FIRST RESPONDERS
FIRST RESPONDERS IN THE CHURCH...SPIRITUALLY TO HELP SOMEONE IN NEED.
First responder is a term used to describe the first medically-trained responder to arrive on scene of an emergency, accident, natural or human-made disaster, or similar event. Such people may be police or other law enforcement, firefighters, Emergency Medical Services, or lay rescuers.
First Responders
I live in Minneapolis, so the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge over the Mississippi River earlier this month hit close to home, and was covered in both my local and national news.
Much of the initial coverage consisted of human interest stories, centered on the victims of the disaster and the incredible bravery shown by first responders: the policemen, firefighters, EMTs, divers, National Guard soldiers and even ordinary people, who all risked their lives to save others. (Just two weeks later, three rescue workers died in their almost-certainly futile attempt to save six miners in Utah.)
Perhaps the most amazing aspect of these stories is that there’s nothing particularly amazing about it. No matter what the disaster -- hurricane, earthquake, terrorist attack -- the nation’s first responders get to the scene soon after.
Which is why it’s such a crime when these people can’t communicate with each other.
Historically, police departments, fire departments and ambulance drivers have all had their own independent communications equipment, so when there’s a disaster that involves them all, they can’t communicate with each other. A 1996 government report said this about the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993: "Rescuing victims of the World Trade Center bombing, who were caught between floors, was hindered when police officers could not communicate with firefighters on the very next floor."
And we all know that police and firefighters had the same problem on 9/11. You can read details in firefighter Dennis Smith’s book and 9/11 Commission testimony. The 9/11 Commission Report discusses this as well: Chapter 9 talks about the first responders’ communications problems, and commission recommendations for improving emergency-response communications are included in Chapter 12 (pp. 396-397).
In some cities, this communication gap is beginning to close. Homeland Security money has flowed into communities around the country. And while some wasted it on measures like cameras, armed robots and things having nothing to do with terrorism, others spent it on interoperable communications capabilities. Minnesota did that in 2004.
It worked. Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek told the St. Paul Pioneer-Press that lives were saved by disaster planning that had been fine-tuned and improved with lessons learned from 9/11:
"We have a unified command system now where everyone -- police, fire, the sheriff’s office, doctors, coroners, local and state and federal officials -- operate under one voice,’’ said Stanek, who is in charge of water recovery efforts at the collapse site.
"We all operate now under the 800 (megahertz radio frequency system), which was the biggest criticism after 9/11," Stanek said, "and to have 50 to 60 different agencies able to speak to each other was just fantastic.’’
Others weren’t so lucky. Louisiana’s first responders had catastrophic communications problems in 2005, after Hurricane Katrina. According to National Defense Magazine:
Police could not talk to firefighters and emergency medical teams. Helicopter and boat rescuers had to wave signs and follow one another to survivors. Sometimes, police and other first responders were out of touch with comrades a few blocks away. National Guard relay runners scurried about with scribbled messages as they did during the Civil War.
A congressional report on preparedness and response to Katrina said much the same thing.
In 2004, the U.S. Conference of Mayors issued a report on communications interoperability. In 25 percent of the 192 cities surveyed, the police couldn’t communicate with the fire department. In 80 percent of cities, municipal authorities couldn’t communicate with the FBI, FEMA and other federal agencies.
The source of the problem is a basic economic one, called the collective action problem. A collective action is one that needs the coordinated effort of several entities in order to succeed. The problem arises when each individual entity’s needs diverge from the collective needs, and there is no mechanism to ensure that those individual needs are sacrificed in favor of the collective need.
Jerry Brito of George Mason University shows how this applies to first-responder communications. Each of the nation’s 50,000 or so emergency-response organizations -- local police department, local fire department, etc. -- buys its own communications equipment. As you’d expect, they buy equipment as closely suited to their needs as they can. Ensuring interoperability with other organizations’ equipment benefits the common good, but sacrificing their unique needs for that compatibility may not be in the best immediate interest of any of those organizations. There’s no central directive to ensure interoperability, so there ends up being none.
