An emergency response begins on the local level, and a large incident is no exception. Hurricanes, floods and earthquakes are rescuer-intensive, and local resources need to work together for a successful outcome. If disaster strikes, is your jurisdiction ready? If not, forming strategic partnerships may be the key.

The next time you need additional rescuers at the scene of a disaster, don't just think of mutual aid fire departments, think public works. The members of your local public works department have experience and expertise in specialized equipment, and they work well together as a team. They also have structural engineers who are badly needed in an earthquake or structural collapse.

Public works skills may prove invaluable at a rescue scene, as those crews use heavy equipment and tools every day — not just on drill day. Such a partnership can create a win-win environment for any jurisdiction that further expands the abilities of current rescue-capable resources. For example, because most public works departments respond to major incidents, training their employees in technical rescue can create an ideal working relationship.

Fill a need

California's Marin County sits on the north side of the San Francisco Bay and has been the victim of serious flooding and wildland interface fires in the past. Earthquakes are a problem, too. The San Andreas Fault, the epicenter of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, lies beneath the county, and the Hayward Fault is not far away to the east.

Because California has had more than its fair share of disasters, having several urban search-and-rescue teams seems practical in the densely populated San Francisco Bay Area. Marin County is fortunate to have three FEMA Task Forces (Oakland CA-TF4, Menlo Park CA-TF3 and Sacramento CA-TF7) within driving distance and available through mutual aid.

Of course, those teams have national responsibilities and won't always be available. That problem can be amplified in other parts of the country, as there are only 28 FEMA US&R Task Forces. Their assistance can take time to arrive after a disaster.

In 1995 the Marin County Urban Search and Rescue Team, known as MC-US&R, was created so that a team trained in heavy rescue would always be ready. Maximizing the team's effectiveness meant forming an unusual alliance between the Marin County public works and fire departments to share their skills and train together.

The basic concept of MC-US&R is to lay the groundwork for mutual aid and task force assistance by building an immediate foundation in which to work. First responders can often set the momentum and structure of an incident; they may make or break it. If the incident falters in the initial stages, recovery from those failures can sometimes be impossible and put everyone behind the eight ball. The initial stages of any incident are critical, and strong partnerships with key players will help lessen the chances of failure.

Unlike FEMA teams, MC-US&R is not a task force. At about one-third of a task force's size, the team is a highly mobile and effective force for initial response. This partnership has since grown from two initial departments to one of multiple public agencies, private contractors and 65 members. In the event of a county disaster, MC-US&R works as a bridge between local first responders and mutual aid resources or FEMA task forces.

Marin County US&R capabilities

Activation circumstances:	Functions performed:	Team makeup:
Search and rescue	Command	Command and operations, 5
Disasters, natural or terrorism	Operations	Structural engineers, 4
Structural collapse	Logistics	Swiftwater rescue technicians, 12
Multi-casualty incident	Safety	MICNs, 3
Flood evacuation	Communications	Paramedics, 10
Swiftwater rescue	Public information	EMTs, 22
Collapsed trench	Planning	Hazmat specialists, 5
Dam failure	Technical rescue	Heavy equipment operators, 3
Mud slide	Medical care	Logistics specialists, 3
	K-9 Search	Communications specialists, 2
		Recon and rescue, 28
		K-9 search teams, 2

Create partnerships

MC-US&R is a heavy-rescue team certified by California Office of Emergency Services and available for assignment throughout the California mutual aid system. However, its primary mission is to protect the citizens and communities of Marin County through the development of this all-risk asset.

“One of the original intentions of the team was to keep the freeways and access roads to the hospitals open,” says Capt. Ed Mestre, one of the team's operations chiefs, “and we expanded from there.” Knowing your communities' exposure to risk is important to the development of any rescue team, and some questions need answering before developing a program. For example:

• What could you face as a disaster, and what are your current options?
• What are your first responders' capabilities?
• How effective is your mutual aid system? Do you even have one?
• Do you have a public works department? How effective is it?
• Are you willing to form a partnership with another agency for the greater good of the community, or are your agencies estranged?

The answers to these questions will require some honest thought and soul-searching, as the creation of a rescue team takes time, money and a commitment to training.

One of the benchmarks of success in a team such as this is a positive working relationship of all agencies involved. Currently, MC-US&R has 12 different agencies, both public and private (see sidebar on page 66), under its umbrella. Although the Marin County Fire Department and the Marin County Public Works Department are the lead agencies, all contributing departments carry an equal voice.

Partnership benefits

Fire departments have traditionally filled the role of rescuer in most jurisdictions, but the commitment to a full-time team in any one area can be logistically and financially daunting. Budgets are often tight, and top administrators may not see the cost-benefit balance when it comes to maintaining seldom-used skills and equipment. Call volumes also have increased tremendously over the years, forcing rescue training to take a back seat.

This was the case in Marin County when an earthquake drill identified the importance of a US&R team but no one agency was able to absorb a team's size and cost requirements. After the fire and public works departments trained together a few times, however, they began to see each other's abilities and strengths.

For example, the firefighters would typically be good with ropes and technical rescue, while public works would be very familiar with heavy breaching and power tools. Over the years the team's ability to play to those strengths has proved very valuable both in training and on deployments.

