Radio issues slowed communications during Carson Midway fire

When the first plume of smoke from the Carson Midway Fire billowed into the sky on Friday, the Hanover Fire Department was the first in charge to start getting it under control.

But as the wind blew and the fire spread, the Pueblo County Sheriff, El Paso County Sheriff and Ft. Carson crews stepped in to help.

Hanover Fire Chief Carl Tatum said that’s when the communication issues began.

Before radio communications were established, officials at the Pueblo County Emergency Operations Center were speaking with El Paso County officials and that’s how communication was figured out.

Because Pueblo County isn’t on the same radio frequencies as El Paso County, the shared channel had to be established.

Pueblo County Bureau Chief Mark Mears was on the front lines of the fire, and he said when things have to be worked out as quickly as possible, sometimes they have to get creative.

“Sometimes it just takes two radios, you know, the incident commander might have two radios for that even until we can work out the detail,” Mears said.

Mears said when there is a coordinated effort like at the Carson Midway Fire, communication is key and that’s something that needs to be worked on going forward.

“There’s always that communication piece that you have to work out and so it’s always good to have that discussion ahead of time,” Mears said.

Mears said oftentimes when they tried to get information through the radio, it gave them a busy signal because so many people were on the same channel.

After a large incident like this, the groups involved review the response and what they can do better next time.