BOCA FIRE RESCUE NET - City of Boca Raton
BOCA FIRE RESCUE NET - City of Boca Raton
BOCA FIRE RESCUE NET - City of Boca Raton
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Page 7<br />
<strong>BOCA</strong> <strong>FIRE</strong> <strong>RESCUE</strong><br />
Communication<br />
By: Mike O’Neil<br />
Division Chief<br />
Apparatus Computers<br />
The Fire Department received 30 replacement<br />
laptop computers. These<br />
laptops will replace the current Data<br />
911’s and allow easier updating <strong>of</strong> our<br />
Mobile CAD s<strong>of</strong>tware. We ordered the<br />
laptops with an internal AVL card and<br />
will soon be able to view unit locations<br />
on our mapping system.<br />
OSSI CAD<br />
I recently attended a two day Computer<br />
Aided Dispatch S<strong>of</strong>tware (CAD) Administrator’s<br />
class hosted by our CAD<br />
vendor, OSSI. In class we built a CAD<br />
system as part <strong>of</strong> the training. This included<br />
entering all streets and address<br />
ranges, divisions, stations, units, unit<br />
recommendations, employees, run areas,<br />
and maps for a very small city.<br />
This class demonstrated the complexity<br />
and just how all the modules interact<br />
together for a functioning CAD system.<br />
What our personnel see on the MCT’s<br />
is just the output <strong>of</strong> hundreds <strong>of</strong> hours<br />
in data input and design.<br />
Rebanding<br />
The Communications Division is beginning<br />
to program the newly assigned<br />
frequencies into test radios. The Fire<br />
Department will have some test radios<br />
programmed around the first or second<br />
week <strong>of</strong> March. The test group will be<br />
monitored for any issues before programming<br />
the rest <strong>of</strong> our radios. We<br />
will not notice any difference in our<br />
operation until we switch the radio system<br />
controllers over to the FCC assigned<br />
frequencies. We do not have a<br />
firm cutover date yet but will have<br />
training before the switch to cover all<br />
locations <strong>of</strong> frequencies and Talkgroups.<br />
Special Ops<br />
By:<br />
Scott Johnston<br />
Division Chief<br />
Picture <strong>of</strong> personnel from multiple agencies working a rope system.<br />
We recently hosted a workshop put on by Petzel and Safety<br />
Solutions, which highlighted several new pieces <strong>of</strong> hardware<br />
now being used in the Fire Service, as well as the<br />
“Petzel XO” personal bail-out system.<br />
The XO bail-out system was designed as a joint venture<br />
between FDNY and Petzel in response to the tragic deaths<br />
<strong>of</strong> three FDNY members, and several others critically injured<br />
when they were forced out <strong>of</strong> a 4 th floor window due<br />
to fire overcoming the apartment they were in. Look up<br />
“Black Sunday” and you can read the complete story <strong>of</strong> the<br />
heroic efforts <strong>of</strong> these men. (You can find out more about<br />
Black Sunday at http://www.nypost.com/seven/01142009/<br />
news/regionalnews/i_could_feel_fire_150069.htm)<br />
In attendance during this workshop were firefighters from Dade County Fire<br />
Rescue, Broward County Fire Rescue, Ft. Lauderdale Fire Rescue, Boynton<br />
Beach Fire Rescue, Okeechobee County Fire Rescue, and <strong>Boca</strong> <strong>Raton</strong> Fire Rescue.<br />
All personnel were extremely impressed with our new training facility and<br />
appreciative <strong>of</strong> our hospitality. This event so far is the largest multi-jurisdictional<br />
event to date held at our new training tower.<br />
Two groups were formed: one to get the chance to review the XO system and<br />
actually do some bailouts, and the other group got to use some new belay devices<br />
which makes evolutions such as victim pick <strong>of</strong>fs extremely easy to switch<br />
between haul and lower systems.<br />
At the end <strong>of</strong> the workshop, Petzel presented us with a “Petzel ID” belay device<br />
worth approximately $150. This piece <strong>of</strong> equipment will be added to our High<br />
Angle Rescue equipment.