InfoGram

June 26, 2003

NOTE: This InfoGram will be distributed weekly to provide members of the emergency management and response sector with information concerning the protection of their critical infrastructures. It has been prepared by NATEK Incorporated for the Emergency Preparedness and Response Directorate. For further information, contact the Emergency Management and Response - Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EMR-ISAC) at (301) 447-1325 or by email at emr-isac@fema.dhs.gov.

Interview with Chief William Goodwin

During an interview last week, Baltimore City Fire Department Chief William Goodwin shared some practical advice on disaster planning and critical infrastructure protection (CIP).

Without providing specifics about some of Baltimore's redundant security measures ("We would be breaching our own security!"), Chief Goodwin offered suggestions based on concepts and practices already being used by first responders. "Whatever we do in terms of CIP, disaster planning or homeland security has to be part of our daily operations and used on routine incidents," he said. "Our approach has been to take tools that already were available to us and expand them," and he gave the example of preplanning.

"The fire service has used preplans for years," Chief Goodwin said. "We simply used a common PC software program to update existing preplans with an eye toward such CIP and homeland security issues as chemical, biological and radiological threats." Another example offered by Chief Goodwin was the contingency plans for radio failure. "First responders have a plan in case one or more radios fail," he said. "Simply apply that same type of planning to the loss of an entire system." In addition, existing emergency operations plans cover out-of-service companies (e.g., move-ups). "Revisit those plans in terms of covering multiple companies or counties instead," he said.

Chief Goodwin explained that Baltimore's emergency organizations take advantage of large public events for hands-on practice. "When the Preakness, an Orioles baseball game, and a large convention took place one weekend, bringing a million people to the city," he explained, "it was a ready-made opportunity to drill with our counterparts in law enforcement, public works, and public health." Other examples cited by Chief Goodwin included a July 4th celebration of 400,000 people at the Inner Harbor and loss-of-life fires involving senior citizens. These fires necessitated evacuation coordination by law enforcement and were the impetus to include the city's six largest hospitals (with trauma capabilities) in the preparedness/planning loop.

If a jurisdiction does not have the resources of a large city, Goodwin emphasized the importance of mutual aid and creativity. When the Baltimore department decided that a mass decontamination trailer was needed, personnel created one of their own, although, Goodwin pointed out, "it's not as pretty as the trailers in the catalogs." In the 1990s, the department held onto its radiological monitoring equipment; it has been recalibrated and is now available on every piece of apparatus.

Employees who staff the department's dive team and helicopter response team obtain no extra compensation. Within three years of joining the department, all new hires receive training and certification as paramedics, hazardous materials technicians, and rescue and aerial technicians. All EMS personnel are trained as firefighters and carry SCBAs (breathing apparatus) and protective gear for WMD incidents. Law enforcement and fire agencies are SCBA compatible; soon, all 3,000 police officers will be equipped with SCBA and particulate filters. A paramedic is assigned to the harbor's fireboat. Finally, Baltimore is the only city that has passed an ordinance giving the fire chief authority to regulate chemical storage.

How does the city pay for all of this? Which equipment is most suitable? "Some years ago," Chief Goodwin explained, we partnered with the police department, which had always been grant-oriented, and we borrowed a grants writer from the health department on a part-time basis. "We have a hazardous materials coordinator and a homeland security specialist who stay abreast of changing technology, and a resident expert in SCBA, one of three individuals in the U.S. who is certified to perform out-of-factory maintenance," he said. Over the years, he continued, "we begged, borrowed, etc., to overcome funding issues." For example, he said, "we got free materials from the state and then paid for just one instructor to teach 50 people in the evenings and on Saturdays."

The city recently established a Baltimore Metropolitan Region similar to the National Capital Region allowing, Goodwin said, "redundant training and equipment." Last year, the joint executive committee (the heads of all involved agencies or their representatives) began to meet twice monthly. "We do a lot of brainstorming and discussing needs assessments for grant applications, and planning for drills and exercises brings problems and solutions to light," according to Chief Goodwin.

He recommends that first responders look at what they do everyday. "The 9/11 incidents were, essentially, giant hazardous materials incidents," he stated. They involved fires with jet fuel as a hazardous material, as well as building collapse and evacuation, all of which first responders have trained for at a smaller level. "Try to incorporate any changes into your routine operations," he said.

Baltimore's preparedness efforts began years ago, placing it in an enviable position post-9/11; however, Goodwin pointed out that along the way, "we had growing pains, paid our dues, and did many incident critiques. Fire departments like challenges and our personnel rose to the occasion. The outcome is that we not only serve our citizens more effectively," Chief Goodwin concluded, "but on a day-to-day basis, we are better able to look out for one another as well as our critical assets."

CIP is about Mission Assurance

With the weekly InfoGram as a forum, the CIPIC has been attempting to inform primarily leaders of the fire and emergency medical services about matters pertaining to the protection of their critical infrastructures. Generally, the critical infrastructures of emergency responders include personnel, physical assets, and communication systems. More specifically, they are the people and things that must be intact and operational 24/7 to ensure survivability, continuity of operations, and mission success.

Regardless of the nature of the incident, the "emergency service" demands that first responders must be capable of surviving and continuing with their operations. All chief officers know that if their personnel cannot continue to perform assigned duties, then the success of their response, rescue, and recovery tasks are seriously jeopardized. They also know that without the availability of critical infrastructures-personnel being the foremost-mission failure is likely to occur.

Because the degradation of critical infrastructures would disrupt the mission and potentially prevent its completion, there is a strong positive correlation between the protection of critical infrastructures and mission assurance. Indeed, for emergency service organizations, the bottom line is that CIP is all about mission assurance. Therefore, the CIPIC again encourages chief officers to embrace the CIP discipline and apply time-efficient and resource-restrained measures to protect only that which really needs protection (i.e., critical infrastructures) as mentioned in the first paragraph. Guidance for doing this can be found in the CIP Process Job Aid: http://www.usfa.fema.gov/fire-service/cipc-jobaid.cfm.

AMA Promotes Emergency Preparedness

This week, according to Reuters Health, the American Medical Association (AMA) unveiled a basic disaster life support (BDLS) program aimed at rapidly training physicians, physician assistants, nurses, paramedics, and emergency medical technicians for all disasters. "The new BDLS curriculum will be ready by August, and by this time next year we expect it to be offered at training centers nationwide," Dr. James J. James told Reuters.

The new disaster-training curriculum is a cooperative effort of the AMA, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Medical College of Georgia, and the University of Texas Southwestern. "Among the topics covered in the course are traumatic and explosive events, natural and manmade disasters, biological events, chemical events, medical decontamination, legal issues of disaster response, and media and communications during disasters." The new BDLS course, said Dr. James, trains physicians to rapidly disseminate accurate information and to keep rumors to a minimum. "And we are not just talking about bioterrorism or nuclear attacks," he concluded. "We are talking about a coordinated response to every emerging infectious disease."

The CIPIC has no further information or a point of contact regarding this new course. However, for the benefit of interested EMS personnel, the CIPIC will try to monitor this action and provide more information as it becomes available in the future.