What's the difference between a disaster and a catastrophe? According to Chief Kelvin Cochran of the Shreveport (La.) Fire Department, "There is a distinct difference between disaster planning and catastrophe planning. Catastrophes know no boundaries, no budget and no extent to the rules that are part of a disaster. Katrina and Rita broke all the rules in disaster planning."

At Thursday's general session of the Chicago Fire Department's Life-Safety Conference on Large-Scale Incident Evacuation, Cochran previewed his presentation on the fire service's role in shelter management."Your vision of shelter management of evacuees is far below what will be needed," he said. The Shreveport Fire Department worked closely with the New Orleans Fire Department in the aftermath of Katrina.

"We realized that the lack of knowledge of the National Response Plan and the lack of knowledge of the NIMS in the state and local level contributed to where it should have been," Cochran said, with a strong sense of frustration.

"I believe we had plenty of time to be a little further ahead of the game to implement NIMS," Cochran added. "We have been dealing with communication [issues] since Oklahoma and the Murrah building." He said first responders saw it again on Sept. 11, 2001, as well as last year when Katrina hit. He encouraged awareness of three Cs — communication, coordination and cooperation — and encouraged attendees to conceptualize their city's planning.

In his welcome to attendees, Chicago Fire Commissioner Ray Orozco talked about a recent subway fire that required the evacuation of more than 1,000 people, with many being treated for smoke inhalation. He also said that a few weeks ago, when temperatures in Chicago reached 100°F, a power outage on the South Side resulted in the evacuation of 19 high-rise buildings and the relocation of more than 1,300 young and elderly residents.

"In the past few weeks the CFD has proven that extensive training pays off," Orozco said. "We must prepare Incident Action Plans. Our goal is to improve and advance our current life-safety procedures. Evolution and change is an ongoing process. We have invited you here so that we can learn from each other."

In one of the 40 breakout sessions, Illinois Mutual Aid Box Alarm System President Jay Reardon, chief of the Northbrook (Ill.) Fire Department, offered "41 Things to Do During a Mutual Aid Deployment." Based on the Illinois response to Louisiana's call for assistance following Katrina, MABAS mobilized and deployed 950 firefighters and 200 vehicles over a six-week period at a cost of $10 million dollars.

Among the 41 areas of the deployment process, Reardon offered lessons learned and emphasized the importance of including four mechanics and a fuel truck: "We would never have moved if we didn't have the mechanics." He also said to be careful when selecting personnel to be deployed because "there were people that should never have gone."

Although the most popular conference topic was high-rise tactics and strategy, a broad spectrum of large-scale incident aspects also was very well addressed.

Among the attendees were three officers from Arkansas. Their response area now has its first 10-story building, and they came to learn from the pros — and they did.

Janet Wilmoth, Editorial Director