2016 Segment 2 - Safety of Emergency Responders

[Paul Terlemezian]

Outcome: Injury or death in response to an emergency by the responders will be eliminated.

Panelists:

• Ed Behan https://www.linkedin.com/in/ebehan
• Mark Covey https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-covey-a4519a2b
• Brian Dooling https://www.linkedin.com/in/dooling
• Randall Murphy https://www.linkedin.com/in/randall-l-murphy-33ba4a89
• Eric Ratinaud https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericratinaud
• Dan Valentine https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-valentine-3374291

"Remarkable" Speaker:   Walt Carter https://www.linkedin.com/in/waltergcarter

Moderator:  Marilyn Bloom https://www.linkedin.com/in/marilynbloom

How might we build a solution that results in the stated outcome?

Is the stated outcome desirable? Attainable?

How can you help us achieve it? Or - is there a better outcome that you can suggest?

[Dan Valentine]

There is an old saying – “A ship in the harbor is safe but that’s not what ships are for.”

By the very nature of what they do, emergency responders run toward risk. Their primary purpose is to either eliminate the danger or remove potential victims from it. This typically means exposing oneself to greater danger. Therefore, while the objective of completely eliminating the risk of death or injury to first responders is noble, getting the risk to zero is not going to happen. That said, there are things that can be done in two specific areas to reduce risk:

Technology - some examples include:

a)      Help locate living persons faster,

b)      “See” in zero visibility environments,

c)       Sensors on your clothing that let you know instantaneously when you enter a toxic or radiological environment,

d)      3D renderings of the building you are going into

e)       An instantaneous assessment of the structural integrity of the building you are going into along with predictive modeling of likelihood and time of collapse. 

Training 

a)      Place you in a realistic, 3D, multi-event, unpredictable scenarios

b)      Practice with the equipment/technology you have

c)      Challenge team dynamics, communications, logistics and leadership

All of the above can happen but there is one eternal short-coming to making it happen – money! These are government agencies subject to the whims of the political and budgeting priorities of elected officials. How can we get corporate money to support this effort?