How 9/11 Changed Key Jobs

Say FDNY Has Improved, But Gaps Remain; Unions Question Lack Of 2nd 'Haz-Mat,' Links With P.D.

By GINGER ADAMS OTIS

The Fire Department has made great strides in its technology and interoperability policies over the past five years, but more should be done to prevent another catastrophic breakdown in communication like the one experienced on Sept. 11 and further safeguard the safety of first-responders, union officials said last week.

PETER L. GORMAN: Money there for upgrades.

Leaders of the unions for firefighters and the Emergency Medical Service work force cited numerous improvements in how the department functions compared to five years ago. They praised the FDNY's increased emphasis on training and technology and its investments in new equipment, particularly handie-talkie radios that are the lifeline for FDNY members responding to an emergency.

Remaining Concerns

But they also listed several ongoing issues they'd like to see addressed, including more department resources allocated to a second, dedicated hazardous-materials company based in Manhattan, a less-punitive response from the FDNY toward members with substance abuse problems, and continued emphasis on cross-agency communications on the command and, in some cases, operational level.

PATRICK J. BAHNKEN: 'Can't talk to NYPD.'

The FDNY is on the verge of debuting its Fire Department Operations Center, a multi-million-dollar command post in its headquarters that allows senior management to remotely track companies at a scene, monitor developments in real time, pick up direct video transmission from the Police Department, tap into Department of Transportation cameras around the city, and eventually, get digital feeds from helicopters. Radio transmissions can also be monitored from there, and information at emergencies is fed back to the Operations Center via command boards wielded by the officers in the field.

The FDNY also installed Global Positioning Software in its ambulances, which allows EMS Chiefs and dispatchers to know at a glance where units are, and remotely track them at emergency scenes. Similar software is being tested in fire trucks.

Improved Radio System

Additional improvements have been made to the XTS-3500R Motorola handietalkies carried by members. After numerous independent and Federal reports listed failed radio technology as a major contributing factor to the loss of life suffered by the FDNY on 9/11, the department worked on upgrading its system to better function in high-rise buildings.

STEPHEN J. CASSIDY: Ease up on discipline.

Firefighters now carry handie-talkies that transmit at 5 watts, a significant increase from the one-watt radios used before. Additionally, the radios carry a Mayday button that briefly boosts the signal an extra five watts when depressed, allowing a call for help to rise above other radio chatter. The radio also emits a tone alert when the Mayday is pushed, which gets transmitted to units used by on-the-scene officers.

Handie-talkies used by the commanding officers have Liquid Crystal Displays in them, and when an emergency tone is received, the display immediately shows which company it came from. A Chief can contact the commander in charge of that unit and find out why a Mayday was sent.

Vertical Communication

FDNY Chiefs also bring a post radio with them to high-rise calls. The stand-alone 45-watt radio allows them to communicate with other officers at the ground-floor command post. The Incident Commander on the ground can then talk directly to chiefs on upper floors and directly to members, and the chiefs can communicate to each other using the command channel.

Radio signals are also boosted by repeater radios carried in FDNY cars at the scene. They amplify signals and increase the quality of communication in high rises.

One drawback in the new plan is the weight of the Post radio units. The FDNY is currently looking into newer, lightweight batteries to lessen the load. The radios, while a newer model number than those used on 9/11, also aren't the latest technology on the market. There are more recent technological advances that could be integrated into the system, or used to create a new, cutting-edge network, union officials said. But they also acknowledged that such changes would incur tremendous costs.

'Finally They Work'

"I am very pleased that the department got rid of failed radios and replaced them with ones that work," said Uniformed Fire Officers' Association President Peter L. Gorman. "They had to take a $38 million piece of junk and make it work. They took the guts of the digital radios and overlaid analog technology, but I think the FDNY and the Chief of Department worked hard to get a better system with what they had."

Patrick J. Bahnken, president of District Council 37 Local 2507, which represents Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics, agreed that the FDNY had done more to train and prepare its work force since 9/11. But he was sharply critical of its decision to not to allow EMS workers to communicate on the operational level with Police Officers.

