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SAFENET

Wildland Fire Safety & Health Reporting Network

SAFENET Event Information

Create Agency Response

SAFENET ID:

20190712-0002        [Corrective Actions]

Event Start Date:

07/11/2019 1552

Event Stop Date:

 

Incident Name:

LOGANVILLE

Fire Number:

 

State:

California

Jurisdiction:

USFS

Local Unit:

Tahoe N.F., Yuba River R.D.

Incident Type:

Wildland

Incident Activity:

Line

Stage of Incident:

Initial Attack

Position Title:

dispatch 

Task:

Dispatching 

Management Level:

4

Resources Involved:

Equipment, overhead, aircraft 

Contributing Factors

Contributing Factors:

Communications

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.

We had a fire on the north end of our forest near Sierra City. This area has no cell reception and only one repeater that will reach into this area due to the terrain. The Sierra Buttes repeater has been working intermittently this winter through the summer. Part of the issue is accessibility in order to fix any equipment problems. However, tone 3 has problems every year and these problems can not be fixed until the snow melts. There is a local volunteer fire department that uses the same repeater and their communications are clear. During the initial attack period resources could not hear each other and dispatch could not contact on scene resources. This lack of communications created a chaotic environment where resources were talking over each other and dispatch was unable to cancel responding resources or get a size up on conditions.

Immediate Action Taken

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

Switching all resources over to FireNet helped considerably. FireNet was more clear and resources could hear dispatch. We initially kept all resources on Forest Net due to the known issues at tone 3 and other problems we have been having with FireNet at other repeater sites. This switch to FireNet mititgated the issue for now, but the problems with ForestNet create a situation where resources in the area may not be able to reach dispatch which creates a safety concern. The Downieville Fire Department, which uses the same repeater site, has resolved their radio issues and I feel we should look into what resolution they came up with to maintain clear communications.

Agency Response

20190712-0002-CA001

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