STEVENSVILLE, MD (February 10, 2011) - Two Pennsylvania agencies have deployed their recently upgraded mobile command vehicles to the scene of a major explosion and fire in Allentown, PA. Lehigh Emergency Management Agency and the Eastern EMS Council are on-scene with their Command and Communication Centers, which recently received a comprehensive communications retrofit by PEAKE.A fire ignited late Wednesday evening, after a major explosion, believed to be caused by natural gas. The explosion and fire has left one person dead and several people missing, as well as leveled several homes in Allentown, PA.

Lehigh Emergency Management took delivery of their upgraded Command and Communications Center just last week. In both command vehicles, PEAKE integrated an IP communications network to be utilized with several connectivity options including satellite terminals, cellular modems, and telular gateways. Eastern EMS also utilizes Tactical-IP satellite service from PEAKE.As a result of the retrofit, both command vehicles have extensive LMR capability and can connect to each other via a Raytheon ACU-1000 interoperability solution. On-scene, Lehigh EMA and Eastern EMS have the ability to connect to each other’s radio networks.

Lehigh Emergency Management and Eastern EMS agencies remain on-scene to mitigate the emergency response efforts. Officials are now calling the efforts a recovery mission and continue to sift through debris Thursday morning. For more on the Allentown fire and continuing rescue and recovery efforts visit www.cnn.com