I knew when the massive explosions began that this was going to be the largest call of my career. I asked for the Raleigh hazmat chief to be dispatched, but he was out of town; I was not going to be relieved as the hazmat manager and I would be in this role for a long time.

It was around 11 p.m. on a normal Tuesday at the Raleigh (N.C.) Fire Department. I was finishing some paperwork and last minute activities before settling in for the night when my division chief called and asked me to step downstairs. He told me that there was a chemical leak in the neighboring community of Apex and there was good chance that our hazmat team would be dispatched. I went back upstairs and told my crew to get the hazmat gear loaded onto the engine.

A few minutes passed before the mutual aid call came in. All Wake County fire departments have a mutual aid agreement for hazmat response with the city of Raleigh, which has five hazmat companies. While en route, a firefighter contacted a member of the Apex Fire Department and was told that there was a huge vapor cloud covering more than a city block. Typically Raleigh sends three units to respond to any county hazmat call, but I contacted my division chief and asked for the full response.

I met with the Apex Chief Mark Haraway on arrival. He told me that on his team's arrival, firefighters found a vapor cloud so thick that the street lights were not visible. Apex fire and police had started an evacuation in the immediate area. This initial evacuation eventually led 17,000 people out of the area that night. Haraway also told me that the facility was a holding warehouse where hazardous materials are stored before being sent on to be destroyed. The chief advised me that there almost anything could be on site.

I assumed the role of hazmat branch manager and advised all hazmat units to proceed to the command area. I then developed a plan of entry to find out what had leaked; I figured a cylinder had leaked and responders would identify what leaked and be done. By that time the vapor cloud had dissipated and I thought we would be home in a few hours. I couldn't have been more wrong.

Roughly five minutes after I arrived, command gave notice of a small fire. Initially I figured it was something that could be handled easily. Five minutes later command announced that the fire had grown. There was a heavy column of smoke rising from the area of the building in question. At this time hazmat teams were positioned three to four city blocks away, but I advised Haraway that crews must move farther back. By the time responders moved back to eight to 10 blocks away, the fire grew more intense.

My battalion chief and I determined that the plume was moving in our direction so crews needed to move much farther away. I wanted to be approximately a mile away on the windward side. Then the first explosion came. The responders loaded up and quickly moved to a secure location.

More explosions occurred in the meantime. I was thankful that the fire department practiced good risk-management and did not rush into the scene. We've all been around one type of explosion or another, but I had never seen or heard anything like these massive explosions that lit up the entire sky. I have no idea how many explosions there were, but they continued for a few hours.

By the time responders arrived at the new location, Raleigh's command unit arrived. Firefighters still were training on the unit and it had not been officially placed in service. Still the command unit made a huge difference in the outcome of the incident. It gave the command staff a proper place to work. Staff established unified command and it worked perfectly.

Around 3 a.m. commanders asked the state to deploy Regional Response Team 3 out of Fayetteville. There are seven regional response teams throughout the state. There are also several cities with a team, including Raleigh. I knew that responders had a long day ahead of them and no idea of what crews would find, so I wanted to have as many technicians of several speciality levels on site as possible. I also asked for RRT 4, which is one of Raleigh's team, to be deployed. By having two regional teams, Raleigh is able to backfill its stations.

From then, the incident proceeded well, was mitigated safely and efficiently, and created a number of major lessons learned.

The first lesson is that establishing unified command is the only way to succeed on a large-scale incident. Emergency service has no place for egos. It does not matter who the incident commander is; the job must get done. The fire service is here to help the community and to keep our personnel safe. The fire department does not belong to us; it belongs to the people. Unified command worked at this incident because police officers, firefighters and EMS personnel checked their egos at the door and worked to accomplish a common goal — to mitigate this incident safely and efficiently.

It's all but impossible for every department to have all the resources it needs. It is much easier to let different departments specialize in different areas. If fire departments sign mutual aid agreements, all one would have to do is just call for the resources needed for any particular type of incident. Fire departments must put territory issues aside. If another department can help, it is your duty to call them.

