Emergency ops center is top-notch
BY MICHELLE BREIER- San Diego Union Tribune
SAN MARCOS — The city is now home to one of the most sophisticated mobile emergency operations centers in Southern California.
Housed at Fire Station 4 in San Elijo Hills, the trailer the past few weeks has been demonstrating what it can do. Fire Chief Todd Newman said the center was shown to Cal Fire recently. The mobile emergency operations center is filled with high-tech equipment and can be towed to a scene to serve as a command center or dispatch center during a wildfire or other disaster.
The center cost a little more than $1 million, Newman said, with about half the cost covered by a Department of Homeland Security grant. It’s also now in the state’s mutual aid database and available for use by other agencies.
“Everyone has one,” Newman said of command trailers. “Very few have them with this level of technology.”
The San Marcos center is equipped with geographic information systems, or GIS, technology; satellite phone technology; and a system that allows the center’s users to combine various frequencies from agencies into one dedicated frequency. That system to unify frequencies also can be incorporated into cell phones, essentially turning them into two-way radios. READ MORE VIA San Diego UT
