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The city will receive $7.8 million from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to upgrade its emergency radio system.
"Finally the Federal Government will award dedicated interoperability funds to New York, which I proposed in the aftermath of September 11th," Congresswoman Nita Lowey said in a statement. "This is a great victory for first-responders to help ensure they are not left to the same communication tactics used by Paul Revere. Runners relaying messages should never be the method to direct personnel in an emergency due to equipment failures, especially in this time of advanced technology. And we can never again let failed communications devices put our first responders in danger as on September 11th."
Firefighter unions and advocates have argued that firefighters did not have adequate radios on 9/11, leading more than 100 of them to fail to hear a Mayday message to leave the World Trade Center's North Tower before it collapsed.
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