Oliver Fire Chief Dan Skaros says the RDOS should never have changed from a Penticton dispatch to a cheaper Kelowna dispatch location – and an incident in the last week proved his case.
About four days ago a tree branch fell on a wire support at the Mt. Kobau repeater station and that made communications for emergency calls very difficult. Dispatch calls could be heard from Kelowna but to get operators to repeat the message – cell phone communication had to be used. Dispatchers could not be as helpful as normal in communicating with police and ambulance as they had to limit communication on the network.
Local firemen could still talk with each other but the Communication Centre in Kelowna was not as useful as in the past. Chief Skaros said it was a “shitty” situation and made him wonder about a decision some time ago and recent information from the RDOS.
The RDOS saved $1.8 million dollars moving the dispatch center to Kelowna in 2011 but a new study says the system in the regional district must be upgraded at a cost $2 million dollars.
This recent outage of communication affected Osoyoos, Keremeos and Oliver all getting a signal from the Mt. Kobau repeater. Skaros said the Penticton dispatch had a backup system that is superior to what is now in place.
previously
Upgrading fire dispatch systems in RDOS could be expensive
November 15/12
About a year ago – the RDOS switched from a fire dispatch system run out of Penticton Fire Department to one in Kelowna – at a great saving of tax payers dollars.
That new system utilizes data transfer on an Internet link from Kelowna Fire Department dispatch centre to an antennae array on a small tower in Penticton – which feeds to Mt. Kobau and Apex Mtn – both of which have transmitters at those locations to beam signals to Oliver, Osoyoos, Keremeos and the remainder of the Similkameen area. Summerland and Penticton are dispatched from the Internet line.
According to a consultant hired by the Regional District improvements to that system could cost $2 million dollars.
Mory Kapustianyk of Planetworks Consulting Corporation of Vancouver says the present radio system used in the South Okanagan/Smilkameen area is twenty years old and is ready for upgrading.
Kapustianyk – who helped design the E-Comm system on the Lower Mainland says many improvements are needed and desired by fire departments who all use the same dispatch and communication system.
But he says the Princeton backup system is in a farm barn and unprotected, that 5 fire departments have radio systems that are not well protected and that much of the infrastructure on mountain-tops needs major work.
Board directors were told that the present system allows for interference of dispatch and only luck has prevented a major problem. The consultant says this is due to equipment design not the recent switchover to Kelowna.
The communications report calls for standards to be implemented for fire department communications that are region-wide and that the system should be able to be used for emergency services in the entire RDOS. It cannot be used for that purpose at the moment.
The new system would take 2 years to complete getting new frequencies, two new towers and better equipment. The consultant says there must be a built-in monitoring system that allows fire departments to know that all systems are a “Go” and in proper condition.
Oliver directors split on fire dispatch location
Posted on July 22, 2011
At Thursday’s RDOS meeting in Penticton – directors made a decision on just who will perform fire dispatch in the Regional District. That choice was Kelowna at a cost saving of $1.789 million.
The majority of rural and municipal directors voted for the change. Fire dispatch has been done by Penticton Fire Department since 1990 and this will mean the loss of 5 jobs.
Director Allan Patton says the decision was obviously based on the cost savings but Director Pat Hampson says he favoured more local control. All the Penticton directors voted to keep the service local.