Enfield Fire Departments Unveils New Pagers

At a ceremony held today at the Enfield Fire Department, Chief Edward N. Richards along with State Senator John A. Kissel, R-Enfield, displayed the town’s new pagers that are compatible with the town’s new automatic mutual aid system.

Earlier this year, the Enfield fire districts determined that a major improvement to the town’s firefighter notification system was necessary. In an effort to improve public and firefighter safety and to minimize property damage, an automatic mutual aid system was recommended. In order to do so, the Department needed to have the ability to broadcast one simultaneous tone to alert all town fire-fighters, which is paramount to the effectiveness of the new system and something the older pagers were not capable of doing. Through Sen. Kissel’s effort, state funding in the amount of $80,000 was awarded to the town for the purchase of 200 pagers, enough to equip all town firefighters.

“All levels of government have a responsibility to work together to protect the safety and well-being of the public. The credit here really must go to Chief Richards and the other chiefs Enfield Fire Department. They are steadfast in their efforts to improve firefighter safety through better communi-cations systems, better education and training, and better equipment.”

According to Sen. Kissel, the new alerting system requires that each individual pager be capable of storing different tone alerts. The old pagers operated in a low VHF frequency with a restrictive number of tones in each unit. VHF pagers were no longer being made by the manufacturer, thus the system needed to be transferred to a UHF frequency band.
“The people of Enfield should know that they have world class fire departments protecting them,” said Sen. Kissel. “The men and women who make up Enfield’s five fire district’s are some of the most dedicated people you will ever meet. We are very lucky to have such wonderful people protecting our town.”