It once was declared that all the king's men couldn't put Humpty Dumpty back together again. We in the fire and emergency services must increase our understanding of how things have fallen apart if we're to have any chance of effectively using our resources to save victims of structural collapse.

There's no doubt that structural collapse is a killer. There could be one in your future that takes the lives of you or your personnel. It's in the best interest of every fire chief to have developed a method of coping with the potential of structural collapse, but terrorism makes this even more difficult. The use of explosives and other means of destroying a building's integrity makes the decision-making process of recognizing structural collapse an urgent priority.

America's first experience with terrorism and structural collapse was the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. When search and rescue personnel were confronted with the task of searching for victims and potential survivors, they had very little information as to where to look. A research and recovery effort is particularly dangerous in a rubble pile of structural columns, beams, mechanical equipment and floor slabs, all composed of steel, concrete, copper and glass. Intermingled with these structural components is the building live load that consists of office furniture, equipment, supplies and other materials. Contained within voids are potential survivors.

The problem for the fire service is that buildings which collapse from trauma other than fire create a totally different environment for search and rescue. For example, the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building wasn't blown up by a truck bomb; it was pulled down by the explosion, eliminating key structural components of the building. Typically, the live load will be sandwiched between floor slabs with the vertical spacing dependent on the effects of gravity. In the Oklahoma City bombing, the average distance between floors was only 12 — 18 inches.

Architect Jim Howard's office was only two blocks north of the site. The incident command planning staff approached him for help because he was experienced in using computer software to develop building schematics. Howard accepted that responsibility and assembled a team of his co-workers to map and model the building. As a result of his involvement, he began to develop programs for the fire service to use under similar circumstances. These computer applications are based on using geographic information systems at the incident level for preplanning as well as incident analysis.

During the World Trade Center response, Howard once again used these tools to evaluate the structural collapse and recreate the rubble pile. His work has evolved into several software applications that the fire service could benefit from when coping with these types of disasters. Available through DESC Inc., they are DIG, GUIDO and APRIL.

The Dynamic Intelligence Generator is an interface to AutoCAD that guides the user through traditional architectural drawings and building data to transform construction plans into responder-ready information. DIG, which creates floor plan maps and three-dimensional building models, can be used as a planning, response or after-action analysis tool. It also has the ability to place information in the model on occupant location.

GEO-Urban Infrastructure for Disaster Operations provides an interface to ARC View. GUIDO guides the user through integrating DIG data into a spatially enabled environment, linking buildings and floor plans to a jurisdiction's geographic infrastructure and producting 3-d topography. GUIDO is very useful at the incident command level, because it allows planning for heavy equipment deployment, perimeter control and resource allocation. GUIDO also includes necessary information on utilities.

Analysis Planning Response at the Incident Level contains decision trees to provide data-gathering and information-harvesting tools to the various disciplines involved in a disaster response. APRIL assists command-level personnel in search assessment, situational awareness and team tracking.

DESC is continuing to work on predictive analysis tools for use in structural collapse scenarios, developing information to help first responders better prepare for terrorist incidents and other catastrophies. More information can be obtained from DESC Inc., 17624 Durbin Park Road, Edmond, Okla. 73003; 405-330-9212, fax: 405-330-8926, <<a href="http://www.descinc.com" target="_blank">www.descinc.com>.

As the fire service tools up to meet increasing challenges, software applications of this nature may become as critical to the command post as ICS procedures. Those departments that are planning their reaction to widespread and catastrophic events would benefit knowing more about the methodology as it evolves.