MEMO TO THE COMMUNITY LMRFD May 29th 2020

MEMO TO THE COMMUNITY 

May 29, 2020 

As you are aware, the Governing Board of the Lake Mohave Ranchos Fire District voted 4-1 to terminate Fire Chief Bonnee for cause on May 8, 2020 at a specially-called meeting of the Fire Board. 

This has raised many questions in the community, and the Board has the following response.  

Chief Bonnee was not terminated for an alleged criminal incident that occurred on his personal time. The issue for the Fire Board was that the ex-Chief shared multiple completely inconsistent versions of what happened and why it happened with the investigating police agency, the community, and members of the Board, as well as agency staff. This dishonesty demonstrated that the Board could not rely on the Fire Chief to tell the truth. This was compounded by other additional prior proven instances of substantial omissions and misrepresentations by the ex-Chief, including but not limited to the following:

Dishonesty: January 16th and 17th Leadership Class –the ex-Chief allegedly attended this class and sought to be paid for attending it; it later developed that in fact he had not attended the class. He was asked to provide evidence of attendance, but failed to provide evidence to the Board of actual attendance at same; he later admitted that he did not attend the class.

Continue reading the LMRFD May 29th Board Minutes 

How to Make & Receive Calls When Your Phone is Damaged

The other day one of our friends phone was damaged when it accidently got knock off the table. It was only a couple feet but it look like someone stomped on it with a boot? The screen was black but it still worked, kinda, sorta, well not really but it still made noise..

If she used her Gmail account to setup a free virtual phone number in Google Voice she could still be making and receiving calls on any Android, iPhone, iPad, or Windows computer.

Google Voice may not be the best alternative to your damaged phone, but if you’re looking for a cheap way to get a business phone or you simply want an alternative to your damaged phone until you get a new one, Google Voice is a great way to go about it.

Google Voice gives you a free virtual phone number. Here's some info I've learned using Google Voice and from the Tom's Guide article below.

We've had our Google Voice number for 10 years or so. If you've ever called "our" number and you were surprised when the wrong one of us answered, it's because our Google voice number rings both phones. 

When that happens we tell people to hang on, we hit the * key ringing the other one's phone and they pick up and take the call. Handy!

Google Voice is a VoIP phone service, it works solely over the Internet. But that also means that wherever you have an Internet connection, you can access the service and make calls, send text messages, and more. Best of all, you only need a microphone and speaker to use Google Voice, so laptop or smartphone, it’ll work just fine.

Think of Google Voice as a forever phone number you can forward to your cell phone, home phone, or any phone. 

If you lose your phone use Google's Find My Device to locate your phone on the map, get close and it will ring your phone loud for 5 minutes even if it's on silent. 

Should you lose your phone in the wrong bedroom ringing your phone may be hazardous to your health. Google's Find My Device gives you the option to secure your phone and continue looking for it until the battery goes dead, or just erase your phone.

How does Google Voice work, and should you use it?

Tom's Guide By Don Reisinger January 12, 2020

Make a phone call on Windows with Hangouts

When you use Hangouts to make a phone call with a Google Voice it will show your Google Voice number.

1. On your computer, go to Hangouts at hangouts.google.com

2. Click the Call tab .

• In the search box, type a phone number or name.

• Click the phone number or person's name that you want to call.

• To enter an extension, click the Dialpad .

3. To end a call, close the Hangout window, or click End call

Internet Down? No Cell Service? Use Your Phone To Communicate Offline

With the majority of people carrying cell phones today local cellular service can be disrupted when the normal daily traffic is surpassed. 
Anytime a large numbers people gather for a protest or any other reason local cellular service may become overloaded
disrupting cellular service.

First Responders
If You're a first responder make sure the telephone numbers of your agency and your personal cell phone have been registered with one of the three major priority Services to support National Security/Emergency Preparedness (NS/EP) activities: Telecommunications Service Priority (TSP), Government Emergency Telecommunications Service (GETS), Wireless Priority Service (WPS). They should be an important aspect of any emergency communications strategy, especially for those who rely on communications to respond to events and incidents on a daily basis and want to minimize their connectivity downtime.

But you can still communicate at least over short range using Bluetooth, Wifi, or a mesh network using these apps...

Offline Communication Apps 

The Serval Mesh

The Serval Mesh App aims at creating direct connections between cellular phones. The connections are made through their WiFi networks. There is no need for a mobile phone operator while forming the mesh with WiFi. The several Mesh app uses a store and forward system called Rhizome. Rhizome can achieve broad distance communication with minimal mesh connections.

Serval Mesh is open-source software. This allows you to make private phone calls, send secure messages and data. An ideal app to use in remote areas or during a disaster

Offline Messaging Mode: Peer to peer WiFi Direct with MDP encrypted | Download from PlayStore:  Serval Mesh

Bridgefy https://bridgefy.me Free to Business Pricing

The Bluetooth-based messaging app allows users (within a city) to communicate sans the internet. It has three operational modes

a) Person-to-person lets you chat privately with another user located within 100 meters or 330 feet of you

b) Mesh network, which lets you connect with users located further by communicating with Bridgefy users in the middle, thereby forming a human chain

c) Broadcast mode, which allows you to send out messages to every Bridgefy user around you at the same time, even if they are not in your contact list

FireChat creates a mesh network, and can transmit messages and pictures between devices located within 200 feet of one another. You can connect with another FireChat user via either public or private chat. Private messages are encrypted and can only be seen and read by the sender and the recipient. 

