Key Resource for Field
Fire Operations Center Gets Plane-Crash Test

By GINGER ADAMS OTIS

As firefighters, Emergency Medical Service workers, police officers and commanding officers from various city agencies streamed into Manhattan Oct. 11 after a small plane crashed into an Upper East Side apartment building, another crew of Fire Department workers got busy at FDNY headquarters in Brooklyn.

Inside the $17 million Fire Department Operations Center at MetroTech, computers were already streaming real-time photos of the event from an NYPD helicopter video feed.

A Swift Transition

A tactical team in the FDOC that spent the morning monitoring conditions and departmental response at a five-alarm fire in The Bronx was now focusing on the plane crash.

Chief of Department Salvatore Cassano and Chief of Operations Patrick McNally, who were in midtown at the time of the crash, went directly to the site. From there they communicated with EMS Chief John Peruggia, Deputy Commissioner Frank Cruthers and other Chiefs gathered at the FDOC.

"It went fantastic," said Chief Cassano. "Within minutes we had information from OEM, the [Federal Aviation Administration]. It worked out really well."

The FDOC, officially unveiled by Mayor Bloomberg and Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta Sept. 25, has been in use for several months. But last week's plane crash involving Yankee pitcher Cory Lidle was the first time it was used during a multi-command response.

Radio interoperability allowed FDOC Chiefs to monitor all the city's radio frequencies at once - NYPD, FDNY and EMS - as well as communicate with the Office of Emergency Management and the Department of Information, Technology and Telecommunications.

Gets Broadcast Feeds

FDNY Deputy Director of Computer Services David Litvin said the center is wired to receive all information being broadcast by local TV networks, but also has a special agreement with Channel 11 that sends the station's raw footage into the center.

Mr. Litvin said computer-provided oblique angle aerial photography - also known as pictometry - automatically at the second alarm level. This technology enables Chiefs to pull up different angles of blueprints, buildings and other footage to allow for dimensionality.

Chiefs can view images on their own computer screens, or use the smart boards that allow them to draw on images and maps, or they can project their work into a much larger screen if they want several people to follow what they are doing.

Tapped Data Quickly

Last week, FDNY Chiefs used a map portal that let them tap into an intranet established by DoITT. Once inside the system, they gained access to maps of the Belaire condo that was struck by the errant plane and began calculating which floors might have been hit. They were also able to call up Department of Finance and Department of Building records to ascertain who owned the building and if it had any code violations.

"If there's any information we gather that could be important to the Chiefs on the scene, then we can get it to them," said Mr. Litvin.

But the FDOC is careful not to insert itself into the Incident Command structure. The Operations Center has 10 consoles that are equipped with fully-functional radios, Mr. Litvin said, but officials want to keep radio transmissions to a minimum during a disaster. When information is needed at an accident scene, Chiefs use FDNY Dispatchers to relay the details.

A pilot program starting in two weeks will provide front-line Chiefs with electronic command boards that will offer the FDOC a bird's-eye view of decisions and assignments made in the field.

'We'll Be Adding More'

Mr. Litvin said that the McKinsey Report recommendations for the FDNY after 9/11 included finding a way to record decision-making data in the field so other officers will know where units are in the event that a board is destroyed. "Now that FDOC is in place, we are starting to add more things in cooperation with the Department of Transportation, OEM, the Mayor's Office, NYPD and other city agencies," said Mr. Litvin, who played a crucial role in designing and installing most of the Operations Center.

The next phase will include technology that will allow Chiefs in the field to download some of the digital video and real-time images gathered by FDOC.

"We're looking to get feeds from DOT cameras and other cameras that are available around the city - a good picture gives a lot of information, so it could help quite a bit," Mr. Litvin said.