Volunteer firefighters plead for funds to buy radios

LINCOLN — As a wall of flames engulfed a Crete firefighter working a wildfire in Lancaster County in October 2022, other first responders had a problem — their radios.

Some radios were outdated, some couldn’t communicate with a nearby firefighter and overloaded circuits blocked colleagues from summoning help for Brad Elder as the fire roared over him.

“They wound up transporting him in a deputy sheriff s vehicle,” said Eric Johnson, president of the Firth Rural Fire and Rescue Board. “He didn’t get the treatment he needed.”

“We need help. We need help desperately,” Johnson told members of the Appropriations Committee.

He was among several volunteer firefighters who testified Monday in support of a trio of bills that would provide more funding to purchase “interoperable” radios for the state’s volunteer first responders.

Right now, the state’s 449 volunteer fire and rescue department have a mixture of radios, old and new, with a mixture of ability to be “operable” with other departments, the State Patrol or other responders to multi-agency wildfires, accidents or floods.

Those testifying told stories of seeing firefighters from other departments but being unable to communicate directly with th em via radio because they were using different systems.

Others said they had to resort to hand signals to wave in a state helicopter or were unable to ask the State Patrol to shut down an icy highway causing a multiple pileup.

Proposals before the Appropriations Committee on Monday would allocate between $5 million and $23 million to expand the number of departments with interoperable radios that can talk directly with those on the decade-old Nebraska Statewide Radio System.

A year ago, the Legislature appropriated $5 million in matching funds for volunteer departments to buy modem radios, but the funds were only able to help 175 of the 449 departments.