October 2007 Southern California Wildfires – The San Diego … National Public Safety Telecommunications Council October 2007 Southern California Wildfires – The San Diego Experience

National Public Safety Telecommunications Council

October 2007 Southern California Wildfires October 2007 Southern California Wildfires ––The San Diego ExperienceThe San Diego Experience

Don RootAssistant Manager, Wireless Services Division

San Diego County Sheriff’s Department

November 13, 2007

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NPSTC is a federation of organizations whose mission is to improve public safety communications and interoperability through collaborative leadership.

The San Diego County – Imperial County Regional Communications System

• Motorola Smartzone 3.0 Mixed Mode (Analog / Digital) 800 MHz network– 98% coverage over 9,000 + square miles– 65 Communications Sites

• 186 Channels– 125 NPSPAC– 61 Border Zone General Use Pool

• 4 Simulcast Zones (32 sites)• 20 Stand-alone (“InteleRepeater”) sites

– 3 to 6 channels

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• Sized for 30,000 Users– Currently 21,000 User IDs, 264 Agencies

• All disciplines• All levels of government

• Average month:– 3.2 Million requests for channel assignment (“calls”)– 1950 delayed channel assignments (“busies”)

• 450 typical in Simulcast Zones• 1500 typical in IR sites

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The October 2007 Fires in San Diego County

Photo: Unknown

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• Sunday Oct. 21 – Friday Oct. 26, 2007– “Santa Ana winds” condition

• 35 – 60 MPH sustained winds from the East• 80 MPH gusts typical

– Total of 7 fires• Approximately 350,450 acres burned

– 547.5 square miles!– 1259 structures destroyed– 9 deaths – Evacuations ordered for approximately 640,000

residents– Hundreds of miles of commercial infrastructure (power,

communications) destroyed

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• 6 Public Safety Communications Sites were burned over– All 6 sites remained on the air– 5 RCS sites, 1 State of CA / Federal site

• Two sites received retardant “pretreatment”• Some radome, antenna, and feed line damage at

RCS sites• 1 propane regulator damaged

• 19 RCS Communications Sites on Generator– Power to last site restored 11/12/07– Generators will be replaced at two sites

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Lyons Peak

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Lyons Peak: 10/24/07 @ 09:30 (Burn over + 3 hours)

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• 2007 Fires (Oct 21st to 26th):

– 1,226,678 calls (38% of a normal month in 6 days)• Single Busiest Day 264,048 calls (10/22/07)

– 33,021 busies (average busy duration of 5.6seconds) (1950 average busies per month)

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• 2003 Fires(Oct 26st to 31st):

– 1,104,287 calls (37% of a normal month in 5 days)

• Single Busiest Day 265,355 calls (10/26/03)

– 104,605 busies (average busy duration of 19.1 seconds) (4230 per month average in 2003)

71 % improvement!

• 2007 Fires(Oct 21st to 26th):

– 1,226,678 calls (38% of a normal month in 6 days)

• Single Busiest Day 264,048 calls (10/22/07)

– 33,021 busies (average busy duration of 5.6 seconds) (1950 per month average in 2007)

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Working with non-RCS system members

• Cache radios were deployed to out of area resources– 160 portables “on the shelf”– 250 portables rented from Motorola– Witch Creek Fire used the RCS for all logistics

comms

• San Diego has 10 sites with conventional 800 MHz / VHF I/O resources– Riverside County sent 104 deputies to assist with

security of evacuated areas in the Rice fire area– Two conventional 800 MHz repeaters inter-tied to

allow Riverside staff coordination and dispatch services

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Recap:

• Proper analysis of traffic loading is critical– Examine after each major event and work

to fill gaps • Proper construction of sites to survive

known risks is critical

• Hardened backup power and backhaul is critical– 24 hour generation fuel is not “hardened”

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Questions?

Documents

October 2007 Southern California Wildfires – The San Diego … National Public Safety Telecommunications Council October 2007 Southern California Wildfires – The San Diego Experience