This is an area where the federal government can step in and do good. Too much of the money spent on terrorism defense has been overly specific: effective only if the terrorists attack a particular target or use a particular tactic. Money spent on emergency response is different: It’s effective regardless of what the terrorists plan, and it’s also effective in the wake of natural or infrastructure disasters.
No particular disaster, whether intentional or accidental, is common enough to justify spending a lot of money on preparedness for a specific emergency. But spending money on preparedness in general will pay off again and again.
MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (CNN) -- The first caller to reach 911 reported -- in a calm voice that gave no hint to the calamity that awaited -- "a bridge down over the river."
Hours after Wednesday’s collapse, rescuers searched for victims in crumpled cars.
Four minutes later, just before 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sgt. Ed Nelson, 55, and two fellow police officers were among the first to arrive at the south side of the Interstate 35W bridge that rose 60 feet above the Mississippi River.
"I don’t think anybody quite expected the scene we encountered," he said at a news conference featuring first responders. "It was utter chaos at that time -- bridge smoking, dust in the air. ... We knew it was a bad, very bad situation."
The trio wasted no time. They split up, leaving one officer on the road to direct arriving first responders while Nelson and a fellow officer ditched their gunbelts and their radios and clambered aboard a span of the bridge that had tumbled to the river, carrying a still-undetermined number of vehicles and people with it.
With some people still in their cars, some on the fallen bridge span and some in the water, the men sprang into action.
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"You forget about everything else," said Nelson, a former soldier who has been a police officer for 25 years, 20 of them with the Minneapolis Police Department. "You understand that you have a job to do and it’s time to get down to business and do that job."
The first vehicle they came across was submerged and crushed, he said.
"We asked a man if he saw anybody get out of that vehicle, and he said, ’That was me,’ " Nelson said.
As the officers crawled on a beam, the span "seemed to shift," and they could hear rivets popping amid victims’ cries for help, Nelson said.
"We were forced to make a decision: Do we stand back and watch, or do we take action?" he said.
"It’s not a place that I would care to go again, but you take a calculated risk and you do your job."
Within a few minutes, fire and rescue officers were helping the men. Three victims with possible back injuries were placed on boards and carried to safety.
"Basically, we just told them to be calm," Nelson said. "A couple of girls were somewhat hysterical. They couldn’t understand how they got to that point. I just explained to them that they fell. They seemed somewhat amazed by that fact."
Nelson said he told them, "It’s not the fall that hurts you -- it’s the sudden stop at the end. They found that amusing, and it calmed them down."
Only after the police officers had made sure everyone was off the span did the impact of the work hit home.
"When you’re doing it, emotion doesn’t enter into it," Nelson said. "You understand fully that these people are depending on you, and you have a job to do. And that’s what you do."
But, he added, "12 hours later, you look at the bridge and you go: ’I haven’t a clue why I was under that.’ "
Much of the rescue work was achieved only after overcoming logistical barriers. About 10 minutes after the collapse, John Hick of the Hennepin County Medical Center was one of the first doctors to arrive at the south side of the wreckage site.
But, unable to reach victims from there, he crossed to the north side of the site, where he helped other first responders carry people from the water.
The tough terrain on the riverbank made getting ambulances to the victims tough, so the first responders commandeered pickup trucks to ferry 55 victims from the water’s edge, Hick said.
As Nelson and Hick were toiling, firefighter and diver Shanna Hanson arrived on the north side, where, with just a rope tied around her waist, she dove repeatedly into the water, searching vehicles for possible survivors.
Though such work -- swift-water rescue -- can be extremely dangerous, "you don’t think about it much until afterward," she said, noting that she focused Wednesday on staying away from live wires and "widow makers" -- overhangs that could collapse at any time, killing anyone below.
But the work went smoothly, aided by years of having participated in disaster drills, said the diver, who has been a member of the Minneapolis Fire Department since 1991. "It was not frantic; it was pretty organized."
One of the most difficult parts of the entire operation had nothing to do with rescue work. Instead, it involved breaking the time-honored tradition shared by many firefighters of shunning the public spotlight.
