On Tuesday, September 17, Professor Glenn Corbett, coordinator of Fire Science Programs at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and technical editor of Fire Engineering, participated in the “The New York City Fire Department’s Response to September11” hearing held in the Council Chambers of City Hall, New York City. The event featured testimonies from various advocates for increased safety for occupants who live and work in high-rise buildings and emergency service personnel who must respond to fires and other emergencies in these structures, in the aftermath of the collapses of the World Trade Center twin towers on September 11, 2001. Among those scheduled to speak, in addition to Corbett, were New York City’s Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta; Fire Department of New York Deputy Chief (ret.) Vincent Dunn; and Sally Regenhard, founder, and Monica Gabrielle, vice chairperson, of The Skyscraper Safety Campaign. The meeting was open to the public.
Corbett’s statement follows:
Long before September 11 of last year, the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) had been known as the premier firefighting organization in the world. Its techniques and procedures have been studied and adopted by many other fire departments across this country. In some respects, it has literally set the standard against which other fire departments are measured.
Yet, in my opinion, this effectiveness has been throttled by several technical and management problems. I would like to discuss two of these problems, radio communications/computer-aided dispatch and incident command.
Communications and Computer-Aided Dispatch
The ability for firefighters to communicate at a fire or other emergency scene is critical. Without communications, emergency operations suffer immensely and will likely negatively affect the outcome of the incident.
Firefighting communications in high-rise buildings has been problematic for many years, not only here in New York City but in other cities as well. High-rise buildings have a tendency to reduce signal strength due to the very nature of the construction of the building. This is a national problem and requires a national
research effort to solve the problem.
The FDNY has recently begun incorporating new digital radios into the firefighting ranks. While this may provide some additional benefit in terms of high-rise communications, it is unlikely these radios will eliminate the problem, especially in very tall buildings. What is needed is a standardized solution, using a network of repeaters, antennae, or other technology. It is not simply just a radio problem–it is a communications problem.
The need for detailed building data at the scene of a fire or other emergency (particularly for large/complex structures) is critical. This “static data” includes
building construction details, floor plans, identified hazards, disabled occupant information, fire protection system characteristics, etc. The current FDNY
computer-aided dispatch system, dating to the 1970s (the Critical Information Dispatch System/C.I.D.S.), for providing such data is antiquated and severely limited in capacity–in essence, just a few sentences of information can be provided to responding fire units for a particular building address.
It is certainly appropriate and definitely necessary to bring the “critical building information” capabilities of the FDNY into the 21st century. The Department of Buildings has proposed the use of an “information card,” essentially a paper-based set of documents available to responding chief officers of the FDNY. While this is an admirable first step in providing critical data, it has obvious limitations. We need a much more comprehensive and modern system to provide useful information that can be used to make more effective decisions on the fireground.
This new system should include not only the ability to transmit to responding units The types of collected static data described above, but “real-time” building and FDNY personnel data as well. This real-time data could include building information such as elevator status and specific fire alarm detector activations as well as firefighter locations within the structure. Taking it a step further, integrating this type of data collection/transmission with the “command boards” described in the recent FDNY McKinsey report would be for fireground commanders a tremendous improvement over the current system. Capturing, recording, and transmitting static basic building data through computers Is currently being performed by some fire departments across the country. Some elements of “real-time” data transmission technology (such as fire alarm detector activation and elevator status information) have been studied and developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. While a complete system incorporating static and real-time data is not on the market today, I believe its arrival is imminent. New York City should be an active participant in the development and implementation of such a system.
Recommendations
I propose the following recommendations, with the appropriate resources allocated to implement them:
- The FDNY should attempt to identify all high-rise and subterranean locations in which radio communications are problematic. In addition, they should determine if current NYPD technology eliminates all radio communication problems in each of these locations.
- If the results of the previous recommendation are not satisfactory, the FDNY should host a “radio summit” (perhaps sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Agency) to bring together all interested and necessary organizations involved in this issue. This should include private sector technology providers as well as other fire departments and emergency agencies from across the country. A plan of action can then be developed.
- A task force should be established to study the computer-aided dispatch needs of FDNY for the 21st century. This task force should be include not only FDNY personnel, but also representatives of research organizations like NIST.
Incident Command
The Incident Command System (ICS) has been is use for many years, especially on the West Coast of the United States (where it was created). While the ICS (in its various forms) is the fundamental methodology for managing an emergency incident, it is the unified incident command structure that truly integrates multiple agencies and jurisdictions under a single incident commander that is most important. While the FDNY has been using the ICS for several years, a single ICS should be adopted citywide to ensure that all agencies are “singing from the same song sheet,” as it were.
Before a single ICS can be adopted, however, there is critical issue that needs to be explored: the duplication of services by different city agencies, particularly FDNY and the New York Police Department Emergency Services Units. Such duplication leads to problems with authority, coordination, etc. and makes the ICS difficult to implement.
It has been noted that the NYPD and the FDNY have appointed liaisons to work Within each other’s organization during an emergency. While this is appropriate initially, it is essential that it be taken further to ensure that a single incident commander be in charge of all units operating at the incident irregardless of the unit affiliation. What is needed is a single command structure, not two parallel structures connected only with liaisons.
For example, if a major fire were to occur in a high-rise building, the incident commander (the senior fire officer) and his command structure would direct and be responsible for all units on the scene. That would include such non-FDNY units such as NYPD Emergency Services, NYPD Aviation, and perhaps even structural engineers from the private sector. Orders would be given directly to the supervisors of the NYPD, etc., ensuring a coordinated response. In the case of a law enforcement emergency, the senior NYPD officer would be in command and would direct responding FDNY units as necessary.
I propose the following recommendations:
- The City of New York review the agency duplication issue and modify the situation as deemed necessary.
- The City of New York adopt a single ICS to be utilized by all city agencies, most logically the system currently used by FDNY.
- Written plans incorporating the ICS be developed and be tested by the conducting of actual exercises.