"Before we were absorbed into the FDNY, we had channels on our radios that allowed us to speak directly to the cop on the corner, or down the block," he said. "Then they took that away, and when one of my members is in a life-threatening situation and needs help, they have to communicate to a dispatcher, who then has to contact another dispatcher. What they really need to be able to do is get on the radio and call for that cop down the block to come and help them."

Won't Open Channel

An FDNY spokesman said the department had no plans to return NYPD channels to EMS radios. The FDNY implemented a second citywide emergency radio channel in August 2004, he said, which permits different agencies to work together on large events - the New York City Marathon, for example - and cuts down on confusion at multiple-agency emergencies.

Additionally, battalion vehicles are equipped with automatic voice recorders, which archive all radio transmissions at fires and medical emergencies. There are always two battalion vehicles at every all-hands fire, the FDNY spokesman said, and when the rigs pull back into the firehouse after a call, wireless technology starts an immediate download of all the transmissions into a department computer. The new technology was being field-tested on Jan. 25, 2005, when six firefighters were forced to leap from the fourth story of a building in The Bronx, resulting in the deaths of two senior men. The technology proved invaluable in trying to piece together the miscommunications that led to a company becoming trapped without egress.

Rope Improvements

As a result of that incident, the pilot program was immediately widened to include the remaining four boroughs. It also brought about the immediate re-issuance of personal escape harnesses and ropes to firefighters at a cost of $9.1 million. Similar ropes were previously carried by firefighters, but the mandate was allowed to lapse under former Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen. The FDNY said the decision was initially made because firefighters complained of the extra bulk and weight, and because the ropes tended to catch on things, posing a significant risk to firefighter mobility. The new ropes are thinner and made of lighter material.

The unions have contended that the program was allowed to lapse as a cost-cutting measure.

Uniformed Firefighters' Association President Stephen J. Cassidy said overall the FDNY had made a great effort to train members to handle hazardous materials and chemical incidents since 9/11.

Prisoners of New Protocol

But he was critical of the lack of interoperability with the NYPD, noting that under the new Citywide Incident Management System implemented by Mayor Bloomberg, the NYPD is first in charge until terrorism is ruled out as a cause in many types of situations that formerly were the provenance of the FDNY.

"We have to continue to rely on the NYPD to take the information it gets from their people, process it, and give it to the Chiefs in command, and then having that relayed out to those in the field," he commented. "Five years after 9/11, that continues to be a concern. When the FDNY says it has improved radios, yes they have. But it must be viewed in the context that we still have to rely on the NYPD to assess their info and get it to us."

Mr. Cassidy and Mr. Gorman have been pushing the FDNY to upgrade its aging fleet of replacement fire trucks. Mr. Cassidy said at a City Council hearing last spring that some of the rigs are close to 20 years old. Front-line rigs must be replaced every 10 years as part of the city's contract with the UFOA, but no such regulation exists for spare rigs. Doing business with just one vendor - Seagrave - undercut the competitive process and contributed to a drop in service quality, Mr. Cassidy contended.

Threat Has An Effect

The FDNY, speaking at an April 4 hearing held by City Councilman Miguel Martinez, chair of the Committee on Fire and Criminal Justice Services, acknowledged that Seagrave had been lax in delivering new trucks on time and repairing older units. But since the FDNY warned the manufacturer that it was at risk of losing city business, Seagrave has improved, department officials said.

The FDNY has invested in new equipment in the past five years. Not only did it recently equip its EMS members with quality bunker gear that provides flash-over protection as well as limited protection against chemical and hazardous material exposures, it increased the number of fire trucks and ambulances equipped to handle haz-mat incidents. Many different response vehicles now carry Geiger meters that measure radioactivity, and ambulances are stocked with approximately 150 kits containing antidotes to several different types of nerve agents.