9/11 First Responders Gravely Ill
Report Says 70 Percent of First Responders Have Severe Lung Illnesses
For the firefighters and police officers who ran toward the fiery World Trade Center towers and breathed in the air on Sept. 11, the attacks are not just in their hearts or minds.
For them, 9/11 is in their lungs, their blood.
"It was like a black cloud over that whole area, and you couldn’t see 10 feet in front of you," said John Walcott, a detective with the New York City Police Department.
"Basically I had no idea what -- how bad it was really gonna be until I got there," said Richard Volpe, another NYPD detective and Walcott’s partner.
Toxic dust in the air around New York City’s ground zero has made many first responders gravely ill.
Earlier this year, retired New York City firefighter Robert Ryan, who ran triathlons before Sept. 11, was forced to retire.
His lungs are so weak, he says, he can barely play catch with his son.
"After about 10 minutes, I always have to stop, catch my breath. And it’s at the point now where he knows it, and he’ll stop and say, ’Are you OK, Daddy? Do you need to stop?’" Ryan said.
Startling Findings
A report released this week was shocking: Nearly 70 percent of 9/11 first responders have debilitating respiratory illnesses.
Many of them have been ill for years and will be for the rest of their lives.
Dr. Robin Herbert, who runs the World Trade Center medical monitoring program, called the report’s findings sobering at a news conference earlier this week.
"Somebody has to take responsibility and make sure these folks get the care they need," he said.
In the last few months, state and federal officials have announced that millions of dollars will go to the treatment of first responders.
Many say it’s still not enough.
"It’s a drop in the bucket, and my worry is that money will be gone in a year, and what happens then," Herbert said.
Victims say they have little reason to trust what is being promised because the government’s statements have not matched what the doctors have seen in their patients since the day of the attacks.
On Sept. 28, 2001, 17 days after the attacks, New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said, "The air quality is safe and acceptable."
More than five years after the 9/11 terror attacks, the full impact of that day is still unknown. First responders who rushed into the collapsing buildings are dealing with health issues they believe could be just the tip of the iceberg.
CBS 2 spoke to many who now say they are dead men walking.
First responders charged toward ground zero on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, united in their mission.
"I saw the second plane hit, both towers come down," Vito Valente said. "It went from day to night."
"When things are at their very worst is when we are at our very best," Mike McCormack added. "It subsequently changed my life forever."
Today, seven out of every 10 suffer from respiratory disease.
And that’s just the beginning.
"My wife to this day is still pulling pieces of glass out of my back," John Feal said. "I have nose bleeds on a regular basis, ringing of the ears, can’t sleep."
CBS 2 spoke to just six of the 33,000 people who are now being treated after working at ground zero. As time goes by, new health problems emerge, some unexplained.
"I have a rash that’s in the back of my leg now," Valente said.
"The fear is that most of us are going to get some kind of cancer in our esophagus," Feal said.
They also suffer from massive migraines, unexplained rashes and aches and pains that defy explanation.
Dr. Jacqueline Moline of Mount Sinai’s Monitoring and Treatment Program said she’s often powerless.
"We’re hearing the same complaints over and over and over again," Moline said.
Mount Sinai monitors nearly 20,000 first responders on a continual basis.
"There is no doubt in the minds of any of us who’ve seen the thousands of responders that their health had been adversely affected by these exposures," Moline said.
For many, the picture is grim.
"We will unfortunately outnumber those people who died on 9/11," one of the responders said. "Vito Valente is going to die. Mike McCormack is going to die."
Valente needs a double-lung transplant. McCormack has a piece of metal embedded in his lung after volunteering for eight days at ground zero.
McCormack found the flag that flew atop the Twin Towers.
"It was 1,100 degrees, dark and dusty," McCormack said.
Feal’s foot was crushed from falling metal.
"I ended up getting wedged in and buried beneath the ground," Feal said.
Vinny Forras was honored by President Bush. He escaped after being trapped.
Acts of heroism that came at a high price, physically and emotionally.
"It’s like walking through a door which you can never return from," one of the responders said.
All of the men said they’ve had to show proof they worked at ground zero. All of them now also suffer from sleep problems.
