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Credentialing for Disaster Responders
Although I'm sure there will be those who feel this article is a whack in the shins for their efforts at helping the victims of disasters, I think its been a long time coming.
I agree that in most cases, unauthorized responders want to go to help others and have very altruistic motives for being in the middle of the disaster of the week, but honestly, when you show up uninvited, it causes all kinds of problems you didn't think about.
One, the IC can't account for you when you're just in there free-lancing, and free-lancing is what it is. I'm sure they didn't plan for you to be there, so although they are having difficulty feeding their own personnel and the victims, now you have come along and added another mouth to feed.
Not only does the IC not know what you are capable of, he doesn't know what you brought, nor can he anticipate it being there in a few days when all of the adrenaline has worn off and the news media has gone home (when often they could really use the help, so they can go to their own homes).
Plus, what about your home community; who's taking care of things back there?
This isn't an issue of anything except that as a legally deployed responder, there are methods to track you, to account for your existence, to feed you, to provide you resources if you need them, to use you in an incident plan, and to insure you if you get hurt.
Credentialing is a good thing and will make a lot of our jobs much easier when this initiative is finally up and running.
I agree that in most cases, unauthorized responders want to go to help others and have very altruistic motives for being in the middle of the disaster of the week, but honestly, when you show up uninvited, it causes all kinds of problems you didn't think about.
One, the IC can't account for you when you're just in there free-lancing, and free-lancing is what it is. I'm sure they didn't plan for you to be there, so although they are having difficulty feeding their own personnel and the victims, now you have come along and added another mouth to feed.
Not only does the IC not know what you are capable of, he doesn't know what you brought, nor can he anticipate it being there in a few days when all of the adrenaline has worn off and the news media has gone home (when often they could really use the help, so they can go to their own homes).
Plus, what about your home community; who's taking care of things back there?
This isn't an issue of anything except that as a legally deployed responder, there are methods to track you, to account for your existence, to feed you, to provide you resources if you need them, to use you in an incident plan, and to insure you if you get hurt.
Credentialing is a good thing and will make a lot of our jobs much easier when this initiative is finally up and running.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Dan Hoey on
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I agree with everything you said and both of the articles are excellent but there is one major thing missing and that is governmental support. Where is the money that was promised for training and equipment. We have a large chemical factory 3 blocks from our house and we have to beg and pled just to get a yearly walk through and list of chemicals and trust me they got a lot of funk in there, they don't mind the 8 auto alarms we avg there a month but as far special training and equipment and prep for and if anyting ever happens we still wait for the basics. The goverment has promised just basic decon equip and we are still waiting Most of us paid for all our hazmat training and I am one of a few that have more then just Hazmat 1 or 2 and the local hazmat team is volunteer and about 30 minutes out.
I heard of the billions being spent on large scale preparations Besides more government red tape and BS where is the money going?
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Permalink Reply by Billy Huggins on
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I agree. It is very important to an I/C to know who is on the emergency scene. You do not want personnel who has not been requested. But if you do request them, you want to know if they are qualified to do the job you need them to do. If I understand NIMS correctly there are specifications of what each piece of equipment must carry and the amount of "Quailified" personnel it is to bring. I have nothing against the volunteer service in our area, that is where I began in the service, but sometimes I wonder about the qualifications of these personnel. Is this wrong thing to wonder about?
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Permalink Reply by lloyd on
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I completely agree. It is important even in our own ranks to be aware of the proper training personnal have when going in. Also what ever happened to the partner thing? Do these free lancers have a partner, and will they stay together? In our own dept, if you have not had the proper hazmat traing and certification, you cannot participate. In fact depts are subject to fines if they allow any untrained people to participate. I want to know I can count on my partner to either be there for me, or let me know if he or she is in over their heads.
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Permalink Reply by Kevin King on
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I couldn't agree more,we have had the bad end of these diasters in all aspects.National level mutual aide is a great concept if they get it off the ground.
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Permalink Reply by Therle on
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Here's the deal.
This needed to happen. We did have a lot of untrained people trying to help in 9-11. We had a lot of untrained people trying to help with Katrina and Rita. We as a nation are going through one of our worst periods for disaster and the challenges to our resources as such a vast nation have found us wanting.
We learned that the infrastructure could not support the response to such a sheer scale of disaster and loss. The truth is we needed those good Samaritans in the short term, but--yes--they do get underfoot.
The government responded by introducing the CERT program, which allows private citizens to take part on the local, neighborhood or community level to respond to emergencies, and it puts them in a federal database as a certified, trained provider of services for a disaster. This was a good, first step.
The next step is, logically, to assess the training of our fire, EMS and peacekeeping services and to establish a rapid means of ascertaining their level of training, their ability to function in a disaster-scale emergency and have the resources to support them during the course of their response.
What better way than to issue an additional identification card, based on a level of accreditation or training? This is not a perfect process, and certainly we are only beginning to understand what went *wrong* in those disaster responses, because the sheer scope prevented rapid access to oversight. It will take a lot longer for us to ascertain what did, in fact, go *right* except for the fact that we, as a nation, responded. Maybe that's where it should be left.
