California Forest Fire Victims Used CSI Wireless' BaseOne
Fixed Wireless Telephone to Stay in Touch with Loved Ones

CSI Wireless' BaseOne fixed wireless telephone played a crucial communications role in the summer of 2003 during forest fires that raged across southern California - destroying hundreds of homes, and forcing thousands of residents to seek emergency shelter.

"We operated the BaseOne at several American Red Cross evacuation shelters near the fire zones," said Gordon West, District Emergency Coordinator for the Amateur Radio Emergency Service that provides communication services during public emergencies.

"Both the firefighters and the shelter clients were able to use the BaseOne to stay in touch with loved ones and to make arrangements for getting their lives back to normal after the complete loss of their homes."

"It was interesting to note," West added, "that the BaseOne was always able to get through - whereas other cell systems had problems. We also noticed that our conventional satellite phones would seldom get through because of the heavy overload of fire-related communications they were experiencing. But the BaseOne seemed to get through anytime we picked up the handset."

The sometimes remote emergency shelters that were established to house evacuated homeowners and their families during the California forest fires proved to be an ideal environment in which to test the BaseOne's effectiveness. It passed with flying colours.

West noted that many people who arrived at the emergency shelters had little or no experience using conventional handheld wireless phones. And so when they were offered various wireless phones to contact their friends and relatives, "there was always a line behind the free phone service from BaseOne because it looked, worked and sounded like the desktop and wall-mounted phones they had at home."

"It was a familiar thing at a time when everything else around them was unfamiliar."