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Hartford Mall Bio-Terrorism Incident Caught On Video
I've been asked to provide additional WMD training for firefighters, using the FFN as the medium for delivering the training and increasing you chance for survival should you find yourself involved with one of these horrific incidents.
So, just how easy would it be to distribute a toxic substance with the intent on killing as many people as possible? And if you were the first in engine on an incident such as the one that I posted, would you have a game plan? Are you prepared for a BT incident? I hope I don't get in trouble for posting this video but I think we can all learn a lot from how things went down at the Hartford Mall.
Find more videos like this on Firefighter Nation
So what's your game plan here? Do you have a logical way to go from A-Z, keeping in mind that this is not an ordinary call that in the event that you mishandle it, many people, including your own crew could have significant negative outcomes...
How would I handle something like this? I would keep in mind that this is probably the most scary type of call that could be encountered by an emergency responder, hence my acronym for handling this type of incident and in fact, after coming up with this, I found that it was helpful for pretty much any kind of major call where WMD or hazardous materials are involved.
SCARIE PM
1. Give a Radio Size up
2. Establish Command
3. Ask for Assistance
4. Determine if there is a Rescue situation
5. Isolate the incident using hot, warm and cold zones
6. Determine whether to Evacuate or shelter in place
7. If possible, find a Person who knows where things are and how they work
8. From an uphill, upgrade, and upwind location, perform Material ID using binoculars
and always be Safe!
TCSS, Mike Schlags
Santa Barbara, CA
So, just how easy would it be to distribute a toxic substance with the intent on killing as many people as possible? And if you were the first in engine on an incident such as the one that I posted, would you have a game plan? Are you prepared for a BT incident? I hope I don't get in trouble for posting this video but I think we can all learn a lot from how things went down at the Hartford Mall.
Find more videos like this on Firefighter Nation
So what's your game plan here? Do you have a logical way to go from A-Z, keeping in mind that this is not an ordinary call that in the event that you mishandle it, many people, including your own crew could have significant negative outcomes...
How would I handle something like this? I would keep in mind that this is probably the most scary type of call that could be encountered by an emergency responder, hence my acronym for handling this type of incident and in fact, after coming up with this, I found that it was helpful for pretty much any kind of major call where WMD or hazardous materials are involved.
SCARIE PM
1. Give a Radio Size up
2. Establish Command
3. Ask for Assistance
4. Determine if there is a Rescue situation
5. Isolate the incident using hot, warm and cold zones
6. Determine whether to Evacuate or shelter in place
7. If possible, find a Person who knows where things are and how they work
8. From an uphill, upgrade, and upwind location, perform Material ID using binoculars
and always be Safe!
TCSS, Mike Schlags
Santa Barbara, CA
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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Mike,
Would this be a good place to discuss the SBCOM testing that rated turnout gear/SCBA and tape for nerve agent protection in enclosed spaces? The results might be surprising to those that have not seen the study.
It was good to talk to you this weekend, brother.
TCSS
Ben
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Permalink Reply by Mike Schlags (Captain Busy) Retd on
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Yes Ben, this is the appropriate place, and in fact, I'm not familiar with the SBCOM testing and would appreciate your input here. And how cool to put a voice with the name now. Looking forward to hopefully seeing you this summer.
TCSS, Mike
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Permalink Reply by Smoke Eater on
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Ok. I think the news said it was sarin gas? ( don't know about my spelling) If that is the case are we ok with just our structural gear and SCBA. In our county we get very little info from dispatch. If I get a call like this I would definately want the Hazmat team to respond with us.
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Mike,
This is a rather long .pdf document. The synopsis is that the U.S. Soldier Biological Chemical Command (Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland) did a series of tests in 1998-1999. These tests showed that it was reasonable for firefighters in turnout gear with specified self-tape jobs and positive pressure SCBA to enter a WMD environment under the following conditions:
30 minutes of rescue time for live victims on the interior of or downwind of a nerve agent hot zone
3 minutes of recon in an unknown environment unless HD is suspected
2 minutes of recon in a suspected HD environment
The document is at: http://www.chem-bio.com/resource/1999/cw_irp_final_incident_cmd.pdf
The test procedures are described at: http://www.chem-bio.com/resource/1999/cw_irp_ffpe_summary.pdf
Further SBCCOM testing in 2001 revealed that PPV can dramatically improve interior tenability for structures exposed to WMD agents.
http://www.dtic.mil/ndia/2001wmd/fedele4.pdf
The PPV vs. WMD tests show that PPV can make the hot zone 3 to 26 times more survivable for firefighters in turnout gear and SCBA. The (unspoken) trade-off is that the toxins have to go somewhere...and that somewhere is downwind from the PPV exhaust point.
These are interesting reading, and put the "Wear Level A for Everything" rule into a little better perspective. If you have Mark I NAAK kits (or the new version, Duodote) available, it might make this type of risk even more manageable.
Ben
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as Ben mentioned above...
These tests showed that it was reasonable for firefighters in turnout gear with specified self-tape jobs and positive pressure SCBA to enter a WMD environment under the following conditions:
* 30 minutes of rescue time for live victims on the interior of or downwind of a nerve agent hot zone
* 3 minutes of recon in an unknown environment unless HD is suspected
* 2 minutes of recon in a suspected HD environment
Remember that your decision is based on the R in SCARIE PMS, Rescue...
If you make the call that you can go in, and quickly, to make a snatch and grab rescue, minimizing exposure time, coupled with PPV, then you can certainly use the above time frames as a general reference. Full PPE, with hoods, wristlets and a good SCBA provides some pretty awesome protection.
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Mike,
While we're covering acronym-speak tonight, I'd add an A to the SCARIE PMS mneumonic.
The A stands for Antidotes. There are a lot of places that carry at least basic nerve agent antidotes.
These can be the Mark I -NAAK Kits, the new Duodote kits, or even regular old Atropine.
That doesn't mean to take stupid chances or to be oblivious, but the presence of quickly-available antidotes adds to the safety margin for rescuers and for the original victims.
While we're in alphabet soup land tonight, are you familiar with the hazmat DECIDE acronym?
Ben
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I used to know this one but it's been years since I even thought of it... perhaps a refresher Ben?
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DECIDE is an old-school mneumonic to help establish strategy and tactics for hazmat incidents. It's an equivalent to RECEO-VS for structural firefighting. It is the 1973 brainchild of Ludwig Benner.
D - DETERMINE hazardous materials presence
E - ESTIMATE likely harm without intervention
C - CHOOSE response objectives
I - IDENTIFY the best option
D - DO the best option
E - EVALUATE the process
A 2005 update to Benner's original paper is posted here: http://members.cox.net/lbjr05/papershm/DECIDE.htm
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Thank you. I hope we don't have to ever deal with this but in this day and age you never can be too prepared.
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Permalink Reply by Ludwig Benner Jr on
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Just became aware of this discussion
Origins and discussion of DECIDE can be found at http://www.iprr.org/HazMatdocs/GEBMO/GEBMO.html#Hdg38
for anyone interested in refresher.
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