It is Thanksgiving Day. The weather is fine, the day is beautiful. The time is 3:00 p.m. You are sitting in your Lazy-Boy chair enjoying the pro football game on your large-screen television. The pleasant aroma of the cooking turkey is wafting through your home. Off in the distance you can hear your family chatting and playing with your grandchildren. All is truly at peace as you and yours spend time enjoying one of our great American holidays.
Suddenly your home is filled with the earth-rattling boom of an explosion; one which shakes your home as though there was an earthquake. In fairly short order the pager on your belt begins beeping as it summons you to an emergency call. As you leap from your chair and move toward your car the call comes over the pager: “Attention, we have numerous reports of an explosion at the Adelphia Methodist Church...." Oh no, how can this be?
As you turn out of your driveway, you see a dense, dark cloud of smoke blowing across the street toward your fire station. As you move through the cloud into the firehouse parking lot, you see the damage to your station. The doors have been blown in and the windshields on all of the units have been damaged. You start to think, "…what was this, a gas explosion?"
You jump out of your car and head into the station. After donning your turnout gear and gloves, you begin to pull the broken glass out of the way so that you can see where you are going. Luckily, the engine starts right up and you are able to pull out through the broken door to await the arrival of your fellow firefighters.
The members of the fire company begin to arrive, coming in from all sides of the station. The smoke is now turning into a giant waves of flames which is eating away at the church. It suddenly seems to you that there is not a lot you can do to save this old wooden edifice which has stood in your community for well over 100 years. This the church where your wife went to Sunday school. This is the church where you were married more than four decades ago. This is the church where your children were baptized. How is this possible?
As your team begins to form up to do battle with the blaze, the radio is suddenly filled with calls summoning other fire departments. They are all being dispatched to reported calls involving explosions and fires in your area. As time goes by, more than a dozen such incidents are dispatched by the county radio network. Resources are stretched thin as units from surrounding counties are being sent in to meet the rising tide of what begins to seem like it is a terrorist attack on your county.
As you operate your pumper, as you have many times over the years, you wonder. Why us? Why now? What next? We are not a major city, we are just a suburban area south and west of New York City. Why in the world are we now suddenly plunked into the middle of a battle for our collective lives?
So much for my trip to the hypothetical.
Now let us get back to the present my friends. Let me suggest that while you might see this as somewhat of a stretch my imagination on my part, I do not think it is really all that far-fetched. Might we not be the next terror target? People have long expected terrorists to attack targets in our major cities. Purveyors of terror usually do it this way for the shock value it causes. But will it always be that way?
It has been my experience that people do not expect terrorists to attack the local main street areas of our nation. Let me warn you that I cannot see into the heads of our enemies in the world of radical terrorism, but might not someone be sitting up nights thinking about ways to strike terror into the hearts of Middle America, or small town America. Think about the impact of multiple attacks upon churches, schools, and shopping centers.
Like many of you, I have spent quite a bit of time over the past several hours watching the tragedy in Paris unfold on my television screen. My friends, I am sick to death of watching a group of pseudo-religious fanatics work to control the world through the mechanism of terror. These idiots have hijacked a recognized religion and perverted it for their own selfish ends.
However, my great question to you is simple indeed. Where next? However, it is in the simplicity of the question that we must face the complexity of preparing for life in these challenging times. While I hope that it is not you or me, let me suggest that each of us has some risk of exposure to terror attacks.
The International Association of Fire Chiefs quickly and wisely sent out a list of topics for us to consider so that we can prepare ourselves of such a sick and sad eventuality as our allies in Paris are now facing. Here are the recommendations from the IAFC for your consideration and use:
- Make sure your staff are educated about your department’s suspicious activity reporting policy. The IAFC’s Terrorism and Homeland Security Committee recommends that all fire departments have suspicious activity reporting policies.
- Ask your staff to be on the lookout for suspicious activity and report it per your suspicious activity reporting policy. If you don’t have a policy, please report suspicious activity to your local law enforcement, Joint Terrorism Task Force or regional fusion center. The IAFC has a draft suspicious activity reporting procedure and form on line for your use.
- Maintain situational awareness at the incident scene to ensure firefighter safety.
- Remind your staff to carry their department identification card at all times while on duty. In the event of an actual event, identification of first responders may be verified.
Let me suggest that all of us need to be on the outlook for people who are taking a look at our facilities. In the parlance of my favorite old 1930’s movies, these would be people that you might see "…casing the joint" at your station. Or it could be a local bus station, train station, or some other such pubic facility. Worse yet, it could be a local shopping center, or a downtown business district.
I am afraid that there is no telling what these monsters might try, or where they might try it. So I am cautioning each of you to prepare. Here are a number of resources which are available for you from the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC):
- Terrorism Response: A Checklist and Guide
- JCAT 2015 Intelligence Guide for First Responders
- IAFC Homeland Security Intelligence Guide for Fire Chiefs (PDF)
- U.S. Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative
- Draft Suspicious Activity Reporting Procedure for Fire Departments (IAFC login required)
- Draft Suspicious Activity Report (IAFC login required)
Let me hope that none of us ever has to face these sorts of terrorist disasters, but remember that in addition to the radical terrorists, we also need to be on guard for homegrown nut jobs and others who see themselves as put upon and aggrieved by society. I do not know about you, but I have been through the necessary training program for an active shooter situation. Having worked in Newark, NJ, let me assure you that I have been threatened and shot at on more than one occasion. To be blunt, it ain’t fun.
You must prepare, that is not optional. And let me also suggest that you pray, that is your call. Those are two things which each of us can do to help us play our role in the American fire service. Let us hope that our prayers stand between us and ever having to personally handle a terrorism-related tragedy.
