AURORA, Colo. — The Alexander Mountain Fire broke out in a remote canyon in Larimer County this summer, where cell phone signals are nearly nonexistent.
The firefighting command post, the hub for critical lifesaving information, was in a communications dead zone.
“I think we got the call in the evening and we were deployed that night before midnight,” said Jared Hilzendeger with the Verizon crisis response team. "We deployed a trailer that is staged in Windsor, and we had it up and running in 30 to 45 minutes."
He calls it a SPOT, also called a satellite picocell on trailer. It can create a bubble of LTE service complete with Wi-Fi that can handle 200 to 800 users depending on the source and speed of the internet connection it establishes. It could possibly streamline evacuation notices and search and rescue efforts.
“I think it absolutely can save lives because we can do things quicker, we can do things faster," he said. "When everybody’s connected on an incident, everybody can pass that information from one person to the next.”
Verizon held an event in Aurora on Wednesday to show off some of their other disaster response gadgets like a four-legged robot called RED (Robotic Emergency Dog), that can carry sensors into dangerous environments and relay the data to first responders.
The event was held at the headquarters of Pelsue, a Colorado company that custom builds Verizon's SPOT communications trailers.
"We do everything in-house here so you really get to see the craftsmanship," said Caleb Ford, an account manager with the Pelsue Company. "From the raw materials and metal fabrication to the fiber line installation and splicing capabilities inside the unit, we do it all."
Ford said he’s proud to see his Colorado built products in the field helping Coloradans when disaster strikes.
“It’s kind of a personal touch that we put on every piece of equipment that come through here,” he said.
A Verizon spokesperson said they have also deployed SPOT trailers to the Glenwood Canyon mudslides and the Highway 50 bridge repair at Blue Mesa Reservoir. They can also be used when the cell network goes down in flash floods, tornadoes and other severe weather disasters.