Risk To First Responders Analysis

P1) Explain potential hazards and the harm that may arise from each in a health or social setting

1. Define and give examples of what terrorism is and the associated risks involved for emergency responders.

Responding to a threat is extremely important when dealing with any risk to our home. The response time and how it is acted upon can be much like a game of chess, although time is not always on our side. I trust that when a response team is educated they have guidance to act in the minute they have knowledge of a problem. Much like the group of nurses I have seen in the emergency room, people have the ability to act in a a hectic situation. When Homeland Security responds to a threat concerning America I do not doubt that they send the best to complete the task, I simply consider response to be a great area to be focused on so that any accidents are handled

There are several recognizable and common types of technological hazards that first responders have to respond to on a daily basis. They are structural fires, transportation accidents, infrastructure failures, dam failures, hazardous material incidents, and nuclear accidents [7]. Each of these follows the common theme of being a product of the environment that was created by man and considered accidents. Terrorism hazards are sometimes referred to as intentional hazards. They are planned and orchestrated to created destruction. As previously discussed CNRBE covers this area. Other more specific hazards in this category are conventional explosives and secondary devise and chemical agents. These have had the largest link to terrorism hazards so far. The difficulty on predicting what chemical agents will be used decreases the success of trained first responders because the number of potential combination of

During this time, it is sad that the Police Officers and First Responders have been under scrutiny from what some of a few police officers did who did not serve the community people in a proficient way. This has made me begin to reflect about how important our service officers are to our community. Unfortunately, since some of the police officers have done things to make some people uncomfortable, most of the other police officers will have to suffer from trust from the community. In my opinion, our brave Police Officers and First Responders in my community have proven that they can live up to its high standard name as public service officers by protecting the community, having community meetings and giving back to the community.

First Responders are faced with high levels of risk in all aspects of their daily duties and responsibilities. However, in today’s world first responders are faced with a constantly evolving threat, known as terrorism. Terrorist events have not only increased potential threats and outcomes for first responders; they have changed the way emergency responders respond to a suspected terrorist event. The greatest risk associated with a terrorist event that a first responder may be faced with is the implementation of a weapon of mass destruction (WMD). “Weapons of mass destruction are defined as any weapon that is designed or intended to cause death or serious bodily injury through the release, dissemination, or impact of toxic or poisonous chemicals;

First responder safety is imperative while working on the scene of a terrorist event. It is the responsibility of their employers to ensure that they have the protection and equipment needed to get them through their shifts safely. Some of this can be accomplished by being prepared for a terrorist attack to occur. Several ways to be prepared in advance are to have proper Personal Protective Equipment, any special equipment deemed necessary by the responders and the training on the equipment.

I agree when responding to a disaster heading towards any community the first responder are the first people on the ground to be activated. The quicker the response the less damage and lost of life can be minimized. As you stated it is important to activate assistance from the local level, state level and government level, which will ensure adequate resource are available to respond to any situation that may arise.

The National Response Framework is a guide designed to assist local, State, and Federal governments in developing functional capabilities and identifying resources based on hazard identification and risk assessment. It outlines the operating structure and identifies key roles and responsibilities. It established a framework to identify capabilities based on resources and the current situation no matter the size or scale. It integrates organizational structures and standardizes how the Nation at all levels plans to react to incidents. The suspected terrorist attack will have health, economic, social, environment and political long-term effects for my community. This is why it is essential that local government’s

A terrorist attack, cyber-attack, 6.8 earthquake, flooding, hazardous waste material, and a wildfire are identified by THIRA as the six plausible hazards and threat scenarios in the state of Colorado (Homeland Security Emergency Management, 2014, p.16). The goal of the THIRA process is to help communities identify possible hazards and prepare resources in case an unplanned risk presents itself (FEMA, 2013). Subsequently once I had finished reviewing the scenarios I came to believe that each six scenarios are both plausible and significant. Though terrorist attacks in Colorado are not common, they have happened in the last decade. The most recent act of terrorism against Colorado being the Aurora movie theater shooting. Though it have never

Terrorism has been growing in the recent years and first responders are trying to stay ahead of any potential attacks. However when we think of terrorism we often assume the only terrorist that exist are the ones that planned, coordinated, and carried out the 9/11 attacks. That is correct in a sense, but terrorism is vastly more complicated than just carrying out an attack on a location or people. Terrorism can easily be described as a criminal act but with a slightly different motive. There is also significant risk associated with terrorism. First responders should be aware of those risk as they could affect potential outcomes of an event.

The concern of a potential chemical attack on American soil has always been in the minds of our government and various first response agencies that would be charged to address the effects of such an attack. Republican congressman, Robert Pittenger, expressed this concern regarding the volatile situation in Syria and the dangers posed by that situation in regards to the proper accountability of Syrian chemical weapons (Ordonez, 2013). Congressman Pittenger’s fears came from the possibility of further instability in Syria that would prevent the Syrian government from maintaining positive control and accountability of its chemical weapons. If Bashar Assad were to lose control of his country, terrorist organizations could potentially use such situation as an opportunity to acquire chemical weapons and transport them to key locations in order to facilitate their use on American soil (Ordonez, 2013). In this situation there are two elements: terrorist acquiring chemical weapons and terrorists using chemical weapons on American soil. The first one is more likely to happen, while the second one would be far more difficult as the weapons must make it from Syria to the United States.

Before endeavoring to conduct a risk assessment for the Largo Fire Rescue response district, it was essential to ascertain what industry standards and best practices already existed. Risk assessments are carried out in virtually every industry and in almost every part of the world. The National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) Firewise Communities Program conducts them to analyze a community’s wildfire risk. Oil and gas companies perform risk assessments to guard against adverse environmental consequences when drilling or fracking. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has developed an Influenza Risk Assessment Tool (IRAT) to assess the potential pandemic risk posed by various influenza strains. Even

In the article “Know the Smells and Warning Bells of WMD”, the author, John Linstrom’s principal point is that the fire departments should better prepare to respond to incidents involving weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Historically, explosive or WMD incidents were handled by law enforcement, while fire assumed a support role, but with increased terroristic occurrences, firefighters have been finding themselves in situations where they have been first on scene. Mr. Linstrom stresses that firefighters need to be mindful of the threat of explosives and WMD’s when responding to incidents (Linstrom, 2004). Firefighters need to familiarize themselves with terrorist tactics and beware of potential high-risk

First off, it’s important to identify what a hazardous material is, and a hazardous material can be defined as, “a material with properties that make it dangerous or capable of having a harmful effect on human health or the environment (Staff E. P., US Environmental Protection Agency, 2016). Hazardous materials can be very complex, dangerous, and unstable. This becomes more of a challenge when you add the stresses of the environment, the impacts of an accident and the inevitable human factor. What is meant by “human factor” is that people are human and humans make mistakes. The human factor contributes directly to laziness, mistakes, and lack of proper judgment. Laziness, mistakes, and lack of proper judgement may not be the responders fault, it could just mean the first responder lacked the proper training necessary to respond properly and this does not matter whether their intentions were for good or not, and their good intentions could worsen the situation, which could lead to death and could spread the contamination. All of this is why proper training and knowledge is important in regards to hazardous material response.