Taking Stock   

Technical rescue resources become vulnerable as the economy sinks

I can’t see Russia from my house, but I can see the now closed offices of Lehman Bros. across the street from my corner office at Fire Station 1 in Menlo Park, Calif.

Our county lost $150 million when Lehman Bros. went bankrupt. As other financial institutions go bankrupt, consolidate or are sold off, our concern about the future grows palpable.

It’s not just about layoffs. Housing values, property taxes, stock portfolios and pensions will be affected. Taken together, a weak economy may jeopardize the sustainability of your agency, especially the “extras,” such as specialized resources like technical rescue units and the teams that put boots on the ground. The reality is that in this world of low-frequency/high-risk threats, specialized units are extremely vulnerable in an economy that is not only in a down turn, but appears to be a free fall.

Although no one knows where the bottom is, it’s clear that now may be the time to become more creative so you can save what you have. Becoming more efficient by consolidating resources with other departments may not be all that bad, especially when considering the alternative.

Determine Needs
Urban search and rescue (USAR), swift-water rescue and technical rescue have been, generally speaking, growth industries. After the wake-up calls of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, many agencies upgraded their specialized rescue capabilities and grant funds fueled this expansion.

But sustainability is now the word of the day, and many agencies will face some difficult decisions and times ahead as they make the choice to either not train with their equipment, let teams “sleep” or even close their doors and scrap their programs.

Perhaps it’s time to revisit what we all need, where, when and why. From the local to the region to the state and federal government, the distribution of rescue units is sporadic and often not based upon priority, geographic distribution or population.

A tremendous amount of effort has been placed into typing resources so that we all begin to speak the same language and the concept of a National Mutual Aid system needs to be adopted by both the law enforcement and fire service.

If, as some believe, this economic downturn is a crisis of confidence as much as due to pre-existing market forces, then perhaps it’s our responsibility to help restore some of that confidence by showing the public what doing the right thing looks like.

Conclusion
After the dark days of 9/11, we missed the opportunity to fully evaluate strength of our national rescue response system. The grants turned agencies into competitors rather than collaborators, and although things have improved in recent years, we still don’t have a complete inventory of who has what. Likewise, we lack an acceptable model as to what is needed where and why.

In these days of MapQuest, Google Maps and other tools that can be used to determine location, travel and time distance, the only thing we seem unable to develop is an acceptable model for discovering initial resource allocation for a variety of risks and/or events.

Although we may be more aware of what’s where at a local, regional or even state level, the broader national picture has yet to be developed.

We will need to continue to adapt, improvise and overcome. We will also need all of those skills to make it through these hard times, but that ability will need to evolve, change and improve if we are to succeed.

Harold Schapelhouman is a 28-year veteran firefighter with the Menlo Park (Calif.) Fire Protection District. At the start of 2007, he became the first internally selected fire chief in 21 years for his organization. Previously, he was the division chief in charge of special operations, which includes all district specialized preparedness efforts, the local and state water rescue program, and the local, state and national Urban Search and Rescue Program (USAR).

Schapelhouman was the task force leader in charge of California Task Force 3, one of the eight California USAR teams and one of the 28 federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS/FEMA) teams.