|
Roles and responsibilities of fire departments continue to expand with no sign of stopping. From wildland urban interface (WUI) fires and active shooter incidents to hazardous materials response and traffic control duties, fire departments are being asked to do more and more, but in many cases, without the resources to support their needs.
On Dec. 14, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) released its Fifth U.S. Needs Assessment of the U.S. Fire Service. This report is published every five years and reflects the results of a survey sent to most U.S. fire departments. A total of 2,969 fire departments responded to the survey, beginning in 2020 and concluding in 2021, with approximately 75% responding online and 25% filling out the paper version. Overall, the response rate was 11%.
The survey includes a broad range of questions that work to identify where U.S. fire departments are experiencing gaps in equipment, staffing, and training, among other needs and resources.
Findings from this year’s report show both progress and continued gaps in U.S. fire departments’ needs and resources. Fire service needs are extensive across the board, and in nearly every area of need, the smaller the community protected, the greater the need. While some needs have been met in the years between the previous survey and this survey, many have been constant or have increased. Today, many fire departments are unable to fully staff engines, fully train their members for structural and wildland firefighting, or provide all their firefighters with personal protective clothing and updated self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA).
The following are highlighted findings from the NFPA’s fifth fire service needs assessment:
- Across every response type covered in the survey, from structural firefighting to active shooter situations, there are fire department personnel responsible for responding to incidents for which they have not been formally trained or certified.
- Behavioral health programs are a critical area of unmet need.
- Positive trends in the availability and use of personal protective clothing and equipment have been tempered by ongoing challenges with older equipment, other unmet needs, and maintenance challenges.
- Community risk reduction remains a challenge.
The NFPA will be working on additional state-level reporting in the coming months to produce these types of reports for selected states, as has been done for Needs Assessment reports in previous years.
The NFPA’s Fifth U.S. Needs Assessment Report is free and available to download from the NFPA’s website. An interactive viewer of all survey data from this fifth Needs Assessment can be found here: www.nfpa.org/5thneedsresults.
(Source: NFPA)
For public safety agencies, having an effective program for public alerts, warnings and notifications is a cornerstone of good emergency and disaster response.
Last month, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science & Technology Directorate (S&T) released an interactive, web-based version of the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) Program Planning Toolkit which builds on the document-based version of the toolkit released in September 2020.
Today, more than 1,500 federal, state, local, tribal and territorial alerting authorities use IPAWS to send critical emergency updates in their jurisdictions. IPAWS can be used to send multiple types of emergency alerts—from Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) on mobile devices and digital highway signs to the Emergency Alert System, which delivers alerts over the radio and television—all geotargeted with critical news based on a person’s geographic location.
The new toolkit is designed to aid alerting authorities and alert originators at federal and state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) levels in developing an Alerting Program Plan using best practices.
The interactive toolkit walks the user through an alerting plan template in five steps. At each step, users are prompted to gather and enter information about their agency’s current plans and capabilities. Each prompt is accompanied by guidance, instructions, and sample response text to model what the user might enter for their own agency. The final result is a downloadable, formatted draft of a comprehensive alerting plan tailored to their agency’s operational capabilities.
Before an emergency occurs, it is critical that alerting authorities and alert originators have messaging templates saved for various scenarios, to save time during a disaster or emergency. To address this, the toolkit includes a message template creator that walks a user through the research-based recommended format for critical alert messaging. The toolkit is also supported by a set of sample templates for alert messages for a variety of scenarios, in Spanish and English language translations.
FEMA estimates it will take approximately two hours to complete all five steps in the interactive toolkit; however, the exact timeframe is dependent on the user's familiarity with their agency's alerts, warnings, and notifications program. Once started, the user's responses to the steps are stored in their browser for 14 days. This allows them to stop and return to completing the plan using the same browser on the same computer. Clearing the browser’s cache will remove the user’s entries.
The new toolkit also includes an updated list of Frequently Asked Questions about IPAWS.
To learn more about the new toolkit and to try the new web-based forms to draft your agency’s Alerting Program Plan, visit FEMA’s IPAWS Program Planning Toolkit page.
(Source: FEMA)
The National 911 Program will hold a webinar in its State of 911 series on Tues., January 11, at 12:00 p.m. EST. The webinar will discuss the impacts of incident-related imagery in emergency communications centers (ECCs) and participants will learn about the latest chapter of the Next Generation 911 (NG911) Interstate Playbook, which addresses the state of Washington’s successful interconnection of civilian and military Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs).
New technologies in ECCs are enabling the public to exchange multimedia such as photos, videos and text messages with 911 call takers. This information can improve situational awareness and inform emergency response efforts; however, the data may also impact operations, resources, and personnel when telecommunicators must analyze multimedia during voice calls, communicate through text messages and/or conduct video calls with the public.
This session will discuss emerging technologies in ECCs and considerations for addressing incident-related imagery, such as establishing data management policies and procedures, assessing training and educational requirements, supporting staff wellness and evaluating recruitment and retention guidelines. Participants will also learn about resources to help plan for receiving multimedia in their center, such as the SAFECOM and National Council of Statewide Interoperability Coordinators (NCSWIC) Incident-Related Imagery Impacts 101 document.
The second session of the webinar will discuss Chapter 5 of the NG911 Interstate Playbook. This chapter highlights the collaboration in Washington State between local, military, and state agencies to successfully interconnect civilian and military PSAPs. Presenters from the state, Pierce County, and Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) will explain their collaborative efforts to plan and integrate JBLM 911 communications with the county 911 system to create an interoperable regional solution for NG911 core services and an ESInet. Join this session to learn more about the lessons they learned and the advice they can offer.
The webinar is free and open to all interested, but registration is required. A recording and slide deck will be made available soon after the webinar.
The recordings and slide decks from all previous webinars in the National 911 Program’s State of 911 series are available online. For information about future webinars, you can sign up for email alerts.
(Source: National 911 Program)
|
