Cape County fire paging system fails

The paging system used by the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department to contact volunteer firefighters in rural areas briefly failed Wednesday, forcing dispatchers to call firefighters by telephone and on a lesser-used radio channel.

The department dispatches calls for the seven rural volunteer fire departments in the county, according to Capt. Ruth Ann Dickerson.

When dispatchers tried to contact Delta firefighters for a ditch fire, the amplifier used to send out pages broke, she said, and there is no readily available backup to send those pages.

The fire north of Delta near Highway 25 and County Road 249 was called in at 11:35 a.m., according to Dickerson. Dispatchers paged Delta firefighters, but none responded.

"If we don't hear from someone responding, we get a little worried," Dickerson said.

Dispatchers tried calling firefighters on the telephone, she said. They also used an operations radio channel, which is not always monitored, she said. The operations channel is generally used only after the firefighters receive the page.

At 11:56 a.m., Delta firefighters had been contacted and were headed to the scene, arriving at 12:14 p.m., she said.

"I'm not very happy with this whole deal," said Delta fire chief Alvin Frank. "It was supposed to be a 10-minute response, but it turned into a 40-minute response."

According to Dickerson, this is the second time in six to eight months the amplifier has failed. Frank said the county needs some sort of backup system to contact rural firefighters in such an event, which he said has happened about three times in the last year and half.

While a true backup system would involve buying additional equipment that hasn't been budgeted, county emergency management director David Hitt said there was a possibility of using old equipment from the city of Cape Girardeau.

Following news of the paging system failure Wednesday, Hitt was contacted by the Cape Girardeau Fire Department and told some equipment the city had was available to act as a backup.

Hitt said the costs for the installation of that equipment would be much less than buying a new backup system.

"I don't see a reason why it can't happen," he said.

The equipment, which was not available six months ago, could ensure that if the primary paging system failed, dispatchers would still be able to send a page out to firefighters.

"We have been very lucky," Dickerson said, noting that previous times when the system had failed dispatchers were able to contact the firefighters.

kmorrison@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 127