The Fresno Bee
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NEW YORK — Fire, technology and Port Authority officials tested a new wireless system designed to give first responders fast access to video and other data during a fire drill on Sunday at the World Trade Center site.

Last year, city officials announced they had selected the Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman Corp. to build and maintain the multimillion-dollar citywide high-speed wireless data network for police, fire and other city workers.

Some 100 firefighters participated in Sunday's simulated fire at 7 World Trade Center, which stands in the shadows of ground zero in downtown Manhattan. The exercise included 20 mock injuries and a rescue from an elevator shaft, said Joseph Pfeifer, chief of counterterrorism at the Fire Department of New York.

Officials tested sending surveillance video from the building's 50th floor to the network operations center and from there to the fire department's operations center in Brooklyn, allowing them to monitor the scene remotely, Pfeifer said.

"It's important for firefighters to come here - this is a new building - and to be familiar with the building and to practice our procedures," he said. "This is a good day for the fire department, for our technology department and for the community. (It) reassures the lower Manhattan community that we're there as we've always been."

Officials also were testing the ability to send blueprints electronically before a dispatch, said Steven Harte, associate commissioner of wireless technologies in the city Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications.

"The goal is that we are being very proactive so response can be more efficient and more effective," he said.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the trade center site, also participated in the drill.

Fire department officials said they would discuss on Monday how the testing went. They said results of the testing would be used in the continued development of the system.

Last week, the fire department released a report outlining changes to prevent repeats of some of the problems that occurred during the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center, which killed 343 firefighters. An earlier study found widespread communication failures. New strategies include a group of elite firefighters and the new wireless system, which is expected to go live in spring 2008.

Northrop Grumman, a global defense and technology company with more than 120,000 employees, will equip, build and maintain the system for five years and provide technical support to city technology officials. The company, which has corporate headquarters in Los Angeles, provides products in information and services, electronics, aerospace and shipbuilding to government and commercial customers worldwide, according to its Web site.

The city has estimated the cost of building and maintain the citywide data network at about $500 million.