Saturday

Burning Man News "911" Service in Black Rock City, Black Rock Emergency Service

In recent years Burning Man as an event and as a community has grown, and the Emergency Services Department (ESD) has developed in tandem with Black Rock City in providing 911 services such as EMS, fire, mental health, and emergency communications. In 2007 ESD started offering a remote way for theme camps, art projects, and participants to get help and in 2008 we plan on building on what we learned from the first trial year of service.

While all the conventional ways to get help are still available (for example know your local Ranger or where the nearest Emergency
Services Station is), we wanted to enhance safety by providing an option for those who might have a specific concern or for those who just want be helpful to others in their neighborhood. This is accomplished by ESD and Rangers monitoring the license-free MURS
(Multi User Radio Service) radio band.

MURS is a service similar to FRS (the frequencies that Motorola Talkabouts and similar radios use). As on-playa radio users can tell you, FRS is extremely overcrowded and in use by thousands of participants during the event. FRS radios are also not powerful
enough to effectively communicate throughout Black Rock City. MURS, in contrast, is currently not in common usage and operates at a higher power so it can communicate across the entire playa.

We hope that with the intention of reserving this “911″ channel before MURS use becomes widespread at Burning Man will set the expectation that this channel will be for emergency use only. You will need to purchase your own MURS radio to contact ESD 911, but the other four MURS channels can also be just like the FRS channels for other purposes. Large camps or villages might also choose to make one part of their group planning efforts and store it in a public place for emergency use.

Why do I want one of these when my FRS radio works just fine.

* If you’re part of a large theme camp it could be a good investment to have a MURS radio around to call 911 for your group, especially if you have members who have known health issues or the risk of injury is of special concern.

* Large art projects working out on the open playa will be able to get help faster.

* Camps that are on the outer-rings of the city and are far from a Ranger outpost or Emergency Services station don’t have to send runners for help when an emergency arises.

* The other 4 channels on MURS can be a great alternative to crowded FRS channels, especially if your camp has an art-car or event-wide project they want to coordinate.

* Emergency Services Dispatch cannot be reached on an FRS radio.

Calling 911

FOR ALL MURS USERS: we ask that all Burning Man participants respect that channel 5 will be used as a 911 channel only. While the other channels are fine for use as an alternative to FRS, we want to stress that channel 5 on MURS please be kept open for emergencies and not
used for any other purpose.

Set your MURS radio to channel 5, code 11 (154.600 / CTCSS 97.4) to reach Black Rock City Emergency Services Dispatch. Using any other “privacy codes” on channel 5 will interfere with 911. Instead limit your personal use to channels 1-4.

If you have further questions or need help in finding a source for radios, please email 911@burningman.com for more information.

Reno Passport Magazine wants to know if you think if this is a milestone for the Burning Man event?

The integration of a 911 system into the Black Rock City is a showing to be one of the many landmarks that Burning Man has achieved on the collective level of community support!

Whats your take on this?