Massachusetts Public Safety
Table of Contents
1 - Statewide Items
2 - State Agencies
2A - USCG
3 - Greater Boston Items
4 - County + Local Items
5 - Scanner Info Sites
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Statewide Items
General Info - There are 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts. There are no unincorporated areas. Very little land is owned by the Federal government. The State Forests are the major landholdings of the State Government (but they are protected primarily by the local city and town agencies.) The vast majority of towns and cities have their own PD, FD, EMS, and 911 Dispatch Centers. There are no county or regional level public safety agencies (except for the sheriffs depts which run the county jails and a couple of county 911 dispatch centers). In the western areas of the State, there is more shared dispatch and shared EMS (plus more towns are patrolled by the State Police).
Extensive mutual aid is practiced by all agencies. Fire mutual aid districts generally follow county lines. Police radio systems/aid groups are basically - BAPERN (Boston Area)/470Mhz + NEMLEC (NorthEast)/482Mhz + Plymouth Co/Bristol Co (482Mhz) + Barnstable Co 9800Mhz) + Dukes Co (159Mjz) + ?Worcester Co/?45Mhz + WEMLEC/460Mhz (Springfield area) + ?Hampshire Co/154.77 + Franklin Co/39.16 + Berkshire Co/153.965. EMS mutual aid is ?coordinated by CMED centers in some areas (Boston + Ply Co + Barns Co + Worc Co + Essex Co + ?).
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TV7 Article About Old Fire Stations (?Feb00)
Please see www.geocities.com/morney55 for various Massachusetts FD profiles with photos. 1999 + 2000 + 2001
Massachusetts State Police Trunking Radio System Info By Steve Johnson
Enter Your Zipcode to Seek the Taunton NWS NEXRAD Radar - March 2002 - see Boston Natl Weather Service site instead
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List of 140 MA FDs at www.fire-ems.net as of December 1999 - Jan 2000 - Devens FD + Westover FD added - 144 FDs : Mar 2000 - Arl Aux FD + Dudley FD + Newburyport FD + Yarmouth FD - 147 FDs : 1 May 2000 - 149 FDs (Kingston + Oak Bluffs added) : 23 Oct 00 Harvard FD : ?159 listings as of Nov00
Also see The Fire Station for a list of online FDs (not broken down by state)
Masshome List of Online MA Fire Departments - probably the most complete list of MA FDs - ?190 as of Nov00 - ?240 as of May 2001
www.firehouse.com/links/USA_Departments/Massachusetts/ - ?70 FDs as of 02Nov00 - or just see www.firehouse.com/links
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Masshome List of Online MA Police Agencies
B Scanlan's New England Fire Rigs - May 2000
Fire Chief's Of Massachusetts Website (May00)
www.metroradio.org - Boston area fire and news buffs
New 2000 Radio Freqs in Massachusetts
Proposed Massachusetts Fire Radio Plan (by me - harumph!)
Map of MA Fire Districts from the EastCoast Paging website
Disaster Medical Assistance Team #MA-1
RACES Freqs for MA - ham emergency nets
www.emaares.com - Eastern MA ARES
MA Skywarn (May00)-amateur radio operators concerned with weather emergencies
Alternate 911 Telephone Numbers In Massachusetts
Air Traffic Control Freqs from FAA Website - July 1999
American Medical Response Freqs per FCC database - Dec 2000
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State Agencies
Commonwealth of MA Website - the State Forest Fire Bureau under the Dept of Enviro Mgmt lists all of the Fire Chiefs in MA - they also list all of their forest fire rigs (May00) - some are very old
Community Profiles (at the MA State Website) - which have links to Town and City Websites
Office of EMS - 1999 New Protocols in PDF - Newsletter in PDF
Mass State Police Website - 13 Dec 00 - looking at the MSP website I see that under IMAT it says that they have 3 medevac equipped helos - here is the URL for the new helo story from August 1999 - http://www.townonline.com/northwest/reading/news/newRAfire_nw_1207_1.html - [that URL takes me to the current Reading news - August 2002] - there are 9 detailed helo photos there - looks like 2 front seats plus 4 back seats in the new helos - (the MSP Photos Gallery has 5 helo photos in flite photos on page 1 of the Gallery) - the Marine Unit section now has photos of their 24' boat and their 44' former USCG boat - under Civilian SAR there is a link to the MA Civilian SAR plan and info on MA SAR teams
Check the archives of sme2 for a post about the MSP receiving their third new helo at the ?Las Vegas Conference - was around March 2001 - May 2001 a request for a SP helo to check a brush fire at Wompatuck State park was met with this reply - "the duty helo is at Chicopee" - apparently MSP is down to 1 helo on duty statewide at various times of the day or week - [DOES it have a hoist? (3/02)] - August 2002 - chase to MeadowGlenn Mall in Medford - MSP car rammed - TV4 helo followed suspect into mall - MSP helo not airbourne - 2PM on a weekday?
