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."
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