Lots of Work Ahead in 2009

One of my biggest concerns in 2008 has been the dwindling funds available for urban search and rescue programs around the nation. When things cut loose out there, these are the resources that everyone wants, but given the state of funding for these programs and the state of the economy, they may also be the first programs to see the axe.

When a few of us got together and developed the State Urban Search and Rescue Alliance in the middle of 2005, we had no idea that there was as much interest in putting together regional and state assets as there was. We found that virtually every state (and even some of our Caribbean neighbors and compatriots) were in the process of developing these programs, but people weren't talking the same language (NIMS typing and credentialing was in its infancy), were "reinventing the wheel" in so many facets of their work, and most of all, weren't communicating that they had things to share or that they had needs that could be filled by others.

The nation's emergency service providers should learn a lesson from all of this: we can work together by reaching out to others, and find commonalities that can bring us together rather than to continue to stay in our "silos" and perpetuate the turf-guarding that keps us from solving our serious issues. In this day and age of stripped budgets, if we can show that we are willing to lay down our egos for the common good, we might have a bigger stick to wield when it comes to chasing the vultures away from our already scarce funding allocations.

Let's Not Be Too Hasty...

The Hon. Michael Chertoff suggests that it would be a bad idea to reorganize DHS and bump FEMA up to a cabinet level, despite the different missions they have. I suggest that maybe its time to let FEMA (and by extension, the USFA and the National Fire Academy) get out of the broom closet and at least have a better seat at the table.

Although I agree one-hundred percent that "emergencies don't come neatly packaged in stovepipes", I don't think the fire service is the group hoarding the information. How about a little love in this new administration for the fire service?

What Changes Are In Store Today?

Do you wonder what technological advances will come down the line in the next five, ten, or fifteen years that will change the way we do business? I never thought I’d see computers being essential for my job when I started years ago, nor did we ever imagine some of the other things (like search-cams, thermal imagers, and that kind of stuff) that are part of our everyday existence. Here’s a link to an article on an item I am hearing more and more about each day: a firefighting “grenade”. Who knows where something like this could take us? Fast response units in cars or motorcycles that could get there first and make a knock-down before the bigger units come in and mop up? The ultimate elimination or re-engineering of the fire engine as we know it now? What problem, if we could solve it today, would make our job much easier?

I was sent a National Institute of Justice report on US&R that imagined things like a “robo-cop”-like outer garment we could put on to enable us to lift heavy objects, which I thought was pretty far out there, but some of the other innovations we thought were pipe dreams that are now being used like a “life detector”; a device that will pick up the frequency produced by a human heartbeat and amplify it so we can look into rubble piles and see if we can find someone alive in there.

What problems in our department can we solve if we work together to find a solution? Sometimes it’s a matter of looking past the conventional solutions and having some vision that could make all of our jobs easier or even better yet, safer. Buckle up and pay attention to the details- they could save your life.

Entering IntoThe Blogosphere

I'll keep it short but sweet; I've been blogging for a few others and figured maybe I need to blog for myself. This will be a site for discussion of much of the emergency service leadership issues that revolve especially around special operations, since that is where my interests lie. So if you have some ideas, let them fly. In the meanwhile, I'm out here.