MetroFire Boston

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=215385036358074722333.00047254100babc984d51&msa=0 - zerg90 Google map of fire station locations

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1HRAQBJgPheX3bMERyjBfW-S_1n0&usp=sharing - map of fire stations in the MetroFire District - from June 7 2015 ish - by Zerg90 - maybe same as previous URL - yup - both of these URLs go to the same map - 5/18/2017

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Dec 2021 .... tried to create article at Wikipedia about MetroFire but they were jerking me around ... so lets just put the info here

METROFIRE INC

Metrofire Inc aka MetroFire Boston is a fire service mutual aid group serving 35 fire departments in the Boston Massachusetts area.

The fire departments are - Arlington, Belmont, Boston, Braintree, Brookline, Burlington, Cambridge, Chelsea, Dedham, Everett, Lexington, Lynn, Malden, Massport (at Logan and at Hanscom), Medford, Melrose, Milton, Needham, Newton, Quincy, Randolph, Reading, Revere, Saugus, Somerville, Stoneham, Wakefield, Waltham, Watertown, Wellesley, Weston, Weymouth, Winchester, Winthrop, and Woburn.

Lincoln was a member of MetroFire from ?1990 to 2010? ... check availability spreadsheet to see when they left .... Randolph joined MetroFire in ?1990 ... Lincoln might not be a part of any fire district now .... (4/1/2022 Lincoln is in District 14 Per 2021 run cards] check state laws to see which communities are really in metrofire (see the 1982 executive order ... they are listed there ... 4/1/2022] .... Lynn is also part of District 5 .... Weymouth, Milton, Braintree, Quincy, Randolph, and ?Dedham and ?Needham might also be part of District 4 ... Wakefield might be part of District 5 also ... 2/1/2022

History

1941 .... major fire in Charlestown ... Boston FD sent a "Metro Signal" to the Boston area FDs requesting help ... this signal was sent via the police teletype system ... this was the first time that the signal was used ... per box52.org/NLOct2021.pdf ... 1/19/2022

???? ... need to find out when Civil Defense District 13 was created ... didnt I have a MGL that dealt with this? (see 1982] ....(1950 MGL

created civil defense agencys and mema ... mutual aid was authorized]

1964 ... Arlington installed 154.22 base station to communicate with Newton Control / District 13 ... Boston also got 154.22 in 1964 or 1965 ... possibly this followed the Bellflower St Conflagration in Boston in 1964

1982 ... Governor King signed Executive Order 221 which declared essentially that the "civil defense districts" would be transitioned to "fire mobilization districts" ... see the 2018 edition of the Mass Fire Mobilization Plan for the text of the Executive Order

MetroFire was initially formed in 1976 (???] and utilized 154.22 Mhz as its main radio channel. MetroFire was expanded in 1980 and incorporated in 2003.

MetroFire is led by a governing body comprised of local fire chiefs. Funding is derived by dues paid by the 34 cities, towns, and Massport. Capital assets funded by MetroFire include a dedicated two way radio system, a website, a fire safety trailer, and a mobile air supply unit. primary service provided by MetroFire include the communications system; and dispatch and coordination for large scale emergencies.

In 2021, the city councils and select boards of the 34 cities and towns are approving a new 20 year agreement to extend the MetroFire organization until Oct 31 2041.

A daily availability roll call is held daily Boston FD at 10 AM local on the MetroFire primary radio channel of 483.2875. Boston FD serves as the "MetroFire Control" (fire mutual aid mobilization center]

spreadsheet of metrofire availability docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nFUOkbMGSfNaWZPRl8olub9RYkmYztVMuvGPviVpOBs/edit?usp=sharing

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Basic operational premises for MetroFire Boston (added Jan 28 2022]

each FD is the primary provider of emergency services within their own community
each FD will allow up to one third of their onduty units to respond to mutual aid requests
.no off duty staff will be requested to respond to major incidents ... except for chief officers, specialists, Massport firefighters and Weston firefighters
. unknown if there are any emergency override options in case of a disaster fire ... such as a nursing home, hospital, hotel, theatre etc
each FD is responsible for their own funding and expenses
dispatching of mutual aid for large fires is done locally until a predetermined alarm level ... "MetroFire Control" takes over dispatching of mutual aid units starting at the 3rd alarm level for many FDs

