N.C. Fire Departments Face Numerous Challenges

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Sept. 18--HILLSBOROUGH -- Orange County's rural volunteer fire departments and county commissioners are creating a plan to overcome technology and coordination challenges that affect how they put out fires.

Representatives from the county's eight rural volunteer fire departments, County Emergency Services Director Frank Montes de Oca and Chapel Hill Fire Chief Dan Jones met with the Orange County Board of Commissioners Tuesday to respond to concerns outlined in a May study.

Municipalities provide their own fire protection. The county contracts with each of the eight volunteer departments to cover the rest of Orange.

The volunteer departments are funded by district fire taxes.

The study, which was done by a Massachusetts consulting group and cost at least $65,000, found that the county continues to struggle with processing calls, response delays and coordination between various departments.

The report also said relationships among firefighting agencies in the county are strained

Several rural fire chiefs questioned the report's accuracy.

"The inaccuracy of this study and money spent on this study ... I think it's bad," said Brad Allison, chief of the Caldwell Fire Department "[I] have not seen any strained relationships with fire chiefs or boards of directors."

Fire officials agreed a strategic plan is needed to deal with technology and coordination challenges.

The group has already asked the UNC School of Government to help develop the plan, said Bryan Baker, chief of the Eno Volunteer Fire department and head of the districts' fire chiefs association. The group agreed to update and include commissioners in the planning process.

Technology problem

All rural districts said there are problems with the technology they use to communicate with one another in the field.

Orange County uses the Voice Interoperability Plan for Emergency Responders, or VIPER, a statewide radio communication network for all emergency services providers.

Fire officials say the system often cuts out or has significant delays while firefighters are trying to talk to one another.

The county adopted the system in 2009, but doesn't have enough local communications towers to support it, which results in radio dead spots throughout the county.

In a memo to the board, Montes de Oca said the county is planning improvements to the system that would cost at least $200,000.

Those plans do not include building more service towers, which would cost at least $250,000 more, he wrote.

The county was "sold a bill of goods" by the state on the VIPER system, which is designed for Highway Patrol communication, not fire departments in communities, Jones said.

"I regret to say we didn't do enough homework in this county about what this system was," he said. "We're in a spot where we can't really throw it away, but to make it work right we're going to have to make additional investments."

Coverage on the system gets worse in more urban areas of towns where there are more buildings, he said.

"If you have firefighters deep inside a Wilson Library [on UNC's campus] or older buildings like that and you can't talk to them on the radio, their life is hanging on a thread," Jones said. "Dixie cups on threads would work better than the current system. It really is a really bad situation."

The county and rural departments need a strategic plan, and need to determine the calculated risk of what needs to be fixed first with what money is available, said Commissioner Valerie Foushee.

The county knew things were missing from VIPER when it was first implemented, she said.

"We know how much money we spent to implement the system; it can't be tossed out in a day ... or a month," she said. "If we fix these systems we are going to have pay for it, and that's going to cost money."

If the county wants to make improvements County Manager Frank Clifton said the board will have to raise taxes.

"You are going to have to adjust to the idea of raising taxes to pay for this, either new taxes or a reduction in services," he said. "That's the cold hard facts of what we're talking about."

The county's fire chiefs plan to meet this week to create a timeline and goals for the strategic plan.