Wildfire Radios Sent to Haiti

When the U.S. Southern Command needed a whole mess of radios to support folks engaged in Haitian relief operations, it turned to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.

The center, which is managed by the Forest Service and the Interior Department, coordinates federal response to wildfires and that requires a lot of radios. It has the largest number of mobile radios -- some 8,000 -- in the federal government, ready to go at a moments notice.

The center's National Interagency Incident Communications Division deployed 320 handheld radios to Haiti at the request of SOUTHCOM, yet another example of the depth of the federal support to relief operations in Haiti.