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Our own Harve Woods receives President Obama's Call to Service Award! 
http://www.thesentinel.com/pgs/Call-to-Service-award
Published on: Wednesday, April 27, 2011
By Julie Baughman
Glenn Dale Volunteer Fire Association firefighters Hugh Owens and Harve Woods were recently awarded President Obama’s Call to Service Award for their development of a communication system that provides real-time information to senior fire and rescue officers across the state.
“We were looking for a system that would allow us to have information sent out to certain level people, that would keep folks up to date on things that were going on, in a real-time fashion,” said Woods, assistant fire chief at the Glenn Dale Fire Department.
The concept originated approximately 10 years ago and the system is a product of the work of fire chiefs from across the state. It first came online a year and a half after work began on the system, and it has been constantly updated and refined ever since.
“It’s almost a continuous process of making it better,” Woods said.
The use of this communication system has been pivotal in relaying information about important emergency events to high level officials all across the state and not just at a local level. There had previously been no efficient method of spreading this kind of information statewide.
“It took time for the word of various incidents to spread throughout the state to all incident commanders,” said Mark Brady, chief spokesperson for the Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department.
The system, he said, “Provides more timely and more accurate information.”
Woods said if a Metrobus vehicle crashed in Prince George’s County, information about the crash is broadcast to fire and rescue officers within the county.
However, if a more catastrophic incident such as a train accident were to occur, the communication system would spread information about the incident to other counties in order to call for assistance, Woods said.
“We now have a system that, as soon as any one of the folks that operate the system pick up intelligence, they can send it out to those who have a need to have that information at hand,” Woods said. “We’re trying to fill in the blanks.”
When asked how it felt to be a recipient of the Call to Service Award, Woods said he felt “humbled and appreciative.”
“It’s not often that people in our line of work receive an award of this nature of this magnitude,” he said.
Woods said the system has proven to work “extremely well” over the years and that the group who designed this system has been enlisted to help groups in other states develop similar systems.
http://www.thesentinel.com/pgs/Call-to-Service-award
Published on: Wednesday, April 27, 2011
By Julie Baughman
Glenn Dale Volunteer Fire Association firefighters Hugh Owens and Harve Woods were recently awarded President Obama’s Call to Service Award for their development of a communication system that provides real-time information to senior fire and rescue officers across the state.
“We were looking for a system that would allow us to have information sent out to certain level people, that would keep folks up to date on things that were going on, in a real-time fashion,” said Woods, assistant fire chief at the Glenn Dale Fire Department.
The concept originated approximately 10 years ago and the system is a product of the work of fire chiefs from across the state. It first came online a year and a half after work began on the system, and it has been constantly updated and refined ever since.
“It’s almost a continuous process of making it better,” Woods said.
The use of this communication system has been pivotal in relaying information about important emergency events to high level officials all across the state and not just at a local level. There had previously been no efficient method of spreading this kind of information statewide.
“It took time for the word of various incidents to spread throughout the state to all incident commanders,” said Mark Brady, chief spokesperson for the Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department.
The system, he said, “Provides more timely and more accurate information.”
Woods said if a Metrobus vehicle crashed in Prince George’s County, information about the crash is broadcast to fire and rescue officers within the county.
However, if a more catastrophic incident such as a train accident were to occur, the communication system would spread information about the incident to other counties in order to call for assistance, Woods said.
“We now have a system that, as soon as any one of the folks that operate the system pick up intelligence, they can send it out to those who have a need to have that information at hand,” Woods said. “We’re trying to fill in the blanks.”
When asked how it felt to be a recipient of the Call to Service Award, Woods said he felt “humbled and appreciative.”
“It’s not often that people in our line of work receive an award of this nature of this magnitude,” he said.
Woods said the system has proven to work “extremely well” over the years and that the group who designed this system has been enlisted to help groups in other states develop similar systems.
Way to go Harve! 
(Me)
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