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SAFENET

Wildland Fire Safety & Health Reporting Network

SAFENET Event Information

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SAFENET ID:

20190328-0001        [Corrective Actions]

Event Start Date:

03/27/2019 1140

Event Stop Date:

03/27/2019 1300 

Incident Name:

Radio Issues

Fire Number:

 

State:

Arkansas

Jurisdiction:

USFS

Local Unit:

Ozarks NF

Incident Type:

Prescribed/Fuels Treatment

Incident Activity:

Support

Stage of Incident:

Other

Position Title:

Assistant Center Manager 

Task:

I/A floor lead  

Management Level:

N/A

Resources Involved:

We had 14 RX going, 4 helicopters, and smoke check  

Contributing Factors

Contributing Factors:

Equipment

Human Factors:

 

Other Factors:

 

Narrative

Describe in detail what happened including the concern or potential issue, the environment (weather, terrain, fire behavior, etc), and the resulting health issue.

The CIO was changing out switches on the internet and radio system on the Ozark NF. The radio system is voice over IP. AOICC is the dispatch center for the Ozark and Ouachita NF. This was a planned event that the CIO and radio tec. on the Ozark NF were in communications about weeks in advance. AOICC was never informed of this planed work. AOICC had 14 RX burn going for the day and 4 type 3 helicopters assigned for the planed burns for the day. Also we had 1 smoke check going on that ended up being a stricter that was on fire on FS land. The AOICC was talking with burn bosses and units responding to a fire and the radio went dead. It was showing “Link Fail” on Ozark East as well as National Flight flowing was showing “Link Fail”. AOICC was flight flowing H-922FS and was talking to him on Local Flight Flowing. AOICC never lost contact with helicopter. Once AOICC realize that radio was not working dispatcher started calling on the radio to see if we were able to contact the Burn Boss and Unit responding to Fire. This failed, then the dispatcher tried calling personal on the ground with the phone. The Center Manager received a text form one of the burn bosses saying he had been trying to get ahold of dispatch on the radio. The Assistant Center Manager confirmed that we have coms with H-2FS on Local FF and advised national was down. The ACM sent a text out that we have equipment failure that the radios were down. Then the ACM called the radio tec on the Ozarks NF to explain what was happening. Josh Thornley (radio tec on Ozark) told us that the CIO was doing work on the switches and that radio might be down. The ACM call Josh Darnall who is the radio tec on the Ouachita to come make sure there was no radio equipment failure in dispatch. He said that there was not any issues on the dispatch side it was because the switches were being changed out on the Ozark. The dispatcher called up the district office and advised that radios were down and to advise the radios were down and to have resources call the district on the radio or call dispatch on the phone.

Immediate Action Taken

Reporting Individual : please describe actions you took to correct or mitigate the unsafe/unhealthful event.

The dispatch office made timely notification to the field personal and aircraft. Used the district office to establish communication with Burn Boss and Unit on Smoke check. Able to call units on the ground on the phone. Used test messaged in CAD to advised personal of the radios going down. Made called to radio tec to have them start fixing the issues. Once radios were back up and working made notification to ground and air that radios were working and did radio check to confirm.

Agency Response

20190328-0001-CA001

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