Here are recent Fire Chief's columns from
The Arizona Republic
City
of Phoenix Public Information Office - News Clippings - azcentral.com
- August 9, 2008
Department Proud to Help in California Fires
In mid-July the Phoenix Fire Department sent 14 fire officers and two Phoenix police officers to northern California. These public safety workers have been specially trained by an organization known as NIMO which is the National Incident Management Organization out of the U.S. Agricultural Department.
In the history of the Phoenix Fire Department this is the first time we have been deployed as an All Hazard Incident Management Team. I guess the real question is why would you care? The state of Arizona and Phoenix residents have seen our Urban Search and Rescue teams deployed to Oklahoma City, the World Trade Center, New Orleans and other national emergencies. Behind each one of those deployments there are a series of emergency managers. Over the last two years we’ve been working towards training our fire officers and police officers in managing these large-scale emergencies.
It’s important for our community to understand the magnitude of the situation in northern California. At the time of our deployment, California declared a state of emergency in several counties. CalFire represents California firefighters and the Department of Agriculture represents the U.S. Forest Service. They were working 1,800 fires with over 300 of those fires still uncontained. Six-hundred thousand acres were involved and there were nearly 20-thousand firefighters and public safety personnel dispatched to the scene. This would also represent 1,523 fire engines.
To put this into perspective, on a daily basis in Phoenix, to protect 1.5 million people we have 65 fire engines and 430 firefighters on duty. So you can see the scope and the magnitude of this emergency.
We have never as a fire service organization had the opportunity to drill down and be involved in a catastrophic event of this magnitude. For us in the metropolitan Phoenix area it is a stepping stone for that next natural disaster or act of terrorism that could impact us as a community and require a declaration from our governor to the President of the United States for federal aid.
It’s important to understand that when the governor of the state declares a state of emergency, those agencies who participate in that response need to know how to manage the apparatus, track the resources, and stay accountable so that federal funding will reimburse the enormous expense of a week-long or month-long event.
I had the privilege of flying back to Redding, California to see our team in action with Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon and Public Safety Manager Jack Harris. The lessons that we saw Phoenix personnel learning from CalFire and the U.S. Fire Service were a practical application of over two years of classroom training in incident management. Like many things in public safety, until you literally go into the fire you don’t have a true understanding of what it takes to manage a catastrophic emergency or crisis.
The Phoenix Fire Department was a very small piece of a very large operation. It was an honor to be invited to participate. For years to come I feel that we will be better prepared to respond and ask for help at a national and federal level in the event of something bad happening to this community.
With the monsoon knocking on the door, we will have increased activity to the point that our fire companies will be responding from call to call helping people with lightning strikes and car crashes. This is a busy time of year for public safety workers. For the firefighters it’s a time when the summer is dragging on and the fires keep coming. It’s nice to know that during this mean season that if there is a major incident, we have the ability to ask for and manage additional help here in the Phoenix area.
Enjoy the end of summer. Remember to watch your kids around water and be safe!
Send comments to Bob Khan at firechief.pfd@phoenix.gov or call (602) 26-CHIEF.