The sixth anniversary of September 11, 2001, approaches. As a former New York City Firefighter and the Maricopa Fire Chief, I consider that event and what has transpired since that fateful day. I try to understand how such a thing could have happened, and I ask myself, “Could 9/11 been prevented?” and “Have those who govern us acted in the national interest in the intervening years.”
The answer is “It most certainly could have been prevented!” In my view over the last six years there really has been very little done by the federal government to prepare local agencies and governments to deal with cataclysmic events, the type of which could occur momentarily in these troubled times.
Nature abhors a vacuum. Our social order has become so moribund that it is now being threatened by an Eastern philosophy that fifty years ago would have been considered backward and regressive and certainly not one to be taken seriously. We have been engaged in a war of attrition with this enemy for the last forty years. We have sustained a devastating attack in one of our largest cities and continue to lose our young men and women in a war that seems interminable.
It is a certainty that we will be attacked at home again. In all likelihood the next attack, from “Al Quida” or another well-funded, quasi-governmental organization, when it occurs will be more devastating than 9/11. The simple truth is that as a nation we do not seem prepared to take the steps necessary to mobilize and defeat an enemy that intends to destroy our way of life. As first responders we wait for the next attack, on a national level, underfunded, badly organized and unprepared for that which is certainly coming.
In Maricopa we are taking what steps we can to prepare ourselves for emergencies of any kind, which can strike communities with very little notice. We are partnering with 17 valley fire departments in the Phoenix Computer Aided Dispatch System and automatic aid consortium. This will make us part of a system within which we will be able to share assets with some of our neighbors to the north.
Our community faces a challenge in that we are at risk for an incident that would require heavy rescue capability and hazardous materials expertise and equipment. Within three years, dependent on funding, we shall have Hazardous Materials and Heavy Rescue teams in place to better protect the citizens of the City of Maricopa.
The Maricopa Fire Department intends to standardize on an 800-megahertz communications network. This will become the standard system in the Phoenix area. It is also recommended as the communications system for emergency services by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Our stations are standardized for operational efficiency and are being constructed with local or national emergency operations in mind. Our newest facility located on Smith Enke and Porter is a four-bay station with an operational headquarters and emergency command center included in the design. We have come a long way in less than three years. Everything we do is with the safety and protection of the community in mind. We hope to share this vision with you all by completing the Fire Department’s Five Year Plan within the next two months.
Over the next several months we will be working with other city agencies to come up to speed within the framework of Pinal County’s Emergency Response and Recovery Plan. We are looking at interagency command vehicles to be used as mobile command centers. Time is of the essence with regards to all of these programs. Under normal circumstances a community has time to evolve emergency response organizations relative to population density and risk hazard analysis; in a time of war there is a greater urgency in these types of preparations. Unfortunately, in an undeclared war such as the one we find ourselves in, this urgency is not recognized by everyone in the government or the civilian sector.
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Photo by Joyce Hollis
