Waiting for "The Big One"
This week I had the opportunity to speak at a local conference where the theme was preparing for the large scale Emergency response. I will share some of the thoughts I shared with that group.
The first point of determining what the large scale emergency really is for you or your department. Is it a catastrophic call that overwhelms you, is it an incident that lasts an extremely long time, is it lots of small little incidents that are all the same but the sheer volume of them will overtake you or many other scenarios.
We have focused a great deal of attention, money and training efforts in the area of terrorism and such since 911. All of this has been focused on the big one.
My focus is that we should be ultimately prepared in the simple small tasks we do every day and be able to perform them with the highest level of proficiency and we will be able function and survive when the big one hits.
The big large scale incident is really a series of small component parts. What I mean is simple. The incident that occurred at the Pentagon was a plane crash, structural collapse, and MCI to some degree and a crime scene. If we have prepared and trained for handling our triage system and MCI system we will be able to handle that component part. If we have specialists in collapse rescue, we can handle that facet, and a large scale plane crash is something that we can be trained in.
I am not attempting to oversimplify these, I mean to refocus our thinking that if you view this as a catastrophic incident, then you will never be able to manage it. If you create an incident management system that handles these in their smallest component functions then you manage all of those and you will ultimately manage the incident.
The fire service has failed to teach below the branch level of ICS and we have not prepared our incident commanders to develop good Incident action plans and estimate and prepare operational period logistical support. We arrive at an incident and we just put in our mind that we will be there for as long as it takes. This mindset can work in a significant fire that is 2-4 hours long, but in a large scale incident it will not work. Our brother and sisters from the west coast and our brothers and sisters in the forest service are extremely familiar with this and have used this routinely in the performance of their duties.
We don't ever train or prepare our people to leave the incident scene. The concept of relieving the first in crew and having them return is somewhat foreign to us in the Northeast.
It also became apparent to me that we have failed to properly train our firefighters in looking more globally at how the emergency the are handling will affect their community. The concept of much interagency activity, the concept of an Emergency Operations Center or Area command is foreign to many in the fire service. We need much more work.
What can we do.
Go to the online training page of this website and review the program on Back to Basics. Focus your training on the things that will make your members safe and proficient every day.
Find out where your city or town's Emergency Operating center is located and when it is opened and staffed etc. Ask these questions.
Find out what your city's Emergency Operation Plan looks like and what sections apply to the fire and emergency services.
Have personal and professional discipline to follow orders and know your role. Do not self dispatch or free-lance.
Continue to train and learn about the skills you don't know enough about.
Did I mention to train a lot more?
Train.
I would suggest more training.......
OK that's enough you get the message.
I hope.
Take care and stay safe!