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| Get Out Now! | June- October 2022 | ||||
| California Fire District Uses Radio & StreamCASTs to Move Residents Out of Harm's Way | |||||
 Northeast of Sacramento, California, the Foresthill Fire
Protection District had been operating a
RadioSAFE
System for two years and had been granted a waiver
by the FCC to run at higher signal levels. Operator
Richard Hercules told The Source that
he has usable listening reports for 14 miles from the
antenna, with 10 watts of transmitter power, and is
streaming the content to the District’s website as well.
The District also published a Q/R code for instant
stream access. “Local agencies have given us great feedback on messaging, when emergency conditions are declared throughout our county and adjacent counties,” said Hercules. “We have started another grant cycle to expand our radio signal further.” The RadioSAFE RSF 500:10 System includes a higher powered transmitter that can be employed in a crisis on a temporary basis with FCC permission. In the fall, the Foresthill Fire Protection District in California battled the Mosquito Wildfire in the rugged mountains northeast of that town. Excellent timing. Operator Richard Hercules told The Source that he still had usable listening reports for 14 miles from the antenna, with 10 watts of transmitter power. The District is also streaming content to their website, where thousands tuned in daily for evacuation updates. (See StreamCASTing.) |
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| “We have started another grant cycle to expand our radio signal farther,” said Hercules. In emergencies, the FCC will often permit a higher powered transmitter substitution to boost coverage even more, based on the situation. | |||||
| One Wildfire Is Bad Enough | |||||
| Emergency Managers in California Soon to Use Satellite Links to Directly Disseminate Evacuation Instructions to Car Radios & Outdoor Warning Speakers | |||||
In the February 2022 edition of The Communication Review, a published study finds that the logistics of various social media platforms have a decidedly negative effect on the work of emergency managers and responders. The author details how in a crisis, social media information can become tangled with subjective accounts, outdated facts and heresay, inadvertently enhancing ambiguity instead of clarity. The result can be to increase public uncertainty at precisely the time that public resolve is required. Some communities are embracing a novel form of radio technology to counter this effect so they can minimize “social media wildfires” and maintain control of communication channels: Riverside County, California, was procuring more than 30 Genasys satellite-linked outdoor audio warning systems in the San Jacinto Mountains to direct evacuations during crises such as wildfires and earthquakes. The unique design would allow emergency managers to direct evacuees by radio (see more about RadioSAFE Systems), so when they enter their cars to escape, updated radio messages will direct their routes. The emergency radio, speaker sound and mass notification (email/text/phone) systems will be managed from a single control platform. |
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| At the Bureau of Land Management’s Red Rock Canyon National Conservancy Area west of Las Vegas, management has just installed a RadioSAFE Emergency Radio System to inform visitors of rapidly changing conditions that can affect their safety. The Red Rock Canyon is a bowl-shaped area with a 5-mile loop road that could quickly become impassible due to a fast-burning fire or a weather-related event. On a given day, thousands of visitors may be driving, hiking, biking or rock climbing in the vulnerable canyon area. | |||||
| Putting Out Fires | December 2012 | ||||
| Information Stations Invaluable in California Wildfire Evacuations | |||||
 SANTA
BARBARA, CA: Two significant wildfires in three weeks
near Santa Barbara, California, tested the area’s
Emergency Advisory Radio Stations’ ability to direct
the public quickly out of harm’s way. On October 17, a vegetation fire caused by downed power lines required the evacuation of Painted Cave, CA – a community that lost more than 400 homes and public buildings in a devastating fire in 1990. The nearby San Marcos Pass Information Station on AM 1040, operated by Mike Williams, broadcast critical fire and evacuation information continuously for residents as they lined up on Highway 154 to exit. In the end, all lives and structures were saved and the fire was contained to 44 acres. Three weeks later, a similar fire in Montecito, California's, backcountry triggered emergency evacuation information to be broadcast on Montecito Fire Protection District’s Information Station on AM 1610. The San Marcos Pass station carried the evacuation information, as well. Fortunately, this fire was contained by late afternoon and residents returned to intact homes. States Williams, “The use of low power radio in emergency situations proves invaluable. The ability to provide quick information to the public is essential during fast moving events such as wildfires.” See the San Marcos case study. |
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