Fire: Establishing global resilience networks

The Disaster Management at Major Events: Facing the Terrorist Threat conference, held alongside the World Firefighters Games at the Don Valley Stadium, South Yorkshire, featured global disaster response experts who highlighted the need for closer international co-operation to improve incident command standards

World leading emergency planning experts from the US, Australia and South Africa provided a unique opportunity for delegates to learn from their experience planning for major events such as the Sydney and Atlanta Olympics as well as response to catalogue of major catastrophes such as the Oklahoma bombing and 9/11.

Facing an ever-widening threat of CBRN attacks, the speakers brought their expertise and experience to bear on a large of incidents that provided fascinating insight for delegates. Randy Corbin, Texas Task Force Leader and FETN, opened the conference by showcasing a range of videos on training from live incidents. This featured the first showing of a FEMA film on emergency sew ice planning and response to suicide bombers in the US.

Larry Collins, Captain, USAR unit, Los Angeles, provided a fascinating insight into the workings of USAR units in the US, under the FEMA structure. Responsible for planning, training, supervising and performing USAR and technical rescue, rapid intervention and swiftwater and flood rescue across LA, Larry is also Search Team Manager for a national USAR Task Force. Indicative of the advanced operating procedures, Larry was called back to the US to provide back-up for the possible implications of a number of hurricanes and tropical storms threatening Florida.

Heinrich Munnik, Western Cape Emergency Planning, gave a detailed presentation on the IT programme used in the planning for the 2003 ICC World Cricket Cup in 2003. Contingency planning consisted of a five point process using IT and consisted of terrorism--the types of terrorism and expected actions; CBRN--possibilities and connections with terrorism; Bombs and aggressive actions--preventative measures; and, natural incidents He illustrated how IT assisted with the pre-planning process using GIS and aerial photography to establish role plays between agencies and develop expectation dynamics.

Superintendent John Denny, Rescue Manager Specialized State Operations, New South Wales Fire Brigades, was in charge of NSW multi-agency USAR capability for the Sydney Olympics, specifically for major structural collapse and potential terrorist attacks.

He acknowledged that no single emergency service in Australia had the skills or knowledge to deal with a catastrophic attack and significant capability development was required in the lead up to the Olympics. This was categorised as: equipment procurement; skills/knowledge acquisition; and the development of an appropriate exercise regime to validate response and management processes.

NSW adopted a systematic approach to the development of an exercise regime that ensured appropriate operational preparedness and involved sequentially dependent phases of developments. This was based on the conversion of data to information to knowledge and finally to corporate wisdom. John argued that not until the final phase, where corporate wisdom is achieved, can emergency services claim a sophisticated counter terrorism capability has been established. This should be underpinned by an integrated multi-agency approach, he argued, to ensure successful management strategies for counter terrorism response and operations.

NSW relied on a number of external organisations and study programmes to develop capabilities for CBR and USAR, and he praised Geoff Williams, President of the International Emergency Technical Response Institute, for introducing USAR training to Australia during the mid-nineties.

Geoff spoke on playing Russian roulette with catastrophic command, detailing the impact of major terrorist attacks and implications of large-scale structural collapse, using the Don Valley Stadium as one example. Outlining a number of advanced software training aids, Geoff advanced the theory of Executive Command Level training to best understand and deal with major incidents.

Factors he covered included the generic pressures to train emergency managers effectively. These included: preparing so as not to perform under par at these incidents; understanding how they can adapt generic pressures and use them to gain an advantage that will improve the efficiency of the rescue operation; be appreciative of the generic risks that can occur; be perceptive of critical periods when risk and hazards are more likely to increase; instantly recognise these solutions and have prepared solutions; and, comprehend the process of executive command level value stage analysis planning and be able to integrate these outcomes into practical incident management before, during and after the crisis.

Foremost lesson learned from the conference was the lack of international co-operation at a strategic command level and the need to improve standards. Sharing experience and networking with emergency response leaders was highlighted as crucial. An experience shared at the International Joint Operations Command Conference 2003 in Belfast was repeated at this conference. ACO Peter Craig had described how in responding to a number of hoax bomb calls to a hotel, fire crews had positioned themselves in different spots; an inexperienced army officer had not done the same and eventually an incendiary device activated near to where troops repeatedly gathered Similarly, during USAR operations at the Pentagon a number of bomb threats were made and teams gathered under a bridge two or three times consecutively. When the realisation hit the evacuation procedure was altered. The huge value of networking could not have been better illustrated.

On this theme, delegates were made aware of the forthcoming International Joint Operations Conference 2004, to be held in Toronto, Canada on November 17-19, which aims to improve international networking opportunities by gathering emergency service chiefs from around the world. For more information on the conference and the IJOCC 2003 Outcomes Document visit: www.firemagazine.com