The 11-alarm Santana Row fire in San Jose three summers ago exposed serious flaws in the county's mutual-aid plan. The gaps in communication systems could have been disastrous in the event of a terrorist attack or a major earthquake.
The city's police officers and firefighters and units from other jurisdictions couldn't talk to each other because their radios were on different frequencies. Fire units from far reaches of the county were sent to the fire, when closer companies could have been dispatched sooner.
An interim fix has been crafted since then. But building the next generation of communications is a work in progress. There are plans, but what's been lacking is federal money to implement them.
One revelation in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is that bureaucratic bungling has bottled up Homeland Security funding for agencies, like those in Santa Clara County, that are ready to use it. The devastation should spur action. The nation cannot afford years more delays.
First, the good news: If it happened today, the response to an event of a magnitude like the fire at Santana Row would be more coordinated.
San Jose's radios have been upgraded to allow police and fire officers to talk to each other directly.
The countywide fire mutual-aid plan now permits fire companies in a neighboring city to fill in at another city's stations during a multi-alarm emergency. San Jose had resisted this commonsense arrangement -- to its harm during the Santana Row fire.
The county electronically patched together a solution to incompatible radios. All emergency services now have one channel that everyone can share. It was used recently after a chemical spill on Highway 101.
But that one channel won't be enough during ''the big one,'' when many departments will be dealing with massive damage over a wide area.
One solution would be to dedicate more frequencies for police and fire. But Congress has dragged its feet, and the prospect appears years away. And just adding radio spectrum alone won't provide a redundant system that will be needed when power goes out and antennas are knocked down.
So public-safety agencies in Santa Clara County have been working on alternative systems that would allow departments to share massive amounts of data -- police logs, medical records, video from the scene of an explosion and voice communication. They would use emerging digital technologies, like voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP). Or they would build a secure, high-speed wireless network that would make Santa Clara County a model for interagency cooperation and preparedness.
A couple of Internet-based demonstration projects (see accompanying editorial below) are in the works. But funding is in flux, reports Santa Clara Police Chief Stephen Lodge. He heads the Silicon Valley Regional Interoperability Project, which represents the county's fire and police departments. Lodge was in Washington last week, walking the halls of Homeland Security in search of grants.
The estimated price of the systems -- under $5 million each -- is a rounding error in Homeland Security's budget. The lesson from Katrina is clear: Those who skimp on preparedness will pay dearly in devastation.
Distributed by the Associated Press
