Finance Committee - 10/18/2017 Page 20
lot of redundancy in different things because if one thing fails, we need another thing to come in and replace it.
This is how the emergency services really work, to come in like that and cover all gaps in different situations.
Alderman Cookson
Does Mr. Mansfield have anything to add to Alderman O’Brien’s commentary?
Mr. Mansfield
Just to reaffirm what he said. We’re looking at the major catastrophe. The incident that he is talking about that
did happen was a short-term incident. It was not a long-term incident. Even if that building was destroyed,
another temporary fix, again a temporary fix, would be to go to the police department. But again, that is going
to get chaotic really quick because of the amount of phone calls that are going to be going in there. We don’t
have two fire dispatch consoles in there. We only have one. They utilize two all the time. They are operating
on 14 different channels on their radios and they are trying to disseminate the EMS calls and this call and that
call and then to have the police department’s calls right there at the same time. This is a solution, a longer
term solution, where they can go up there for days at a time. They have bathroom facilities. They have
telephones up there. They have plenty of space in there. They havfe four consoles that will be available up
there to Manchester or Nashua, whoever is having the issue, where they would be able to communicate back
here and still know what’s going on. The only thing they are going to lose from that location up there is the fire
alarm circuits. That’s the only thing they are going to lose. Everything else is going to be filtered through
telephone lines up there.
Alderman Cookson
But again, you don’t anticipate this to be used very much at all.
Mr. Mansfield
| don't.
Alderman Wilshire
| just wanted to weigh in. | like this. | think it is a regional approach to something much bigger than a thunder
storm. It could be not even a natural catastrophe. It could be a man-made catastrophe. | think I’d feel safe
knowing that Manchester could cover us, that we could cover them. | think it’s a good regional approach to
something that could be much bigger than what we can handle. Thank you.
Alderman Cookson
Do we have mutual aid with other fire departments, to anybody who may be able to respond to that question?
Mayor Donchess
| think the answer is yes.
Alderman O’Brien
Yes, Alderman Cookson, we have mutual aid. | am proud to say that in my career, | have fought fires with the
Manchester Fire Department. When | was Captain and Lieutenant and Firefighter, we went up there and they
came here. The whole situation exists with mutual aid, and thank God that it does. It’s beneficial to the
taxpayers because you don’t have an overabundance of stations. You have the right amount to cover your
immediate needs. When you get into a catastrophic type of situation, a large fire or multiple calls, then you
need the redundancy and the backup. It’s a mutual aid. The firemen from Manchester or even Tyngsboro will
come into the City of Nashua and provide quality service and give the same quality of service that the Nashua
