Lighting disrupted communications

‘We’re prepared for stuff like this,’ fire chief says

Lightning strikes temporarily knocked out radio communication for the Kingston Fire Department Tuesday.

Lightning strikes that accompanied Tuesday’s local thunderstorm temporarily knocked out radio communication for the Kingston Fire Department, but did not keep firefighters from doing their job, officials said.

“We’re prepared for stuff like this,” fire Chief Mark Brown said Thursday. He said when the storm hit Tuesday afternoon there were intermittent radio problems for the fire department. Brown said his department responded by having a firefighter handle emergency dispatch duties from the Central Fire Station in Midtown.

“This is nothing to us,” Brown said, noting that his department has handled communication interruptions before and has cellular phones in each of its fire trucks. He said there are procedures in place to ensure communication is always possible and no calls were missed during Tuesday’s storm. There were also no delays in service, Brown said.

The communication interruption for the fire department was the result of lightning striking and damaging radio base stations for the city department that are located at the Ulster County 911 center on Golden Hill Drive, said Steve Peterson, director of Ulster County Emergency Management. He said the stations did not merely lose power.

“Communications for the county did not go down,” Peterson said. “What went down were base stations for the city of Kingston Fire Department. That was what was lost in the lightning strike.” He said the county’s 911 system has auxiliary power from a generator if the need arises, as well as an uninterruptible power source that can maintain power for several days.

Citing a city fire official, an article in Wednesday’s Freeman said police and firefighters had trouble communicating among themselves because the Ulster County 911 center was struck by lightning and temporarily lost power.

“The 911 center did not lose power during the two (lightning) strikes,” Peterson said Thursday.

Peterson added that the county and city worked together to put a plan in place to handle the fire department’s calls. He noted that the county 911 center encompasses the city’s fire dispatch services.

Brown said a firefighter handled dispatch for the department for approximately five hours. He said the base stations were fixed by Tuesday night.

“Communications for the county did not go down. What went down were base stations for the city of Kingston Fire Department. That was what was lost in the lightning strike.” — Steve Peterson, director of Ulster County Emergency Management