Mass State Police Troop C - see Worcester County below
Mass Fire Academy - also State Fire Marshall - no list of online FDs as of Nov00 - nor May 2001
Governor's Highway Safety Bureau
21 March 2000 Boston Globe - 52 civilian fire deaths in MA in 1999 - 59 in 1998 - lowest level since World War II - May 2001 - ?78 deaths in 2000 (highest in ?20 years)
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US Coast Guard
Air Station Cape Cod - see sme2 May 2001 - they have 4 Jayhawk helos + 4 Falcon jets - they always have 1 helo crew and 1 jet crew on duty - usually have 1 jet and 1 helo down for maintenance - always try to have at least 2 of each in service - they do have enough staff to fly all 8 aircraft at once if required
May 2001 - small plane crashed 2 miles SE of Nahant in Atlantic Ocean - 47 USCG boat from Point Allerton was first at scene with a crew of 6
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Greater Boston Area Items
Metro Fire - Official Website - at www.massmetrofire.org - February 2001
Boston Fire Buffs Website - has Boston box lookup function
Metro Radio System @ www.metroradio.org - Breaking News - Radio Freq Lists
Radio Freqs on the www.apco2000.org website
Bad Screwup on EMS in Boston (Apr00)
Metro Boston Area Emergency Telephone Numbers
Metro Boston Area Fire Departments
Detailed Radio Listings For Downtown Boston
Mass Bay EMS Council - has list of local Ambo Providers - {most FD ambos are BLS - a few are Intermediate - Scituate FD shows as Paramedic/Basic (Oct00)}
Also see www.geocities.com/45hithel for some EMS info - a October 2000 list of First Responder/Transport Units/ALS/Radio Freqs by Municipality
BAPERN - 470.7875R - Boston Area Police Emergency Radio Network - Boston PD is the control point - Newton PD is the backup control point and runs the weekly radio test - see [email protected] for a list of PDs
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Boston CMED - 1 radio operator sets up patchs between ambulances on the UHF Med Channels and hospitals in the area - the radio operator and console is located at Boston Police HQ - 463.075R is the calling channel where the ambos make initial contact with the operator who IDs as "Boston C Med" - CMED stands for Centralized Medical Emergency Dispatcher - Boston CMED does not dispatch any ambos and does not dispatch any helo ambos, but they do run the Boston Hospitals Disaster Net on 155.28 - suburban hospitals that can be contacted via Boston CMED are South Shore in Weymouth, Quincy, Milton, Norwood, Glover in Needham, Newton-Wellesley in Newton, Metro West Leonard Morse Campus in Natick, Metro West Cushing Campus in Framingham, Waltham, Mt Auburn in Cambridge, Cambridge City, Somerville, Winchester, and Lahey in Burlington.
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www.gebhart-sbg.at/scanner/liveaudio.html - Logan feed at the bottom - Uses RealPlayer - Apparently, the audio is from a scanner with many of the Logan frequencies, so it jumps from one to another. Not too good for continuity. (06 Jan 01)
www.ScanBoston.com has several Massachusetts live scanner feeds listed
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Scanner Sites
See Barnstable County section
Scan Boston Website with Message Board (11/99)
John Fordyce's Boston Area Scanning Info
Plymouth Area Scanner Page by Andy M - last updated Feb 2000
Worcester Area Scanning Page by Rob B - last updated April 1999 - has some Worcester TGs plus links
K Berrien's Scanner Site for Western MA - has good links to other MA scanner sites
The Eastern Mass Trunked Radio System Website - includes the Greater Boston Scanner Guide
Bob Jasset's Military Air Radio Website for the Boston Area
www.metroradio.org has a older version of the Boston Area Scanner Guide plus a detailed list of FD freqs
August 2000 edition of the Boston Area Scanner Guide is online at www.geocities.com/fran5678/Scan9740.htm - this document by Gary S contains freqs, unit IDs, station locations, etc.
Mike Tiernan's Scanner Page - SME + SMW - site is online - scanner Email lists are not - Oct 2000
www.metroradio.org - 06 Jan 00 - has a new list of radio freqs for Palm Pilot use - also has MRS radio operating procedures
www.scancapecod.net - new URL - May 2001 - has Message Board
See www.ScanBoston.com - new as of ?January 2001 - has message board
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Scanner Mailing Lists - [email protected] - [email protected] [scan mass east 2] (May00) - mass-trunking (closed private list)(May 2001)
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Online Scanners
March 2002 - see www.ScanBoston.com for a detailed list
www.apbonline.com has Boston PD (discontinued in ?2001)
Providence Citywide (intap.com) has Boston FD
www.thebravest.com has Boston FD also
Hingham PD is online
There was someone in the Cohasset area streaming
www.radiodestiny.com has Central MA Railroads
Rob Bellville might have Millbury area traffic sometimes
www.gebhart-sbg.at/scanner/liveaudio.html - Logan aircraft radio feed at the bottom (?with webcam) - Uses RealPlayer - Apparently, the audio is from a scanner with many of the Logan frequencies, so it jumps from one to another. Not too good for continuity.
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Date Created - October 1, 1999
Updated - Dec 19, 1999 added Barnstable County info - 4 Mar 2000 (MA FDs at 147 + Scanner Pages - added 2 scanners sites 21 March 2K) - 23Apr00 (added profiles of varios FDs around Boston area) - 3May00 (Bristol County - Scanlan Rigs page) - 7May00 (KB Scanner site) - 8May00 (changed Worc Co URL - added Masshome list of PDs) - 19May00 ( Williamsburg - MA FCs - Boston EMS Screwup - Bad FS - Worc TRS) - 16June00 (E MA TRS Page) - 7July00 - Bob Jarrets website - 29July00 - Worc Co files reworked - 01Aug00 - www.metroradio.org - www.apco2000.org/frequencies.htm - 24Aug00 - moved Fall River FS photos + Plymth 3 photos + Newton fire stories to xoom.com + cia.net - Boston Area Scanner Guide - 4Sept00 - Suffolk County - 12Sept00 - Hampshire Co - 07Oct00 - BPD Radio - 10Oct00 - aviation freqs from FAA site + online scanners - 19Oct00 - Boston CMED + BAPERN - 22Oct00 - M Tiernan Scanner site - 25Oct00 - 1999 fire deaths - 13Dec00 - MSP helos + genl info - 18Dec00 - AMR freqs - 06Jan01 - Logan audio feed - 12Feb01 - MetroFire site - 29May2001 E MA EMA site + revamped index - March 2002 - added misc info