When the town of Brookfield, Connecticut was hit hard by a tremendous storm with wind speeds over 100 miles per hour, most of the area’s communications infrastructure was damaged and overloaded. For Brookfield Assistant Fire Chief Andrew Ellis the lack of communications threatened his ability to coordinate multiple agencies on scene providing mutual aid.

Thanks to a quick response, first responders were outfitted with 30 FirstNet “ready” devices connected to a deployable SatCOLT (satellite cell on light truck) to support Brookfield. Within hours, fire and police were taking advantage of FirstNet’s reliable connection with priority and preemption to help coordinate recovery efforts to area residents.

“The Connecticut Incident Management team who we contacted to help us work with AT&T, said, ‘Look, we know you guys are down on phones. We’re going to make it happen.’ And it was done within two hours,” recalls Assistant Fire Chief Ellis. “We got confirmation, got a quick lesson on [FirstNet devices], and we were good to go.”

We want to thank all the first responders who checked on residents and secured the area after the storm, as well as those responding utility crews who worked around the clock to restore power. We are proud to support you.

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