there’s no doubt in my mind.”
To be fair, county officials have said the old analog system, at its best, had 70- to 80-percent coverage. And they are aware of some of the problems in the southwest corner of the county and are trying to find solutions.
After the meeting, when discussing the short-comings of the old radio system, Stonesifer said, “But we got the calls.”
Copyright 2009 MediaNews Group, Inc.
All Rights Reserved