When Fire Technology Goes Quiet, Value Becomes Clear
July 28, 2026 by Kate Nadolski
For today’s fire departments, access to information is just as important as access to physical equipment. Responders rely on technology to deliver incident details, location data, building information, and other critical insights that help them make informed decisions on every call.
For the Davenport Fire Department in Iowa, an infrastructure incident reinforced how important access to mission-critical technology has become.
In a very rare instance, Davenport Fire Lt. Jake Hebbeln explained, a construction crew accidentally cut the primary fiber line serving the city’s dispatch center while demolishing a bridge.
Although the department’s contingency plans kept communications operational, firefighters suddenly found themselves without many of the digital tools they used every day.
“We still had our radios, but crews got into the rig and didn’t have any of their information in front of them on the MDT,” Hebbeln said.
The Value of Technology in Public Safety
The outage lasted only a few hours, but it immediately highlighted how heavily responders depend on mission-critical information while heading to a call.
CAD details, call notes, location information, building access points, and pre-plan data that had become second nature were suddenly unavailable, all due to the construction crew’s error.
“We’ve gotten so used to just having the information,” Hebbeln said.
“When it doesn’t work, it becomes painfully obvious that we really rely on this stuff. It makes our job that much easier.”
Focusing on the Parts of the Job That Matter Most
The experience wasn’t about losing technology — It was a reminder of the role technology plays in helping crews respond efficiently and confidently.
Shortly after the incident, the fiber was repaired, and all access to technology was restored.
For the Davenport Fire Department, the fiber outage served as an unexpected reminder of something easy to overlook: when technology works consistently, firefighters can focus on the job in front of them rather than the tools behind it.
Sometimes, it takes a brief disruption to fully appreciate the value of having critical information available when every second counts.