You can also create live chat rooms for discussions on any topic or relaying real-time information. FireChats multihop and store-and-forward technology helps it create larger networks when several users get on the app at the same time. 

Manyverse is a decentralized social networking app, which stores your data locally on your device as opposed to on a cloud.  The beta version of Manyverse hit Google Play Store last year, and has been installed over 5,000 times. 

The app requires no log-in, it doesn’t track your activity, and can be used to communicate with local users over peer-to-peer WiFi networks or Bluetooth.  It is a full-fledged social network containing user profiles, posts, comments, conversation threads, photos, videos, and ‘likeable’ and ‘shareable’ content. Unlike other social apps, however, Manyverse provides a clean, ad-free experience.

Briar is touted as one of the most secure messaging apps on Android. It functions both online and offline, and doesn't rely on a central server to store and sync messages.

When you’re out of internet, Briar lets you send messages via Bluetooth or local WiFi networks. When you get the internet back, the app syncs through the Tor network, thus letting users escape surveillance and tracking.

Signal Offline is one of the top messenger apps that lets you communicate over WiFi Direct. It functions without the internet and even cellular network.

The app tracks devices within a range of 100 meters, and displays them on your messaging list. You can send text, photos, audio, video messages – all of which are encrypted. 

Txti is a nifty tool to create quick, data-light web pages – which can open on slow networks and sometimes even without the internet.  It is particularly useful in times of crisis or during disaster management operations, where users can collate and share information easily from one central source. 

Txti creates a custom URL, which can be shared over Twitter or other networks for information dissemination. Each ‘txti’ can contain links, images, lists, headings, and more. Users can access Txti links on feature phones too. The only drawback is, the one creating the 'txti' needs to have access to the internet. 

Local Community Emergency Response Teams Can Do Firefighter Rehab and More...

Local Community Emergency Response Teams with the proper training can provide all kinds of services during an emergency. 

The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program educates volunteers about disaster preparedness. The training curriculum includes disaster preparedness, fire suppression, medical operations (first aid triage), light search and rescue, understanding the signs and symptoms of disaster psychology, and team organization. 

Local volunteers could take CERT's Firefighter Rehab Training Course to support LMRFD firefighters by providing support services.

The four-hour Firefighting Rehab module trains CERT members to safely set up and perform the non-medical functions of firefighter rehabilitation.  CERT members will learn:  1) the definition of and need for firefighter rehab; 2) the physiological threats to firefighters; 3) an overview of what happens at the scene of a fire; and, 4) how CERT members set up and what they do in the rehab area.

In rural areas like Dolan Springs and Meadview Community Emergency Response Teams can be trained in Animal Response, Traffic and Crowd Management, Flood Response, or Communications.

The one requirement for a CERT team is the support of the local fire district or other agency. 

Without Volunteer Firefighters or a Community Emergency Response Team the LMRFD is Screwed...

I see Chief Winn is working on how our fire district can survive by looking at additional funding. I hope we finally have a fire chief with the best interest of the community in mind. 

It's easy to run calls and post pictures, it's a lot more difficult to actually manage a fire district. I hope Chief Winn understands how desperately we need volunteers in Dolan and Meadview. It doesn't matter if they answer the phones, do follow ups on illegal burns, whatever. 

What we really need is a local well trained Community Emergency Response Team to assist the citizens in our fire district during emergencies. 

Mohave Valley, Bullhead City, Lake Havasu, and Needles California all have CERT teams. 

Why do we need a CERT Team? Because if we have a major earthquake or other disaster where roads are damaged and travel isn't possible we will LITERALLY ONLY HAVE the TWO FIREFIGHTERS on duty. 

In a major disaster cell phones and emergency services repeaters will be down. 
The LMRFD will have no way to gather damage or casualty assessments. 
No way to tell outside agencies how many injured or dead we have. No way to tell outside agencies how many structures are damaged or destroyed.
No way to tell outside agencies what we need.... 

If you've been in the military or worked in emergency services you know how important communications are, especially when things go badly and you need help.

A fire chief needs to manage laws, rules, and regulations as well as the budget, equipment, personel, and communications. 
But in a disaster without personnel or communications he has nothing to manage, and our community LITERALLY HAS 
NO HELP.

We need enough people interested in a CERT team, the support of our fire district and Mohave County Emergency Services would provide the CERT training.

A couple years ago several people from Dolan Springs took the CERT training in Chloride supported by NACFD.

At that time the LMRFD refused to provide support for a CERT team. I hope that has changed...

If nothing changes and we have no volunteers or a CERT team I'm going to look into annexing OUT of the LMRFD. 
It's impossible to cover the 144 square mile fire district and a 2200 square mile ambulance area with the SAME two firefighters.

People outside the fire district get the same services as taxpayers who support the fire district. I'm just tired of getting NOTHING for my tax dollars.

Learn more about Community Emergency Response Teams

More CERT Links

Mohave County CERT Program

Bullhead City Community Emergency Response Team, Inc

Mohave Valley Community Emergency Response Team

City of Needles CERT

Havasu Lake CERT