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Mutual aid procedures (added Jan 28 2022]

"Multi alarm box cards" are used to streamline the flow of fire mutual aid units to larger fires. Each community has one 10 alarm box card which preestablishes which FD sends which apparatus to each alarm level ... either to the incident or to cover vacant stations ... an inherent weakness in the system is the ability to handle only 1 major fire at a time
"Line boxes" are preplanned agreements between FDs to send a minimum of one unit to any incidents near community borders ... for example ... box alarms in the North Cambridge area of Cambridge near the Somerville border will receive on the first alarm 6 units from Cambridge and 1 unit from Somerville
"special calls" are typically movements of one unit between communitys when one community is handling a larger than normal amount of simultaneous minor calls
The "State Fire Mobilization plan" is used to send groups of 6 engines etc to other counties in Massachusetts that have very large scale incidents ..... Mass Emergency Management Agency is the statewide coordination point for the groups of engines aka Task Forces or Strike Teams .... MEMA coordinates with "MetroFire Control" to activate the Boston area task force
there might also be special MetroFire plans for hazmat, technical rescue, airplane crashes, WMD incidents, etc ..... large scale ambulance mobilizations are coordinated by Boston EMS ... ( see the Mass Fire Mobilization plan or the 10 alarm box card book ... 2/1/2022 ]

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MetroFire Articles of Incorporation ^[1]

MetroFire 2019 Annual Business Report ^[2]

MetroFire Directors and Officers 2019 - ^[3]

MetroFire website - includes 10 alarm run cards for each fire agency and all radio frequencies - ^[4]

Burlington Massachusetts minutes - $2,500 for MetroFire - ^[5]

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Mr. Honan of Boston moved that the bill be amended in section 2 by inserting after item 8324-1500 the following item: “8324-1501 To provide funding for Metrofire Communications. Metrofire is an entity that is comprised of and represented by the head of the Department, of thirty-three cities and towns in the greater Boston area, including Arlington, Belmont, Boston, Braintree, Brookline, Cambridge, Chelsea, Dedham, Everett, Lexington, Lynn, Malden, Medford, Melrose, Milton, Needham, Newton, Quincy, Reading, Revere, Saugus, Somerville, Stoneham, Wakefield, Waltham, Watertown, Wellsley, Weston, Weymouth, Winchester, Woburn, and the Massachusetts Port Authority’s Logan Airport Department. This money shall be allocated to the City of Boston for the coordination of mutual aid responses to fire and coverage of vacant firehouses 400,000”. The amendment was rejected

from

4/30/2001

House Journal

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the state fire commission choses the state fire marshall

https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleII/Chapter6/Section165B

"Metro Fire District 13" has a seat on the Commission

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mgl from 1950 created mema and civil defense ... allows mutual aid among CD .... https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mass.gov%2Fdoc%2Fchapter-639-of-the-acts-of-1950-civil-defense-act-mema-law%2Fdownload&wdOrigin=BROWSELINK

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RADIOS RADIOS RADIOS RADIOS RADIOS RADIOS

Jan 15 2022

imagine a big subway crash with 100 critical victims

imagine a major explosion that levels a whole neighborhood

imagine a gas overpressure situation ... again

imagine 1.000 burning homes .... hi Boulder!

at this time ... MetroFire Boston has 1 dispatcher channel 483.2875R + 1 areawide FG channel 483.3125R + 3 regional channels (N + C + S] + 3 simplex short range channels + 2 mobile repeater channels

the down side ... only 483.3125R works in Boston subways .... the 3 regional channels probably work very poorly inside blds .... the 2 mobile repeater channels might just have 1 MO3 or FB2T each .... the short range channels only have 1 tone each

therefore ... if 1,000 homes were on fire ... MetroFire could at best offer 483.3125R + 1 regional channel + 3 short range channels + 2 MO3 channels ... so that is a maximum of 7 channels ... and that would take maybe 1 hour to implement (getting the MO3 in operation] .... and radio coverage would be spotty in many locations

maybe some of the UTAC channels could also be used ... but ANY government agency could start talking on these channels ... public works and dog catchers and meter maids etc .... and there is just 4 or 5 of them channels

best possible rapid solutions ..... make sure that Boston has at least ten temporary repeaters in downtown Boston 24/7 available for immediate deployment .... and they must be useable in tunnels and subways .... equip every command vehicle in Greater Boston with a MO3 or FB2T .... that would include police sergeants and fire deputy chiefs ..... ( channels could be at 463.000 to 463.175 if the medics can be moved to cellphones ... which is probably 90% true now ]

