NBC Terrorism:
The New Public Safety Response

From COUNTER TERRORISM and SECURITY REPORTS, DJ has the privilege of re-producing this fine article on nuclear, biological and chemical threats

After the terrorist attack with Sarin nerve gas in Tokyo, American public safety officials realized that the ‘genie was out of the bottle’ and it was only a matter of time before a similar attack occurred in the US. They also realized that they were not prepared to handle the response to such an attack.

In Washington, D.C., an organization known as the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG), which is made up of the various jurisdictions which surround Washington, voiced concerns about a similar attack in the nation’s capital. Fortunately, under COG, a group made up of the Police Chiefs and Fire Chiefs meets routinely to talk about terrorism issues as well as other concerns of mutual interest.

Last winter local Police Chiefs and Fire Chiefs met to discuss the Tokyo attack and put together a pilot group to develop a strategic partnership. This was a critical point in that this was the first time police and fire officials realized they really needed to work together. Shortly after their meeting, the Chiefs wrote to President Clinton asking for federal assistance to obtain equipment and training. The President responded and tasked the US Public Health Service to oversee the federal response efforts. Police and Fire personnel from the COG operations, planning, and training subcommittees worked with the US Public Health Service to develop a strike team which would respond to an NBC incident. The team would be known as the Metro Medical Strike Team (MMST). Other cities in the US also developed response teams and they received funding from Congress as well.

The team follows the concept of the Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) teams currently in use by FEMA. The main difference is that the team would be made up of local responders and they would operate within their region as opposed to responding around the US.

The Arlington County, Virginia Fire Department under the command of Chief Edward Plaugher has been designated as the first Executive Agent for the MMST and is responsible for the administration of the team and response of the team equipment.

The MMST coordinates with and supports local response. It does not self deploy and responds at the request of a local Incident Commander. When it does, it reports to that Incident Commander for its assignments. It has a medical focus and can provide mass medical intervention as well as mass casualty decon capability. It also provides hospital and medical facility coordination.

Its philosophy and mission is as follows: It is the mission of the MMST to respond to, provide support for, and assist local and regional jurisdictions to effectively address responder safety issues, incident management and the public health consequences of nuclear, biological or chemical (NBC) incidents which result from accidental or deliberate acts. This support and assistance includes providing planning and training to response personnel prior to an NBC incident, identification of the offending substance via available technology, off-site management consultation service and where needed, response to the scene or secondary site to assist with incident management and medical care during an NBC incident. These activities will be conducted in collaboration with and supported with federal, state, and local authorities.

The MMST is a 129 person team consisting of three 43 person task forces, designed to support and assist an on-site Incident Commander in NBC events. The team is comprised of several physicians, nurses and other medical professionals, paramedics, EMT/B’s, hazardous materials technicians and law enforcement personnel. A key element of the team’s decon procedures is a decon trailer capable of decontaminating approximately 500 victims per hour. It has the capability to decon ambulatory and non-ambulatory victims and fatalities.

Each task force is broken down as follows: Using an Incident Command System (ICS) structure, the Task Force Leader is first advised by a Medical Operations Physician and is supported by an Assistant Task Force Leader, A Safety Officer, A Communications Team (2) and an Administrative Officer (1). There are next five (5) sectors each controlled by a Sector Leader. The first sector is a Medical Info-Research unit of three (3) personnel responsible for toxicology information, public health issues, education and training and the technical information repository. The next sector which is made up of 24 personnel is the Field Medical Operations Sector. It is broken down into two teams; Emergency Medical Service (EMS) Operations of 13 people and Hazardous Materials Operations of 10 personnel. The next sector is the Hospital Operations Sector composed of 2 people, who are responsible for hospital/field coordination, medical information sharing, patient disposition and tracking and coordination of hospital cache coordination. The next sector is that of law enforcement which is made up of 5 personnel.

They are responsible for intelligence, team security, scene security, and evidence control. The last sector is the Logistics sector of 2 personnel who are responsible for team logistics, equipment and cache supply and medical resupply and pharmaceuticals.

When the team is activated, the communication centre of the jurisdiction requesting the team will contact the communication centre of the Arlington County Fire Dept. When the call is verified as authentic, the Arlington County Fire Dept. dispatcher pages the on-duty Task Force Leader who then deploys the MMST to a specific staging area as determined by the Incident Commander or Team leader. The response time for the MMST is approximately 90 minutes. While the individual members are responding to the staging areas, other personnel are responding with the team equipment to include the decon trailer and equipment van.

The personnel who make up the team are all volunteers from public safety agencies in the DC metro area. They each have a ‘GO’ kit with their individual response gear. They agree to a three-year commitment to the MMST after their respective Chief’s agree to it. Many of the members were involved in the initial development of the team and stayed with it. The teams have trained together in a variety of subjects in dealing with NBC agents. They try to conduct exercises as often as possible. When the team is activated, they become a federal asset under US Public Health which covers all costs.

While the team has yet to be deployed in a real scenario (we hope it will never have to), we feel totally prepared to mitigate a situation and minimize the casualties.