Hello all!

I am involved with helping a number of different amateur radio groups in the area. One of my primary goals is to help others increase their skills to aid individuals and served agencies in the event of an emergency. Some of my time is involved with helping to develop hams within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints community. Their goal is to develop their skills to become better volunteers to assist whomever emergencies may affect.

I run a net on 146.720 MHz (linked with 449.375 MHz) at 20:00 on Sunday evenings for this purpose.

Last Sunday, I had a leader of one of these groups that I assist as a guest on my net to discuss lessons he had learned as they were involved in two wildfires in the Northeast Valley. The first fire, the East Desert Fire, began Sunday, May 17 in the middle of the afternoon and was just 100% contained May 22nd. The second fire, the Peakview Fire, began on Tuesday, May 19th and was contained the same day. Both fires affected the communities in which these hams reside.

This group had originally formed with the purpose of serving the area which is known as the North Scottsdale Stake within the Church. This area is defined roughly by Paradise Valley, North Scottsdale, Cave Creek, Rio Verde, and Fountain Hills. During the fires, they aided the local church leadership to determine the statuses of their congregation members, the condition of area properties, and the effects on the spread of the fires within their communities.

During these fires, one operator, Gary Bennett, (KF7OGZ) assisted the local church leadership with information gathering and helped to field communications for the leaders. For the second fire, KF7OGZ recruited three other operators to assist in his efforts. Since the primary aim was to assist church leadership, they did not have communications with first responders or other emergency management agencies. However, many lessons from their observations could be used by any operator serving any agency, public or NGO alike. Here is a synopsis of what they learned that could help any communications operator:

- Gary (KF7OGZ) credited the ABC News phone app for receiving the alert first. Many were unaware of the fires...which is critical since the fires were fast moving. Phone alerts sent through the phone emergency alert systems were not received until much later.

- The use of maps proved indispensable.

- One big lesson learned was the need to monitor various new outlets at once. Gary wishes he had more assistance for this during the first fire. He was trying to monitor the various news stations, as well as the Rural/Metro frequencies for information on the spread of the fire and the impact of the evacuation orders and road closures for the areas involved.?? It was too much for one person to do alone.

- Gary suggested that he wished he had sent an alert via a phone app to the other radio operators in his group. (One text to all at once rather than texting individuals one at a time.) Looking back, he wished he had sent an alert to several radio operators at the very beginning to enlist assistance with the first fire. He noted that he could have had more operators to help monitor news and communications, and for those who may have not been needed, he could have easily thanked them and released them as seen fit.

- He noted how important it was that hams had specific, pre-planned frequencies programmed into their radios before the events took place. Also, individual training and skill were important as there was no time to assist hams who were unfamiliar with their radios.

- A communication deployment checklist would have been advantageous to help set up quickly and to alert operators within the group.

- Ham radio got the information out fast to many listening at once rather than having to call multiple people one at a time with the same information.

- Radio operators should be used in such a manner as to help emergency or agency leaders field all the different sources of communications coming to them at once. Gary noted how the bishops (the congregation leaders) were overwhelmed by all those who were trying to communicate with them at the same time.

- As a side note, although this group was not directly involved with the Red Cross during these incidents, they did have congregation members effected by the evacuation orders. The Red Cross had set up an evacuation shelter at Cactus Shadow High School, but it is interesting to note that many evacuees choose to sleep in their cars instead due to COVID-19 fears.

As noted, there were many lessons learned from just two, relatively short, fires.?? Even though what occurred was communications between a small group of operators serving an NGO, there is much that can be applied in many other emergency communication scenarios.

Heidi Brewer

K7ZAE, Assistant Emergency Coordinator, Maricopa County