One area that binds the team's effectiveness is the common language of the incident command system. While all firefighters assigned to the team were familiar at some level with ICS, most public works employees were not. Over time this gap has been corrected so that all team members work under the ICS system appropriately and automatically.

In fact, the public works department now often assists the Marin County Fire Department on its major incidents, plugging into the organizational chart where needed. The fire department plays the reverse role, assisting DPW during floods, high winds and storm emergencies when needed.

With its comprehension of ICS, the public works department has had a supporting role in chaotic environments with remarkable success and little guidance. For example, on the afternoon of Oct. 3, 1995, the remains of an illegal campfire exploded the Mt. Vision hillside into a firestorm lasting almost a week. Dry chaparral and 45mph winds fueled this fire that engulfed some 12,354 acres and destroyed 45 homes in nearby Inverness Park. Even before DPW was dispatched, it had set up a staging area and roadblocks to free up law enforcement and firefighters for evacuations.

Due to the partnership in place through US&R training, these types of actions are commonplace. According to Mestre, “The strength of the team lies with the partnerships and the bonds formed between agencies. We all work well together; it does not need to be a disaster.”

Stay on top

For any technical-rescue team, training is paramount to effectiveness. You can have all the tools in the toolbox you want, but if no one knows how to use them your effectiveness will suffer.

In Marin County, team leaders and managers have equal responsibility for training their respective groups or the team as a whole. All team members are expected to train at least once a month, and specialty teams in swiftwater, confined space and other areas train every quarter to ensure operational strength. Whether they're from public works or fire departments, all MC-US&R team members have the same level of rescue training to ensure team continuity.

During training, the public works department has proved to be very valuable preparing drill sites by using props and equipment typically found at corporation yards nationwide. From backhoes to dump trucks, a typical public works department can be extremely creative in drill design. Marin County drills have included a school bus in a ravine, concrete breaching at an old retail building, and shoring and rescue of victims in a collapsed hospital slated for demolition. Large technical drills have kept motivation high and skills current among team members.

As the team expands in size, so do its capabilities. For example, two rescue dogs recently came to the team from the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation in Ojai, Calif. The dogs and their firefighter handlers play an integral role on the US&R team. The commitment to this program allows for the greatest flexibility in victim search in a collapsed building.

Training is intense. Two levels of FEMA certification exist for search-and-rescue dogs, basic and advanced, and this same training is required of all rescue dog teams. Certification includes proper command and control, agility skills and barking alert skills to notify rescuers of a find. Advanced FEMA certification may take up to two years to complete training, which takes place several times a week.

Keep an open mind

Teaming up with public works department personnel for rescue may be an unusual concept for some; however, in the scheme of things such a partnership makes sense.

As times change, so do our skill levels and expectations — the public demands it from us. For example, in the 1970s EMS came on strong in the fire service; in the 1980s it was hazardous materials; and in the 1990s technical rescue was all the rage. In the dawn of this new millennium, terrorism has made a large impact and its effects will not be known for some time. As a result, strategic partnerships will be formed on an almost daily basis. Breaking down perceived barriers will allow policy-makers a freer hand at program development.

The caveat to this type of alliance is that the only way it works is for leadership to check their egos at the door. Big personalities create big problems, which is one reason why partnerships fail. The key is to focus on the mission at hand and not on what may be best for only one person or organization.

“The strong relationships with the department heads help steer the team,” says Chief Ken Massucco, Marin County Fire Department. “The fire chiefs and public works directors all share the same vision and goals — their constituents.”

In fact, MC-US&R has formed partnerships with private members as well. According to Mike Sadjadi, the county's public works director, “The team uses some private structural engineers, in addition to the ones from DPW, who train on a regular basis, and the team's heavy rigging manager is a private crane company owner.”

In this post-Sept. 11 world we now have more to fear than natural disasters, and we all must be prepared. While we used to wonder how much of a difference local government could make in the event of a disaster, we now know the answer: Maximum use of available resources through the formation of strategic partnerships can help, especially with your public works department.

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Capt. Doug McDonald has worked for the Novato (Calif.) Fire District for 16 years, and is assigned to Truck 1. He also serves as operations deputy chief for the Marin County Urban Search and Rescue Team. He has a bachelor's degree in business management from the University of Phoenix and is pursuing a master's degree in public administration/public policy from the University of Colorado-Denver.

Participating agencies

Marin County Fire Department
Marin County Department of Public Works
Novato Fire District
National Park Service
Kentfield Fire District
Southern Marin Fire District
Marin General Hospital
Cooper Crane Inc.
Larkspur Fire Department
Marin County Radio
Sausalito Fire Department
Republic Electric Inc.

For more information

Marin County Fire Department
US&R Commander Jim Selfridge
www.co.marin.ca.us/fire/firedept/
415-499-6717

Marin County Department of Public Works
US&R Commander Farhad Mansourian
www.co.marin.ca.us/depts/PW/main/index.cfm
415-499-6528

Novato Fire District
Deputy Chief Dan Northern
www.novatofire.org
415-892-1513

National Disaster Search Dog Foundation
www.ndsdf.org
888-646-1242