Costs .... 60 MO3 or FB2T ... at $5,000 each ... grand total $300,000 ... plus the cost to reprogram all public safety radios in the boston area ... which should be done monthly or annually anyhow

There are many radio channels that could be repurposed .... Chelsea FD (2] + Everett FD (1] + Revere FD (1] + Cambridge FD (4] + Boston FD (5] + Newton FD (1] + Weston FD(1] + Quincy FD (1] fire departments all have 2ndary channels that are used very

inefficiently at this time ... there are also MEMA and EMS 2ndary channels that are rarely used ... plus several Boston police channels ... Woburn police have 2 essentially unused 2ndary channels ... Cambridge police could probably free up 2 uhf channels

... other extra police channels might be ... Quincy 1 ... Somerville 1 or 2 ... Waltham 1... Newton 1... plus some unused UHF channels in the boston area ... plus maybe a bunch of unused news media channels at 450 mhz

( here is batter list of "spare" FD radio channels ... 2/1/2022 ... Belmont Channel 3 ... Burlington Channel 2 .... Cambridge multi .... Chelsea Ch 2 and Ch 3 ...... most of these channels are rarely used .... Dedham ch ? 2 ? ... Everett 2 ... Lynn 2 and 3 ... Newton 2 ... Quincy 2 and 3 .... Revere 2 .... Saugus ?2? ... Somerville 2 .... Stoneham FG ... Waltham 2 ... Weston 2 ....

all of these channels have different coverage areas .... which is specified by their FCC radio licenses .... another way to think of this is .... if all of the MetroFire FDs pooled all of their radio channels, they could build a 30 channel trunked radio system which basically could never be overloaded ... but it might be expensive to get coverage in every nook and cranny ... that would be a great radio study to see ; WHEREAS everyone loves a great radio system; what is the best way for Greater Boston to have a great radio system for their public safety agencies ?????? ] .... (just spitballing any answer here but we suspect that a regionwide dispatch center is needed before a regionwide radio system ]

bottom line ... there are multiple UHF channels that are available .. they are just very poorly utilized at this time

The present investment in land mobile radio equipment is .... one portable radio per onduty staff ... one mobile radio in each vehicle ... MDTs in all police cars .... repeaters and microwave linking systems and radio dispatch consoles to support all the field radios ... inbuilding antennas and repeaters in larger buildings ... obviously .... there are huge amounts of money already invested in the public safety communications systems in the Boston area ... but the systems are weak and meager ... resilience is nill .... most new public safety staff think that cellphones are the magic cure for all comms issues ... they dont realize just how weak the cellphone system really is

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1/21/2022 ... more solutions .... move all 'dispatcher to dispatcher' radio channels to the State TRS .... that would free up 483.2875R and maybe some BAPERN channels ...

1/21/2022 ... more solutions ... expand all MetroFire and BAPERN regional channels to full areawide channels .... this could be very useful .... MetroFire could expand their 3 regional channels and their 2 MO3 channels to full areawide channels ... BAPERN could expand their Central, North, NW, West, South, Southeast, and Southwest channels to full areawide channels ... Boston Fire could expand their 4 channels plus their 5 interstitial channels to full areawide coverage also ... all they need to do is add more transmitter and receiver sites .... this could produce 20 channels that would be available for any large scale emergency ... this would be much better than the present 5 or so channels .... (4/1/2022 Joe Brooks on the Mass forum on Radio Reference says that Boston is adding 2 more fireground channels ... that is cool ... they will then have 1 main channel and 5 secondary channels ... that will give them more depth and resilience in their radio system]

more solutions .... move all radios to the State TRS or to FIRSTNET ... but this would require a wholesale replacement of every public safety radio ... and cost billions probably

more solutions .... build 1 dispatch center to cover the entire area ... use MDTs to handle 90% of radio traffic ..... build 1 wide area radio system that will allow radios to work anywhere ... even 10 floors below ground ... we have the technology ... someone just needs to invest some money in these radio systems instead of chasing crazy dreams

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2/1/2022 ..... massmetrofire.org might be the official website now for metrofire but metrofire.us might be more up to date