Halbrook Associates.com

The new Johnston Fire Department Ambulance 3980

Re-fitting the Jon boat

As you saw in the last post the Jon boat is out of storage, and on the water.  We spent the day pretending that we were "broke down" so that the lady grace could tow us.  With high winds projected for Sunday we spent the day in dry dock.  During this work day we prepped and painted the inside of the boat.  

Here is a pic of the day's work

Who can issue ICS certifications?

At this point everyone seams relatively comfortable with the idea of who needs the upper level courses. Unfortunately a lot of confusion exists as to who can teach, and conduct ICS 300, and 400 classes. There is also a lot of confusion as to who can issue certificates of training.

Since many agencies are deferring the training of ICS 100, 200, IS 700, and IS 800 to the Emergency Management Institute (EMI) there is a perception that the all powerful FEMA is the gate keeper to all ICS and NIMS training. Unfortunately that perception is incorrect. FEMA, and their EMI do not have any ICS 300 courses scheduled for the first half of 2009.

http://training.fema.gov/EMICourses/docs/2009%202nd%20Semester%20Web%20Schedule.pdf

What they do offer is a course numbered E449. E449 is a train the trainer program which teaches instructors how to deliver the ICS curriculum.

The other major training institution within FEMA is the Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP) based out of Aniston Alabama. This year CDP is offering a grand total of three ICS 300/400 courses.

Looking at these two training calendars it is clear that FEMA is not making an effort to directly train all of the responders in the country who need ICS 300 and 400. This fact begs the question. Who can teach, and document ICS 300, and 400?

In March of 2007 the NIMS Integration Center published this document.

Water Safety Patrols with the Coast Guard Auxiliary

Waterways are inherently dangerous. With dozens of boats and boaters screaming up and down the river/lake while other sit floating in the middle of everything. The craziness, and uncoordinated nature of our recreational water ways wouldn’t be so bad if we took the same basic safety considerations that we require while traveling in cars. In fact many states have lower blood alcohol requirements for boats than cars. With this in mind it is no wonder that more accidents don’t take place.

In an effort to keep our waterways a little safer the United States Coast Guard utilizes its Auxiliary to patrol navigatable waterways. Division 33 of Sector Upper Mississippi within the Coast Guard supports most of Iowa. These volunteer patrol facilities work along side colleagues in the DNR, Army Corps of Engineers, local Law enforcement, and rescue services.

Today I had the opportunity to ride along as a member of one of these Coast Guard Auxiliary Patrols.

The First Response Team of America

Shortly after tornadoes tore through Parkersburg Iowa the community began its emergency response operation. Fire fighters, emergency managers, and other emergency responders began to work together to stabilize the scene. After the "First Response" effort shifted into a recovery operation I started hearing stories of a very unique recovery asset. Friends and colleagues began describing a heavy debris removal system that is unlike anything I had ever seen. This system consisted of a crew of heavy duty container trucks that are each mounted with their own hydraulic claw. These claws were able to pick up huge piles of debris, and with skilled drivers hundreds of loads were quickly evacuated from the city.

After hearing about this group, and the excellent work that they accomplished I was surprised to hear that they seam to function as a self dispatched resource. With equipment caches around the country they moralize in response to disasters. Normally I do not condone the concept of self deployment, but I can not argue with the broad and continuous nature of their formal recognitions.

So, if you have a disaster in your community be aware of this unique response capability.

Here is a video report highlighting The First Response Team of America.

Chalk Trail marking a tool for Search and Rescue

As a ground searcher you are often times trained to not disturb anything, and to mark anything that may be significant to your search effort. In order to mark all of these important clues search teams tend to carry rolls of non adhesive flagging tape. This tape can be easily tied to an object, or an object near by. The problem is that if you flag the tree branch follow up teams may be focussed on your flag, and end up stepping in the foot print that you were trying to identify. When Scott Hanna was down from Albert Lee he introduced us to the concept of marking clues with chalk. Construction workers have used blue chalk, and strings to mark cut lines. The chalk when spread on the ground leaves a bright blue stripe. This stripe stands out against natural colors in most environments, and is a temporary application that will last long enough to be an affective mark, but will fade away with time. I went out into my back yard today, and demonstrated its use in marking a foot print. Overall this process was very slick, easy, and appeared to be very affective. Feel free to add this tool to your tool box.

Technical Rescue support in Central Iowa

The emergency response community within central Iowa is lucky to have a number of well placed technical rescue resources. Recently I had the opportunity to get to know the crew of the Des Moines Fire Department's station 4. Station 4 is the home of tech rescue 1. This rescue unit came up to Johnston for a quick show and tell demonstration of their equipment, capabilities, resources, and a little bit of a bull session.

Having spent the past few years working with several tech rescue teams, and interacting closely with the leadership of our state's USAR task force I was incredibly surprised by this groups capabilities. I have watched as many many fire departments claim to have a tech rescue capability, but without training, equipment, and a dedication that capability almost always ends up not living up the hype.

The crew from station 4 let us know the parameters of their response. They will dispatch with different support depending upon the situation

The basic response consists of the following
1. The rescue truck
2. Five fire fighters who are cross trained as rescue technicians
3. a paramedic level ambulance to support the crew.

If the crew is being sent to a confined space response, or a trench rescue expect the team to come along with one of the Haz-Mat crews from either Station 1, or 5.

If they are responding to a technical rescue assignment within the city of Des Moines they will also get a truck company, and an extrication engine to support the response.

This crew seamed very easy to work with, very excited to be called for tech rescue responses, and interested in being a part of the greater community.

I look forward to working with them in the future.

Paws of Life (K-9 Rescue group selecting working dogs)

Within the United States thousands of dogs go through the animal control system. Fortunately many of these facilities have become no-kill, or limited kill facilities. Unfortunately within these facilities many dogs present with to much drive, to much enthusiasm, and to much drive. These dogs are often deemed as unadaptable, and are put to sleep. Many of these high drive dogs could make excellent working dogs. Within Iowa paws of life has been formed to evaluate and place these animals with appropriate handlers. Within the past year this dedicated group has rescued over a dozen dogs. The most recent success story is Grace. Grace is a yellow lab who is being adopted by a handler from Florida's Urban Search and rescue Task Force 1 (FL TF-1).

Along with being a feel good charity group Paws of Life has compiled an excellent library of articles, and guides for training a working K-9.

Enjoy

Meet Grace

Urban Search and Rescue Dogs in Action

Urban Search And Rescue Dogs

Rescue International

An ongoing theme of this web site is to pass along the best of Search and rescue across the country, and on the internet.  Today I would like to introduce you to Rescue International.  RI is a not for profit search SAR entity based out of Stroudsburg, PA RI offers incident response at no cost to the requesting agency, an impressive equipment cache, and a diverse training program build upon their mission experiences.  Training materials including video instruction can be found at NASAR's book store.