FIRE ARCHIVES
Earthquakes & Pandemic – Keeping People Fed Amid Crises
Zsofia Pasztor and Szabolcs (Szabi) Pasztor
October 19, 2022
Even though food is necessary for survival, it is not common to see agricultural workers at a disaster training exercise. However, one organization demonstrates why training these volunteers with emergency preparedness and response skills is essential for future large-scale disasters.
Taking Flight – Creating a Robust Aviation Response, Part 2
James Origliosso and Sky Terry
October 12, 2022
Volunteer general aviation pilots have assisted their communities during emergencies and disasters for many years. This is the second of a two-part article on their disaster preparedness efforts in the Pacific Northwest. In this part, they participate in two separate yet coordinated functional earthquake and tsunami disaster exercises.
Chemical Sector Perspectives
Patrick Coyle
October 5, 2022
The Chemical Sector is one of 16 sectors identified as critical infrastructure under the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency. Domestic Preparedness invited one subject matter expert to answer important questions about this sector and how the sector and its interdependencies can affect any community.
Taking Flight – Creating a Robust Aviation Response, Part 1
James Origliosso and Sky Terry
September 28, 2022
General aviation pilots have been finding ways to assist their communities during emergencies and disasters for many years. However, over the past two years, significant advances in disaster preparedness have been made as emergency response plans were created and exercised to integrate volunteer aviation response into other community response efforts.
Uvalde Shooting – A Predictable Surprise
William H. Austin
September 14, 2022
When intentional acts of violence occur, people often wonder if the incident was preventable. For example, after a mass shooting killed 19 students and 2 teachers in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, 2022, many were questioning the predictability of the gunman’s actions and the decision-making process of the responders. This
Credentialing a Nation’s Volunteer Responder Network
Patty Ridings
September 7, 2022
Catastrophic earthquakes and a desire for residents to help their neighbors inspired the creation of Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT). Since its creation in 1986, CERT has become a nationwide program that continues to evolve. This article describes how a new digital solution is closing the credentialing gap between citizen
The Expanding Role of Tactical Medicine
Ian Pleet
August 10, 2022
Effective trainings are ones where the participants remember and later implement what they learned
into their daily operations. Not everyone knows how they would respond in a true emergency. However,
some trainings provide a more realistic glimpse into disaster scenarios than others. This first-hand
account describes what it was like for one participant
Wanted: Mental Health Support for Disaster Trauma
Mary McNaughton-Cassill, Mary Schoenfeldt and Ruth Baugher Palmer
August 3, 2022
Disaster response organizations have become increasingly adept at meeting the basic needs of survivors, including shelter, food, water, and medical treatment. However, traumatic disaster-related experiences – including threats to life, exposure to death and injury, and the destruction of homes and communities – also take a psychological toll on survivors. Common responses to
Responding Respectfully to People With Disabilities
James Martin
August 3, 2022
Police officers, firefighters, paramedics, emergency medical technicians, doctors, nurses, and others in emergency response roles are regularly tasked with responding to emergencies and disaster sites and communicating with various people who have been involved in or witnessed an incident. However, some research has shown that there is “a gap in first responders’
Creating a Common Operating Picture for Wildfire Season
Akshay Birla
July 27, 2022
Life is beginning to return to normal following the past two years of the pandemic, but the world is still as unpredictable as ever. When it seems as though one catastrophic situation is coming to an end, another tends to emerge as the newest public safety issue. One set of
Societal Violence & Its Impact on Critical Infrastructure
Nathan DiPillo and Tim Scarrott
July 27, 2022
The “new normal” following the COVID-19 outbreak is still evolving. Although some people have welcomed the relief from many years of commuting and focused on personal growth and time with family, others have become disenfranchised, isolated, depressed, or lack purpose and empathy. As the United States reels from the recent
Discovering Another New Normal
Catherine L. Feinman
July 27, 2022
Because of the interconnectedness of so many aspects of society, the authors in this July edition
of the Domestic Preparedness Journal help readers better understand what is needed in the new normal: a
common operating picture, predictable lifelines, new or repurposed technological tools, and more. The
new normal after COVID
