Tool Time
By Raul A. Angulo

When Disaster Strikes, Have Your Stuff Ready
If it seems like you’ve been hearing more about earthquakes, you have. According to various seismological Web sites, earthquakes are on the rise.

Between 1986 and 1996, there were 15 earthquakes with a magnitude of 7.0 or greater on the Richter scale. Between 1997 and 2007, there were 99 earthquakes with a magnitude of 7.0 or greater. This is more than a six-fold increase.

Tsunamis may be triggered in coastal communities, and powerful earthquakes can also cause volcanoes to erupt – depending on the state of the magma chamber at the time of the quake.

Plus, if you believe in global warming and the build up of atmospheric greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide and methane), the effects could likely increase ocean temperatures, causing hurricanes to increase in frequency and intensity in the next decade. Who knows for sure?

Bottom line, we know disasters happen, and the fire service has to be ready.

Chances are, your fire department has a disaster management plan. Not all plans, however, address the need to prepare your family, and not all of them get specific with what kinds of extra equipment you might need on the apparatus.

Whether we’re talking about a human error catastrophic event, a natural disaster or a terrorist attack, firefighters have to be prepared to be away from home for an extended period of time.

It’s hard to concentrate on the emergency incident when you’re concerned about the well-being of your family. You have to plan ahead.

If an obvious catastrophic event happens when you’re home, you can figure on being called into work. Your fire department will need you. Besides the extra staffing, crews will have to be rotated and relieved so those members can check on their families.

Extra SCBA bottles will always come in handy in big responses. Not only will you have extra personnel on duty, it might be challenging to get empty bottles refilled.

Emergency medical supplies will be depleted quickly. It’s essential to grab all you can carry as this will be the most used supply resource. It is a good idea to pre-stage medical supplies in boxes that are easy to grab and go.

Get in the habit of grabbing all the extra backboards on hand during a disaster response. Unfortunately, you know there will likely be some victims to be transported.

The Department of Homeland Security and the American Red Cross have excellent pamphlets for home emergency preparedness kits. Most schools have already accomplished this objective. Yet, I’m surprised at how many firefighters I surveyed did not have a well-stocked home preparedness kit.

That’s where we all need to start – at home. Make sure your family can be self-sufficient for 3 to 7 days. That will give you peace of mind if you get caught away from home when the big one hits. Provide for the safety of your family and monitor local radio and television stations for information. Your fire department should have a designated radio and TV station to send out emergency call-back directions for off-shift personnel.

If the incident happens while you’re on duty, follow your station damage control plan. Account for all personnel. If you work at a station with civilian clerical employees, don’t forget about them.

Check and open apparatus bay doors. This may have to done manually if there is a power outage. If bay doors are damaged, you’ll have to use forcible entry techniques to free the apparatus. The apparatus have to be able to respond. It might be a good idea to move the apparatus to the bay ramp just in case of collapse. Survey the station for damage and secure damaged utilities, such as water, gas and electric services.

Check the status of communication equipment: phones, radios, computers, alerter systems and report the status of personnel, apparatus and the station to the battalion chief or headquarters.

After completing the station survey, you’ll need to decide whether to re-occupy the station. Of course, you’ll want to monitor fire department radio channels throughout the event.

Once, personnel are accounted for and the station has been surveyed, prepare for a district damage assessment survey, subsequent alarms, and an extended period of time away from the station. It could be hours and perhaps even days before the apparatus can return to quarters. You have to take time to stock the rig with extra equipment before you leave, including the following: fuel, if needed to top off the rig; all available portable radio batteries; cell phones with vehicle chargers; and alkaline batteries for flashlights, pagers, AM/FM radios. Bring various sizes: 6v, 9v, D, C, AA, AAA.

You will also want to bring extra flares, flagging tape and traffic cones to warn the public of road hazards, downed trees and power lines, building collapses and other hazards that will need to be cordoned off.

All The Tools
With disasters, you expect to use just about all the tools in your arsenal, so bring fuel for power equipment, both mixed and straight; extra chain saw blades and rotary-circular saw blades; extra SCBA bottles and oxygen bottles; extra first aid supplies and extra boxes of latex gloves. Unfortunately, the two latter items will be needed the most.

You’ll want disposable blankets, especially during inclement weather; dust filter masks; cribbing and shoring material; and make sure to include extra hammers and nails.

It will be a good idea to bring plastic tarps and sheeting and lath to secure windows.

Make sure you have all available hard suction hoses and floating strainers on your apparatus before leaving the station. Not all departments carry hard suction hoses as a regular inventory, and they are often stored at the station. However, during disasters, particularly earthquakes, water mains and hydrants could be damaged and out of service. You’ll need the hard suctions to draft water.

There’s a bunch of personal items you’ll want to have along too. Toilet paper, plastic bags, extra clothing, personal prescription medications as well as aspirin, Tylenol and ibuprophen, are some of the things you’ll want to stuff somewhere and have available.

You’ll probably want to have cash too, as ATMs without power are useless and the ones that are working might experience heavy usage and be quickly exhausted of currency.

As you can see, the list can go on and on, but these are solid suggestions. Perhaps you think this is overkill. Perhaps you will need to add more items specific to your geography and community needs. At least now you’re thinking about it.

Inventory Assembly Drill
Many of these items can be pre-staged in plastic bins somewhere in the station. Depending on the size of your crew, these supplies can be gathered simultaneously.

It makes for a pretty fun drill to see how fast crewmembers can assemble this emergency inventory in real time, load it on the rig and hit the road. Times will vary depending if you’re assigned to an engine or a truck… but I’m not telling.

The essence of a good disaster management plan is to foresee the events that might happen during an emergency and prepare for them.

The essence of professionalism is be equipped for these events – and not get caught off guard.

Editor’s Note: Raul A. Angulo is a 28-year veteran of the Seattle Fire Department and captain of Ladder Company 6. He is on the Educational Advisory Board for the Fire Department Instructors Conference and is on the Board of Directors for the Fellowship of Christian Firefighters. He lectures on fire service leadership, company officer development and fireground strategy and accountability throughout the U.S., Canada and Mexico.