Getting Information About Incidents
Loma Prieta Volunteer Fire And Rescue
Jeff Powell

The first thing to know is that the vast majority of fire department responses are never mentioned on TV or in the papers. Even for those that are, it's sometimes the case that the news media get things wrong, particularly early on. Did you hear the Summit fire was at the intersection of Summit and Loma Prieta, near the Summit Store, or that officials were considering closing highway 17? In reality, the fire was several miles away, on Summit - Mt. Madonna, near Maymen's Flat, but those errors were still being reported hours after the fire started. If you own a scanner, you'll need to monitor the right frequencies. All initial dispatch for Santa Cruz County Fire - the primary responders in the unincorporated parts of Santa Cruz County - happens on 151.3700 MHz. If you monitor that frequency you'll hear the dispatches for everything Santa Cruz County Fire responds to.

There are other frequencies to monitor depending on where you live. If you live in a town or fire district in Santa Cruz county, your emergency dispatch is handled by Netcom, and their frequency is 154.3250 MHz. Santa Clara County has two agencies that may respond to fires. The dispatch frequency for Santa Clara County Fire is 154.2500 Mhz, and the other is the CAL FIRE Santa Clara Ranger Unit at 151.4450 MHz.

Be aware that once an incident response gets moving, radio frequencies may change. Equipment working on an incident may switch to tactical frequencies that don't go through repeaters, so your scanner may not be able to pick them up. Big incidents also wind up on different command frequencies to keep their radio traffic from interfering with other events. There are many command frequencies to chose from, more than I can list here. A web search will quickly turn up many frequency listings, and you can program your scanner accordingly.

Those that don't have a scanner aren't left out. You can visit www.firescan.net on the Internet and hear dispatch recordings. Select "Click for index access by units paged", then select the desired frequency and hit "Submit". You'll be presented with a list of recent radio dispatches and links to listen to the audio for each one. www.firescan.net is near real time; you cannot listen to it live - like a scanner - but by the time you hear sirens or helicopters, you should be able to find the dispatch for the incident. Other options allow listening to all recorded radio traffic during a selected period of time. www.firescan.net is a very handy, free service. It can quickly help you learn if the sirens you heard were going to a fire or a medical aid, and where the incident is.

Another great source of information is lomaprietafire.blogspot.com - the Loma Prieta Fire and Rescue Blog. We regularly update the site with information and pictures from events in our area. Noting every vehicle accident or medical aid would be impractical, but it is updated quickly for events that may affect the community. Posts can be made from the field, but if we're is busy at the incident - or don't have information on it yet - there may be a delay before the blog is updated. The LPVFR blog is important in other ways too. There are links to useful web sites, and we post other information there from time to time. Please check this page often. We work hard to make it as useful as possible.

You might also find information about ongoing incidents at firedispatch.com. Select Santa Cruz County from the home page and you'll see a list of incidents being run by the Netcom dispatchers with links to additional information.

Of course, you can and should make some judgments about these things yourself. If a you are in heavy smoke, see a smoke column directly overhead and you are downwind, or see or hear flames, it's time to consider getting out of the way. If the threat is real but not immediate, put your emergency plan into action. Pack to leave, contact any neighbors who might not know about the situation, and generally be prepared to go. Contacting your neighbors may be useful in other ways. They may have information from a source you haven't tried, or they might have a better view of the incident.

Don't forget to call 911 if you think emergency services aren't yet aware of the issue, but don't tie up the phone lines calling about something we're already working on. And despite your desire to know more, don't drive towards a fire to check it out. You'll only clog up our narrow roads, making it more difficult for emergency vehicles to get there, and you might endanger your own life in the process.

Another important step for those living in Santa Cruz County is to register your cellular phone numbers so the reverse 911 system can reach you if needed. The reverse 911 system is used for things like evacuation notifications, and until recently was limited to land line phones. The web site www.sccecc.org lets you register your cell phone, so you can be called in the event there is an incident in your area. Registration is free, and only takes a minute or two.

We all feel better when we know what is happening, and some of the sources listed here should help you learn more about emergencies near your home. Other things you can do include making an emergency plan and creating an emergency kit. There is a lot of disaster preparedness information on the Internet, so do your research. Joining Loma Prieta Volunteer Fire and Rescue is another great choice if you want to help when emergencies of any size happen in our community. Visit www.lomaprietafire.org for more information about joining our department.