Incident commanders made sure only necessary staff was allowed inside the command unit. This might have hurt some feelings, but you can't have a command unit full of people and still get the job done. The command staff also was kept to essential needs. Although there were many fire and police agencies on scene, there only were two fire chiefs, including Haraway, and one police chief in the unit. All other top-ranking officers took their assignments and moved along. No one was standing around and brooding because they weren't assigned branch manger for their area. And anything I needed while working in the command unit just came to me.

The second lesson is that an information technology specialist should be present in the command unit. With the various types of technology used at an incident, it is important that compatibility is established and that the inevitable glitches get resolved as soon as possible. This incident so convinced me of this that I would like to see the National Incident Management System create a new slot in its protocols for an IT person. This position is important now and will continue to be in the future as the use of technology grows.

The third lesson is that being prepared before an incident occurs is essential. The key here is long-range planning, which was emphasized in response to hurricanes over the years. In Wake County, schools are turned into shelters and buses are available 24 hours a day. All the paperwork is done, so all it takes is a phone call. Wake County Emergency Management handles this for all fire departments. A fire department calls for emergency management, which then comes to the scene and helps the department with what ever it needs. As a rule, the emergency management representative becomes the incident logistics officer.

Responders had to evacuate thousands of people that night and were able to do so smoothly because of advanced planning. It is important that departments include all the leaders of their city, town or county to map out a plan. If no one else will take the first step then you do it. You can't stand around and wait for the emergency to happen. You don't want to be standing in the street at midnight and not have a plan. The incident won't wait for you to get things in place.

I don't want to give the impression that the incident was easy. I was mentally taxed the entire 18 hours that I was in the command unit. There was so much going on the entire time that I can't remember having even a minute to relax. Yet when I needed to make a decision, my answer just came to me. I can only attribute that to all the training sessions I have attended throughout my 18 years with the department. I was thankful that night for every training session I had ever attended.

Another lesson was the importance of communication. Advanced planning with the county's communications system paid off. All county departments work on the same 800-number system. This makes it easy to cross jurisdictional boundaries. Without proper communication, failure is imminent. Work with neighboring departments ahead of time to make sure communications won't be the downfall of an incident.

Responders also followed NIMS procedures very closely that night. Command had briefings every hour and created incident action plans for each work period. This also made a difference in the outcome. By having briefings ever hour, all branches stayed informed of what was going on. Briefings make people look at their part of the plan and make sure they are making progress. It also keeps the command staff together and aware of the each other's concerns. Briefings only can make an incident better. There is no reason to conceal information. The more departments share information on a scene, the more proficient responders will be.

When dealing with a large-scale incident, officers must develop a plan of attack. My plan was to conduct Level-A recon at daybreak using several air monitors. However, make a plan that is flexible. Don't get married to the plan on a large hazmat call. Count on running across something that will change the course. Listen to what the field teams are saying. If something doesn't feel right, pull back and re-group. You can layout the best plan in the world but you must be willing to change when needed.

As a result of this incident I again realized the benefits and significance of debriefing to discover what went well and what needs to be improved. An officer should encourage everyone who was on the call to get involved in the debriefing. There are always areas to improve. Write down those areas and develop training programs so a stronger team can develop. But also make sure to talk about what went well. If the only thing discussed is what went wrong, it will destroy the confidence of team members. It will also deter many from giving honest input.

So what started out to be a routine night turned out to be a real-life lesson for me and everyone else involved. I learned the importance of using a well-organized unified command system, having an IT person as an intricate part of the incident management system, having a long-term plan, using effective communications, having prepared through training and training again, using NIMS, and most of all staying flexible.

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Capt. Gregory R Bridges has served the Raleigh (N.C.) Fire Department for 18 years. He is a state hazmat technician, state-certified Firefighter II and Fire Service Instructor, and a graduate of the National Fire Academy.

Mike Chiaramonte assisted with this article.