A smoky electrical fire in a section of Washington’s (DC) underground subway system last week has revealed problems with the fire department’s radio communications in the tunnels, forcing firefighters to relay information verbally. One person died and several were injured when a train stalled in a smoke-filled tunnel, and passengers were trapped for 40 minutes. In a preliminary post-incident report, District officials acknowledged that new digital trunked portable radios weren’t able to communicate with ground-level units, and reverted to direct-mode with a limited range. The fire department upgraded their radio system after encountering similar in-building communications problems during a Sept. 2013, multi-fatality shooting incident inside a U.S. Navy administration building. Read the The upgrade included encryption, which was turned on just last December. District’s report (pdf) that includes a timeline and email from one firefighter reporting the radio problems.
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