Homeland Security

I am Chief Michael Maglione of the Bridgeport, Connecticut, Fire Department. I also speak today on behalf of the International Association of Fire Chiefs.

There are over 30,000 fire departments in the United States. We are responsible for mitigating public emergencies of all kinds in communities across America. In addition to our traditional mission of fire prevention and suppression, we deliver most of the emergency medical services and nearly all of the hazardous materials response services in this country. We also provide urban search and rescue services in the event of structural collapse. Citizens look to us for help when any situation escalates beyond their ability to cope. In short, local fire departments are the first line of defense against nearly all risks.

The effects of a terrorist incident will be felt locally. This has been cruelly demonstrated, most infamously at the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995 and at New York City's World Trade Center in 1993. Any terrorist incident involving chemical, biological, radiological or conventional explosives will by design seek to injure or kill. Immediate and decisive action must be taken by authorities to mitigate injury and prevent death.

Fire departments will respond to a terrorist incident immediately, usually in less than five minutes. How well we are prepared will correlate with the degree to which we can protect life, property and the environment. A national preparedness strategy for incidents of terrorism that may occur within our borders must necessarily focus on local public safety agencies.

There are two areas of a successful preparedness effort that I would like to address. First is the support effort that involves training and equipping fire fighters to identify and mitigate a terrorist incident. Second is the operational role of the three levels of government that will be involved in responding to a large incident - local, state and federal.

It is also important to remember that in the majority of conventional bombing attacks, the most common form of terrorist violence throughout the world, secondary explosive devices are employed for the very purpose of injuring or killing response personnel who arrive to render aid in the aftermath of the primary explosion. This technique was employed in an attack on a family planning clinic in Georgia three years ago.

Pursuant to the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, the Department of Justice launched several programs that were designed to supplement the training of 120 cities that was underway at the Department of Defense under the auspices of the so-called Nunn/Lugar/Domenici Amendment to the 1997 Defense Authorization Act. The Justice Department took the critical first step of developing, in concert with the U.S. National Fire Academy, an awareness-level curriculum that is still in use. This course is delivered through a train-the-trainer method that allows fire fighters access to training regardless of the size or location of their jurisdiction. It is vitally important that this training regimen be available to as many fire department personnel as possible. Awareness and the ability to identify an incident are again, paramount.

With respect to secondary explosive devices, the Justice Department also developed a training video that is useful. We eagerly await DOJ's release of a training video that will focus on broader "WMD" incident awareness and recognition.

The Department of Justice has also created a National Domestic Preparedness Consortium that provides training at different sites throughout the country for fire fighters at federal expense. I urge the Congress to continue to make these opportunities available to as many local response personnel as possible.

In addition to awareness and identification training, there are equipment needs that Congress has begun to address. Funding has been provided for both training equipment through DOD's Nunn/Lugar program and operational equipment through the Department of Justice. The ability to properly detect and identify chemical and biological agents is vital. Additionally, the ability to effectively decontaminate exposed individuals is necessary.

Congress has chosen to focus the equipment issue on each of the 50 states. In doing so, it is important that we not forget the primary role of local first responders. In our region of Connecticut, we employ a regional response team that is called upon to deal with hazardous materials releases whether they be accidental or intentional. This type of team and individual fire department teams must be properly equipped to perform the tasks I have outlined.

Reliance on federal assets that cannot respond quickly is not good enough. This is not an indictment of federal capabilities. It is simply a consequence of distance.

There are two final operational issues that should be addressed. Command and control, and communications have emerged as among the most important aspects of a response to a large public emergency and are perhaps the areas in which we as a country are most seriously deficient. When a large incident occurs, whether it is a bombing attack, a school shooting or a hurricane, agencies from different local, state and federal agencies will respond.

The two critical issues that we face in this circumstance are 1) how to facilitate effective communications between and among responding agencies, and 2) how to manage the various agencies and their personnel and assets that come to the scene of an incident.

The lack of interoperable radio communications among and between responding agencies is a serious problem in almost all jurisdictions, Bridgeport included. Congress can and should address this issue through the provision of additional radio spectrum to public safety agencies. It is frankly appalling that at this juncture in America's technological revolution, fire fighters, police officers and EMS personnel are unable to communicate without establishing the same system of runners General Washington employed during the American Revolution to allow communication between military units.

The command and control issue is vitally important. The Bridgeport Fire Department employs the standard Incident Command System (ICS) that is taught by the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Emergency Management Institute and U.S. National Fire Academy. The ICS is a simple, modular system that allows us to gather information and account for and assign missions to those personnel who are at the scene of an incident. The ICS is in use by the vast majority of America's fire departments and will be in place at the scene of a terrorist attack long before state or federal agencies arrive. All agencies, local, state and federal, that may be expected to respond to a terrorist incident should be trained in the use of the ICS. There should be no exceptions - public safety requires it.

Finally, an effective preparedness effort and an effective response to an incident of terrorism requires a planning effort that must involve all levels of government. We can not possibly develop a successful response system without the active participation of all of the responsible agencies, at all levels of government. We should plan together and train together and we should do so with an eye to the fact that we may face a spectrum of incidents or threats, terrorist or non-terrorist. All agencies working towards an all-risk national response system is what is called for.

Mr. Chairman, thank you for inviting me to testify. I am happy to answer any questions you may have.