Sometimes, when making predictions, you would be happy to be proven wrong. But in the case of closing down the local fire dispatch services and shifting the dispatch centre to Kelowna, it appears that many of the predicted problems are coming true.
While local fire departments are still getting the job done, protecting lives and property in the region, they are having to deal with garbled transmissions and dropped calls. Dealing with such things is bad enough when you are trying to place a personal call on your cell phone, but when it comes to dispatching fire departments, a garbled radio transmission can be life-threatening.
So far, the backup system that sends fire halls a faxed printout of the call details has done its job of covering for any unintelligible dispatches. However, this is far from what we were promised when the decision was made to shift how dispatch services were provided.
Not only was the switch to save the area a large chunk of cash, it was supposed to be seamless, delivering as good or better service than the area was already receiving. Objections were raised that this was an unlikely scenario and, sadly, that’s the case.
Currently, the link between Kelowna and Penticton is being handled with a Radio Over Internet Protocol, sharing the same broadband connection used by businesses and other high-demand customers. Changes are in the works already that Kelowna dispatch expects will improve the situation, but only time will tell if this fix will work, or if it will be a constant game of catchup.
It’s too bad, because we had a system that was already providing high-level communications for emergency services, but was employing people locally.
We don’t object to new technologies, or saving money. But in this case, it was unrealistic to expect that a system designed for non-critical use would be able to provide the same level of quality needed by an organization where every second counts in the fight to save lives.
