Hevesi Probe Calls Fire Department Radios Dangerous

At a City Hall news conference on Tuesday, Hevesi released 12 field reports written by fire officers that documented serious problems with the radiosproblems he said could have been identified through proper testing.
"Firefighters risk their lives to protect us," Hevesi said. "They deserve the best equipment to protect them. Sending firefighters into burning buildings with radios that have not been properly field-tested is irresponsible and dangerous."
Meanwhile, right on the heels of Hevesis news conference, City Council Speaker Peter F. Vallone announced that the Councils Fire and Criminal Justice Committee will hold a hearing on the flawed radios on April 16 at 11:30 a.m. He said the hearing will focus on the decision to convert from analog to digital.
The Comptroller also found that the Fire Department improperly used a small $2.9 million contract to buy a few replacement radios to purchase an entirely new system which will end up costing $33 million.
Hevesi, in a scathing letter to Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen, said, "I ordered a review by my staff of the circumstances leading to the purchase by the FDNY of this model radio. My staff found many problems in the procurement of these radios by the Dept., including a failure to adequately test the XTS 3500 UPH portable radios and possible misrepresentations by FDNY staff responsible for obtaining the radios."
He further charged that the FDNY often offered "contradictory or incomplete information in its unsatisfactory attempt to justify this multimillion dollar purchase of life-saving equipment.
The Motorola radios were first put into service by the Fire Dept. on March 14. Five days later it reportedly failed the firefighter seeking help while in a burning Richmond Hill building.
The smoldering controversy also drew scathing criticism on Tuesday from the president of the Uniformed EMS Officers Union.
Don Rothschild charged that the digital radios purchased by the Fire Dept. from the Motorola Corporation were given only a two-week trial on Randalls Island before they were distributed to 2,700 City firefighters.
"The test they gave it was limited," Rothschild said. "It should have lasted from six months to a year."
The union president lashed out at Von Essen and called for his resignation saying, "We have lost all hope and confidence in him. He cannot lead, so we cannot follow."
He announced that Fire Dept. lieutenants and captains had taken a "no confidence" vote in Von Essen. The union chief cited several examples of Von Essens "mismanagement of the FDNY EMS service."
Rothschild also said he feared the Motorola radios would be issued to emergency medical technicians on ambulances.
"If that is the case," he said, "we would lose our Police Dept. frequencies and ambulance personnel would not be able to reach police quickly if they ran into a problem." Rothschild also expressed concern that the new digital radios can function in intense heat.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Motorola denied that the radios were defective and said they had not been recalled by the NYFD.