Communications Combating Chaos
Thousands of Americans cheered emergency workers as they arrived at ground zero. On MRT’s cover this month is one of the heroes they were cheering: Sgt. Brian Boyar of the New York City Sheriff’s Office Firearms and Tactics Unit.
An MRT public safety subscriber captured this moment in the 23-minute interval between the two collapses of the World Trade Center towers.
“When [2 WTC] collapsed, it was everyone running around. You just took care of one thing at a time, as you were going down the street. Guys were trapped everywhere,” said Michael Coppola, the 10-year subscriber who contributed this photograph.
Coppola was at this scene of horror because he was reporting on a two-way radio notification system for the New Jersey/New York metropolitan area called Metro Fire Radio.
Metro Fire Radio keeps members of public safety agencies and the press informed of ongoing emergencies. Individuals may also keep in touch with one another over the system. The system uses UHF radios (452.175MHz) to communicate across several repeater systems throughout the metropolitan area. When a member hears of an incident, he retransmits the information over the radio system. Metro Fire Radio is “an off-duty type of club” that provides a benefit to public safety members, according to Coppola.
“Since it has been established, Metro Fire Radio has grown to a membership of over 120 members,” Coppola said. “Most agencies in our area that have UHF radios dedicate a channel for our organization.” Members also take photos of the incidents and coordinate with arson squads, emergency agencies and the press afterward.
Coppola also was there because he wears all three public safety hats: He is a police officer, a firefighter and an EMT. As an officer with the Palisades Interstate Parkway Police in New Jersey, Coppola helps the Phoenix Team, a crisis-intervention unit, among many other public safety ventures.
On Sept. 11, he and two other Metro Fire Radio members, Dave LaGruth and Matt Schneiderman, arrived about eight blocks away from the WTC, in front of the NYPD 1st Precinct. They began taking photos—“Our original reason for going to this job,” Coppola said. But when 2 WTC collapsed, and they reached the initial- response staging area, they had no time to take pictures. “We immediately began washing off firefighters who couldn’t breath because they were covered in debris and ash. After we ‘rehabbed’ the brothers in the area, we started putting out numerous debris fires with fire extinguishers,” Coppola said.
The group soon had to take cover again as the north tower collapsed. Once the situation stabilized, they “got right back to putting out even more fires and dodging exploding car fires—photographing what we could when we could,” Coppola said.
In this way, Metro Fire Radio played its part in this disaster that motivated many Americans to help, whether in giving blood, contributing money or praying.
“Looking back on the TV stations when we got home, it was like watching the whole thing in ‘mute’ without the screams and sound of 110 stories crashing to the ground,” Coppola said.
