March 23, 2006 InfoGram

This InfoGram will be distributed weekly to provide members of the Emergency Services Sector with information concerning the protection of their critical infrastructures. 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.

Situational Awareness

It has been written frequently that individual and team situational awareness among emergency responders is vital for proficiency and task accomplishment. The Emergency Management and Response-Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EMR-ISAC) proposes that situational awareness is equally necessary to protect the critical infrastructures of emergency departments and agencies.

According to multiple sources, situational awareness is genuinely heightened awareness or cognizance of what is currently developing or occurring around you. Situational awareness failures can jeopardize personnel, physical assets, and communication/cyber systems (i.e. critical infrastructures). Hence, situational awareness is essential for effective decision making and performance in complex and dynamic operational environments often confronting first responders and their leadership.

Acquiring situational awareness is a daunting challenge for emergency services personnel. Duty performance, unfamiliar settings, varied resources, confusing circumstances, time pressures, multiple incidents, the risks of injury or death, etc., are all barriers to quality situational awareness. Therefore, the EMR-ISAC recommends that local situational awareness training be reinvigorated and repeated periodically.

To assist this endeavor, the EMR-ISAC offers the following outline adjusted from Defense Department origins for consideration by organizational training officers:

Perception Versus Reality

• Role of intuition/instincts/perception
• View of the situation
• Incoming information
• Expectations and biases
• Incoming information versus expectations

Factors that Reduce Situational Awareness

• Insufficient communication
• Fatigue and stress
• Task overload and underload
• Group mindset ("group think")
• "Press on Regardless" philosophy
• Degraded operating conditions

Eliminating the Insider Threat

As one of America's critical infrastructures, the Emergency Services Sector (ESS) nationwide must remain intact and operational 24x7 to accomplish mission essential tasks without disruption in an all-hazards environment. However, the EMR-ISAC asserts that some ESS departments and agencies will not be response-able if degraded by an insider during normal operating periods.

For the purposes of critical infrastructure protection (CIP), the insider is anyone who is permitted routine access into organizational facilities such as employees, postal service, delivery, maintenance, repair, and contractor or vendor individuals.

Considering recent events and potential threats against ESS personnel, physical assets, and communication/cyber systems (i.e., critical infrastructures), the EMR-ISAC discourages the "open atmosphere" formerly practiced by so many emergency departments. Therefore, the ISAC reassembled the following few recommendations to help eliminate the insider threat:

• Enforce identification checks of all personnel entering any facilities.
• Safeguard facilities particularly from impostors seeking entry.
• Guard against anyone using social engineering as a ruse to gain access.
• Prohibit entry of all unauthorized personnel to data and information processing sites.
• Secure contracts only with vendors who conduct thorough pre-employment screening.
• Inspect parcels, packages, tool kits, and baggage of anyone permitted access.

Bomb Training

The Emergency Management and Response-Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EMR-ISAC) periodically reminds Emergency Services Sector (ESS) organizations about the threat from domestic terrorists, who often favor bombs and other explosives to destroy their targets that occasionally include critical infrastructure. While information about bomb training classes is not widely publicized for information security reasons, the EMR-ISAC can offer the following minimal information.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a major resource for ESS organizations seeking bomb-related training. One of its training roles is to serve as host for two five-day courses: basic and advanced bomb training. The basic course, a prerequisite, is offered in multiple locations, and presents information on bombings, bombs, bombers, and bombing crime scenes. For the basic class, law enforcement personnel plan reimbursement strategies with their own organizations.

The focus of the California-based advanced training is large-vehicle post-blast scene management. Students attending the advanced course receive lodging, travel, and per diem at government expense. Additional information about both courses and arrangements to attend them is available by contacting local FBI Field Offices.

The FBI's Field Offices are located in major cities throughout the United States and in San Juan, Puerto Rico. By visiting http://www.fbi.gov/contact/fo/fo.htm, training officers can search for locations by state and/or city, and for their local Field Office by ZIP code. Each Field Office has a Special Agent Bomb Technician (SABT) assigned to it who can assist with this matter.

Dual-Benefit Safety Recommendations

Safety recommendations that could protect Emergency Services Sector (ESS) responders in large disasters as well as fires are contained in a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) fire investigation report.

The report about a fire and subsequent collapse that resulted in two fatalities and 29 personnel injured offers suggestions having life-saving potential for the ESS in dangerous environments. After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, responders struggled to work in miles of debris and hundreds of structures either dismantled or on the verge of collapse. New Orleans, for instance, is home to many historic buildings for which collapse potential is more difficult to gauge.

This report, NIOSH F2004/17 (http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/fire/reports/face200417.html), includes proposals about the warning signs of backdraft, consistent use of personal alert safety system (PASS) devices, strengthening building code enforcement, and the need to make thermal imaging cameras available to interior attack crews. The Emergency Management and Response-Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EMR-ISAC) advises that the following "dual-benefit" recommendations could also preserve ESS critical infrastructures at large-scale catastrophes.

• Ensure personnel accountability and uninterrupted communications.
• Conduct a risk-versus-gain analysis before entering a structure and throughout the entire operation. In addition to fire, floodwaters can seriously degrade structural integrity.
• Establish and monitor a collapse danger zone (a distance equal to the building's height plus an allowance for falling debris) to ensure that no activities occur within it. (e.g., 1.5 times the height of the building)
• Situate the Incident Command Post outside the collapse danger zone.
• Perform pre-incident planning for structures that have unique, often historical and/or architectural features (e.g., cupolas, turrets, bell towers, etc.), or facades that appear stronger than the actual construction.
• Revise Standard Operating Guidelines to assign additional safety officers during complex incidents.