LAKESIDE, Calif. (KGTV) – Small smokestacks continued to billow from torched hillsides and tan rocks are now a pale pink are being painted fire retardant in a remote area of Lakeside where the Monte Fire broke out.
The location of the fire did cause some cell connection issues for first responders in the current area of where the incident command post is in El Monte Park.
“Fire crews are still able to make an aggressive fire attack on any fire even without cell phone connectivity,” Captain Robert Johnson of Cal Fire San Diego said.
Johnson told ABC 10News the cell service around the Monte Fire was a hurdle in setting up the command center for firefighters.
“Yesterday, the initial incident command post was a ways down the road, although this did not impede firefighting efforts. It was not as close to the fire as we are today,” Johnson said.
Johnson said Verizon’s critical response team brought in something to boost the cell service for those battling the fire.
“They were able to bring in a unit that's referred to as a COW, a cell on wheels, to boost cell connectivity in this area at the incident command post,” Johnson said.
That allowed first responders to move the command post closer to the fire line.
“It allows crews after the incident briefing to be able to travel a shorter distance to get to the fire line as opposed to if the incident command post was at a farther location,” Johnson said.
Johnson said that while it’s not the end-all, be-all in fighting a fire, cell service provides an added communication benefit.
“Including resource tracking, effective communication between the command staff and our emergency dispatch center,” Johnson said. “Again, the cell service is not imperative to attacking this fire, but it does provide benefits.”
It's not all about overcoming hurdles with the technology that Cal Fire is using.
As ABC 10News has reported, cameras and AI at the dispatch center are being used to attack the fires.
"They can further investigate what that anomaly was to see if maybe that was smoke. The ability to utilize this AI on our cameras throughout the county does allow for a faster response in the event that smoke is detected,” Johnson said.
