DANVILLE, Va. – In an emergency, seconds matter. And quick and clear communication can mean life or death.
“We have to have that constant communication that tells us exactly what we need and when we need it,” said Danville Life Saving Crew Deputy Chief Bryan Fox.
Fox worries about the reliability of its current radio system.
“With time and technology changing, it didn’t take long for it to kind of become antiquated,” said Fox.
Responders had to deal with dead zones and needed multiple radios to communicate with the Danville Fire Department and Pittsylvania County, which makes responding to emergencies more difficult.
“So you can imagine it was kind of like Batman with his bat belt. You had four different radios on a scene trying to communicate with these various agencies,” said Fox.
In order to streamline communication and cut down on response times, the crew is making the switch to a new radio system: L3Harris.
It’s the same network as Pittsylvania County.
Thanks to a $700,000 capital investment, the crew upgraded its building and existing radio tower to be able to connect with the county’s towers.
“We leave here, we go North, South, East or West, those sites will all pick us up and we can communicate,” said Fox.
Pittsylvania County even pitched in $175,000 of their own CARES Act funding so the crew could make the switch.
“It made sense that Pittsylvania County would invest some of that money into this system that would allow these separate units to coordinate better and effectively communicate,” said the county’s public relations manager Caleb Ayers.
With new mobile radios in ambulances and about 100 new handheld radios, Fox said he’s looking forward to serving the community into the future.
“We appreciate the community’s support for these 76 years now,” said Fox. “The community stood behind us and we’re trying to do the best we can for them and these upgrades actually will make the service better.”