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Permalink Reply by Mick Mayers on
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Ahhh, this is what this network is all about. I like it. Unfortunately, I'm pressed for time and I'll have to reply tomorrow. This is good stuff!
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Permalink Reply by Elizabeth Carter on
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Hmmm... food for thought. Ok, here's my opinion. The powers that be need to use this initiative as an opportunity to get promote training for citizens who want to help the right way. I'm a civilian who has taken several classes on how to prepare for disasters and how to help in a disaster until emergency personnel arrive on scene. (Community Emergency Response Team training in two different counties, certified 1st Aid/CPR instructor, and member of the Georgia State Defense Force.) We were taught in our classes that our role is that of a "first responder" only when EMS is not available or delayed due to the magnitudeof the event or inability to physically access an area. We are not a substitute for the professionals. However, we were taught how to work with professional responders,how to relay important information, assist with triage, and about Incident Command.
The program mentioned in the article is a good idea. However, municipal agencies should also realize that there is a vast pool of resources in their own communities who, with the right training, would be an asset to their departments. Case in point, Dekalb County here in GA has started a Fire Corps. I believe to be a member CERT training is required as well as other on going training. They have actually used the Fire Corps to assist their fire department at large incidents and from what I understand it was very successful.
I think the article was lacking in that it failed to mention how valuable a resource TRAINED volunteers can be. Don't give them the same level of credentials as a paid fire fighter, for example, but plan for their assistance when developing disaster plans and allow them to assist where they can do the most good in each situation.
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The article was pretty lacking on specifics; your credential would be different than a firefighter. You can find the job descriptions for each of those jobs at this link.
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Of course, here's a another great reason for credentialing: Fake Firefighter Showed Up At Disaster Sites Around Country. It is these kinds of people that make our job harder and require us to waste time verifying information when you show up at a disaster. If they caught this guy, who's to say how many others out there are doing the same thing?
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Permalink Reply by Yank2441 on
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No questions asked, the number one problem in the fire service is accountability. The IC has the responsibility of being aware of every person, apparatus, and tool that is on the scene. If someone shows up without there knowledge, then how do you account for this. This happens in the paid service with people coming back off duty but it happens much more in the volunteer service with volunteers showing up in POV's instead of on a truck.
I have argued my head off with some at my volunteer station but it just goes in one ear and out the other. Some of the old timers are still stuck in the 1970's and say (I quote) "It is just not possible to account for all volunteers on a scene". If this is the case, then we should all just close our doors and go to the house.
The number one goal for every fire department should be for all of us to go home safe. How can you garantee that when you can't even show me who is on the scene. That is BULL!!!!
I hope that OSHA burns a new one in any IC that can not account for all of the fire fighters that are on an emergency incident.
If you don't have a fire fighter tag and give it to the IC-post, then don't come!
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Lou Angeli posted a point of view on his blog that may bring more clarification to this discussion. I replied to him on the blog, probably should have copied it here as well for the sake of disclosure. This issue has a lot of good points from either side and we (the nation's emergency services) need to work together with the public to solve these issues. Like I said before, study has been made of the use of bystanders for disaster response and the improved outcome in certain cases by using those people. The studies don't discuss, however, how to solve the logistical and control issues associated with this emergent response.
Is there a better way to do this? Should we permit a free-for-all? Or should we provide facilitated response and use ALL of the resources in our pocket- federal, state, local, and bystander? Let's talk. That's why we're here, isn't it?
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Here's my comment I posted, so you can see where I'm going with the thread:
I guess I don't see it as trying to get rid of volunteers (or SCUVs as they appear to have been labeled) but as a way of corralling them and making sure they are who they say they are. I posted a few days ago on Credentialing Disaster Responders (http://www.firefighternation.com/forum/topic/show?id=889755%3ATopic...) and I have also done research using sources from the University of Delaware Disaster Research Center and although there is wholesale agreement that emergent bystander response can significantly (and positively)impact the first hours of a disaster, we have also seen the problems in coordination when these rescuers descend upon a scene and fail to take orders from the incident commander, causing more work for everyone, not to mention adding to the logistical nightmares of providing for those responders. I too am a responder in disaster settings and I've seen the results first hand. I am certainly not against volunteers from the community responding to help, but I am strongly in favor of managing that response.
Best case scenario? We can utilize bystanders to perform duties that will benefit the victims and maximize resources. Should that happen? Absolutely. Can it happen in the current scenario where someone decides they're jumping into the pickup truck and showing up on a scene with no food, no water, no shelter, and saying they are a deployable resource? I would heartily recommend against it.
I have seen a lot of ad hominem discussion in other forums and articles on this subject so far; FEMA has told us we shouldn't respond and they're all idiots, so their idea must be wrong. I think it would be a good idea to analyze the reason why this avenue is really occurring and work together to solving a problem that would benefit the people who really need the help.
I appreciate your point of view and I'm going to link this blog to our discussion on my forum post so maybe we can get some more feedback from those participants. Thanks.
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