Comm. 7 was originally designed by the Paden City volunteers
as an inventive and useful piece of equipment for both Wetzel and Tyler
counties back in the early 90's. During the first years of service the
Comm. Truck was utilized for several incidents and traveled as far as
Hundred on several occasions. After several years departments in the
area where able to update communications and air equipment minimizing the
need for the truck. However, as emergency services expanded and the
growing possibility of large scale incidents within the county the truck has
been refurbished and is now a highly equipped mobile command center.
This truck now responds on all Bomb Scares, Missing Persons, and Multi
Jurisdiction Responses county wide in addition to all structure fire
responses within the Paden City Fire District.
Communications Center- Comm. 7 is essentially a mobile 911 center, in
April of 2007 all of the radio equipment was updated courtesy of the Wetzel
County O.E.S. The new equipment includes: Low Band Radio, UHF Radio,
VHF Radio, Marine Radio, C.B. Radio, Scanner, and County Repeater. The
repeater has been programmed into 6 portable radios that can be used on
large scale incidents to provide all incident commanders a common frequency.
Also the truck is now equipped with an encoder system used to notify fire
and ems agencies across Wetzel County via a pager system. In addition
to the communications equipment Comm. 7 is also a rehab center with water
coolers, chairs, coffee machine, and a large air conditioner. Finally,
the truck has been equipped with emergency pre-plans for all local
industries as well as Wetzel and Tyler County emergency plans.
Portable Radios- In Wetzel County there are over 8 different
frequencies used by fire, ems, and police on low band, UHF, and VHF.
This can cause confusion and miscommunication of messages on large scale
incidents. In order to combat this communication problem the
W.C.O.E.S. has supplied (6) portable radios that can be used by incident
commanders from various agencies to communicate to one another and at
the same time utilize the county repeater to talk to units who are under
there particular command.
Spare Bottles- Besides communication and rehab, Comm. 7 is a
mobile fire support truck that carries 36 spare 30 minute air bottles for
large scale incidents. The Paden City Vol. Fire Co. has a total of 60
air bottles including 14 SCBA Packs. Also the truck comes equipped
with high capacity Onan Generator that supplies (4) 100' electric cords and
(4) 1000 Watt Portable Flood Lights.
Air Packs- Comm. 7 is equipped with two SCBA's for fire ground
support as this truck responds to all structure fires within the first due
response area with manpower permitting. The air packs are designed to
give firefighters 30 minutes of air in dangerous environments in order to
perform rescue of property saving measures.
Encoder- Across Wetzel County all emergency workers are notified of
an incident via a pager systems that allows 911 to alert and transmit a
message to the volunteers and ems workers. Comm. 7 now hosts the
equipment to allow mobile dispatch of all agencies with-in the county.
This function allows Wetzel County to have a mobile 911 center should the
need arise.