By Derek Rosenfeld
On April 24, 2015, at FDIC International 2015, Boston (MA) Fire Department Deputy Chief Joseph “Jay” Fleming led the heavily attended classroom session, “Boston Marathon Bombing First-Due with the Boston Fire Department [BFD],” which, for the first time at FDIC, gave students a first-hand account one of the darkest days in that city’s history.
Fleming was assigned to the emergency operations enter after the bombing took place, and he also coordinated the BFD after action report. He said he hoped his presentation would better prepare other cities’ personnel for the event should it ever happen in their community.
Here, Fleming discusses the basics of BFD’s incident action plan (IAP) before the start of the marathon:
Next, Fleming discusses the BFD’s IAP with regards to staffing, decon, and communications:
Here, Fleming delves into the incident command aspects of the bombing as well as some of the chaos immediately following the second bomb.
“Have your risk/benefit decisions guided by general principles instead of specific rules.”
