InfoGram 27-12: July 5, 2012

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.

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Risk Awareness and Community Resilience

According to the results of Federal Signal Corporation’s 2012 Public Safety Survey:

• 71% don’t know if they have an emergency notification system in their area.
• Only 47% would take action based on a severe weather warning.
• 33% would need property damage or an injury to occur to make them care strongly about public safety awareness.

More emphasis is being placed on disaster-prone communities around the country to prepare for known disasters in order to lessen the loss of life and the economic strain of emergency response.  Residents and emergency managers alike can help ensure their community’s resilience by minimizing the impact of disasters.

One of the components of community resilience is risk awareness.  “Understanding Risk and Resilience to Natural Hazards” (PDF, 1.5 Mb) published by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Western Geographic Science Center states a key benefit of understanding risk is that it “focuses public attention on controllable societal consequences of events instead of on uncontrollable natural processes.”

Rand Health published “Building Community Resilience to Disasters” as a guide to help government leaders enhance community resilience plans.  The document, downloadable as a free eBook, discusses critical parts of such plans and some of the problems planners face.

(Source: EHSToday.com)

Structural Triage for Wildland Urban Interface

Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) is one of the most complicated and costly types of fires that any department will have to deal with.  Two articles in FireRescue Magazine suggest preplanning your area before a wildfire hits, including doing a structural triage. 

The seasons when wildfires are not a threat is a good time to visit potentially affected neighborhoods and do a walkthrough.  Meeting with residents to make suggestions of things they can do to minimize risk to their life and property is good community outreach.  It will also give members of the department an idea of the lay of the land and an opportunity to see it under ordinary circumstances.

Structural triage takes access and visibility of the homes into account, but also the fuel load in the area, the location of the homes, and the terrain and grade of the land.  WUI preplanning considerations should also include having mutual-aid agreements in place before incidents, and the need for brief papers on all pre-incident plans that may have been completed prior to the event.  This gives incoming support a ready-made briefing on areas they are probably not familiar with, saving time and resources for more crucial efforts.

(Source: FireRescue Magazine)

2012 DOT Emergency Response Guidebook

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) has released the 2012 version of the Emergency Response Guidebook (ERG).  The document is jointly developed with the governments of Canada and Mexico.

The ERG contains detailed information on hazardous materials and the recommended actions for first responders to take during an accident or spill.  Two million copies of the guide are being distributed throughout the United States to state coordinators.  The ERG is also available on order through the GPO Bookstore and can be downloaded and printed in various electronic formats from Transport Canada.

The National Library of Medicine has partnered with PHMSA to develop mobile application of the ERG through the Wireless Information System for Emergency Responders (WISER).  WISER is an app that provides hazardous materials information to first responders.  WISER’s ERG app will be available this summer.

(Source: FireEngineering.com)

Warren E. Isman HazMat Team Grant

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) announced the annual Warren E. Isman Grant program is open for applications.  The $5,000 grant is for one hazardous materials response team, and the money is to be used for specialized training at one of the national hazardous materials conferences held each year.
The applications are being accepted through September 15th, 2012.  Some additional qualifications:

• Teams must have a maximum of five members.
• Preference will be given to teams that meet training levels outlined in NFPA 472 and NFPA 473.
• Eligible teams can be fire, police, or another publicly-funded program.
• Leadership qualities and communication abilities of the team will be reviewed.

Teams must submit a letter and completed application to the committee addressing the qualifications noted above and stating their achievements in these areas. The letter should include the names of all team members and information on the conference they wish to attend. 

(Source: NFPA)