Fire trucks usually carry enough antidotes to inoculate members who are exposed to chemicals. The department has worked to create a tiered system of response throughout the city, so that different types of firefighting units can work with EMS units to respond to chemical and hazardous material emergencies, with units being trained to different levels of capability.

Key Personnel Wiped Out

The idea, said an FDNY spokesman, is to have a varied and widespread capability that avoids the problem encountered on 9/11, when all five of the department's rescue units responded to the World Trade Center. None of the members of those units survived. Out of the FDNY's seven specialized squads, all the members of five of them perished at Ground Zero.

The UFA and UFOA, however, support the findings of the McKinsey Report, a study commissioned by the FDNY in the wake of the disaster to pinpoint where its own policies and procedures had broken down on 9/11.

Aside from needing to improve exchanges of information with the NYPD, the McKinsey Report recommended that the FDNY establish a second hazardous materials company to supplement the one it currently has in Queens. Although members in other units received special instruction, and many units were well-trained in aspects of chemical and hazardous response, the report said, the city needed a second, dedicated company that was trained at the highest level.

'Can't Be Everywhere'

Mr. Cassidy pointed to recent revelations that terrorists had plotted to use liquid explosives to blow up a flight from London to New York as evidence that the city was still a terrorist target.

"Our haz-mat firefighters are the best in the world, and their training is incredible. They can deal with anything, but they can't be in two places at once," he said. "We do have other squads and members trained to different levels of response, which is good, but there's still only one haz-mat unit in Queens that's trained to the highest level."

Mr. Gorman echoed concerns that one unit wasn't enough. He urged the FDNY to follow the McKinsey recommendation, and noted that previous budgetary issues were no longer a problem.

"The Mayor closed six firehouses, saying that we don't have the money, and Fire Commissioner Scoppetta, talking about the McKinsey recommendation, said we don't have the money," Mr. Gorman commented. "But they can't say that anymore. The money is there. There has been a lot of training, but there's a certain level of expertise that comes with being a dedicated haz-mat company."

Eye on Health Problems

While the FDNY continues to invest in training and technology, the union leaders said, it also has to continue to focus on the health needs of its members - those who are dealing with physical ailments and those who might still be in need of some emotional assistance.

An 18-month study conducted by the Smithers Institute at the School of Labor Relations at Cornell University that was released in April 2004 found higher-than-normal levels of depression, stress, and anxiety along with an increased risk of an alcohol problem among firefighters and officers who were at the World Trade Center in the first two weeks after the attacks.

The report also found that many members felt isolated from FDNY management and expressed concern about issues of safety and resource adequacy. Both Mr. Cassidy and Mr. Gorman reiterated their opposition to the "zero tolerance" policy Fire Commissioner Scoppetta instituted along with random drug-testing post 9/11.

'Give a Second Chance'

Mr. Gorman said the UFOA didn't condone drug use under any circumstances. "But we are asking for one chance - just one chance - for a member to seek some counseling and help before losing their job," he said. "With this zero-tolerance policy you lose your job, your pension, your health coverage, everything. We just think it's too harsh - I've been a firefighter for 33 years. If I fail a marijuana test, you're going to tell me I didn't earn my pension?"

The FDNY hasn't responded to criticism of its policy, but last year altered the standards for its opiates test. Previously it counted anything above 300 milligrams as a positive result, but after questions were raised by some members who got what they insisted were false positives, the FDNY raised its threshold to the standard used by many Federal agencies - 2,000 milligrams.

Still, Mr. Cassidy said, the FDNY won't reconsider the cases of firefighters initially terminated under its more stringent regulations.

"When you fire a firefighter, you virtually destroy that person's family," Mr. Cassidy noted. "Medical experts pleaded for help for the firefighters who were under tremendous strain, and the response was to institute random drug-testing and firing people instead of trying to help them. I implore Fire Commissioner Scoppetta to change this and find a way to help those still suffering from the effects of 9/11. That's the compassionate thing to do."

A Fire Department spokesman declined to respond to his comments.