"911, what is your emergency?" "There's been a terrible accident in my neighborhood!" the frantic voice screamed into the receiver. "Describe the incident and where exactly are you?" the dispatcher replies. "I'm across the street at First and Main. There was a blast in the 1200 block

Unfortunately, this scenario has been heard before in various countries and in different languages, but the end result is the same-buildings have collapsed and you are now the first on scene and you are in charge to handle it.

This does not occur everyday but "what if" it happened in your neighborhood? Could you be ready to handle such an incident? Does your emergency services department have the capabilities and training to implement a plan for what will certainly be a long and arduous task of search and rescue? For years there have been situations that have mirrored this scenario and each one has presented various challenges to the first responder. If this happened in your neighborhood YOU, of course, will be the one to start the ball rolling, and quite often the way that the incident unfolds from the beginning will dictate how well the incident progresses.

Let's go over some of the basics before we get too technical.

Have a Plan...Utilize the 5 stages of incident management at the rescue scene of a building collapse.

Stage 1-The incident has occurred and prior to your arrival there are spontaneous rescues taking place by victims, bystanders, or CERT members. Upon your arrival you size up, establish the Incident Management System, recon, meet with other CERT members, and remove any surface casualties. Remember to place your triage area away from any hazards and try to treat the injured to the best of your capabilities. Identify and control, if possible, any electrical, gas, or fire hazards. Security to the site should be coordinated with local law enforcement if possible.

Stage 2-Explore and identify any of the likely survival places. Try to get some feedback from victims, spontaneous rescuers, and note where some technical searches may be located i.e., external, internal, below grade or above grade. If there is a debris pile try the rescuer hailing systems (Rescuers lying on the pile in a circle pattern yelling into the pile to determine the whereabouts of possible victims). Light to moderate debris removal will need to be implemented and some light breaching and/or shoring may also take place. Breaching, shoring, and lifting heavy objects are some techniques that can assist you greatly, but if you have not been trained properly please don't attempt it. It would be to your advantage to estimate how many people were in the structure prior to the collapse and to evaluate if there is a need for any other resources i.e. city, county, state, or federal help. Remember that this is a highly dangerous time for the rescuer and risks should be calculated and evaluated!

This is where prior preplanning on your part can help the most. Try to locate resources within your neighborhood or community that can assist you prior to the rescue. The best people to contact onsite would be someone from the maintenance division if a commercial structure were involved. They know the "IN's and OUT's" of the building like the back of their hand.

Identify what type of collapse has happened-pancake, lean to, cantilever, V-shape, or A-shape. Try to determine the best method to mitigate the structural hazard and upon arrival of the Fire Department or Emergency Services relay any of the pertinent information. Do you avoid it, remove it, lift it, breach it, or shore it?

Stage 3-Selected debris removal. At this stage you are now implying that what can be done with your people resources should be replaced by heavy equipment. Back hoes, bulldozers, cranes, front loaders, and other equipment should be brought in to systemically de-layer and reduce the size of the hazard. In Haysville, Kansas a huge vacuum was brought in to remove grain that had filled tunnels where victims were thought to be. This stage should only be handled by advanced technical rescue personnel! The CERT member can be of great assistance to the Incident Commander being runners, site coordinators, security, etc.

There should be made available to each rescuer some type of stress management program.

These stages are only guidelines to help you through an incident that probably won't ever occur in "your neck of the woods". Ultimately, we must realize that even if you don't have the training, or the fancy technical rescue resources, that the burden of handling this incident will be placed on your Community Emergency Response Team and/or your Emergency Services Department. Through prior training, preplanning, and resource allocation you should be able to function as a team and make a difference in the end.

Be prepared, work as a group, and stay safe!

About the author: Bill Schneider has 16 years of fire service experience and is currently a Fire Apparatus Operator for the Olathe Fire Department in Kansas. He is an adjunct instructor on Technical Rescue for the University of Kansas and the University of Missouri Fire Service Training Divisions. In 1997 he was appointed as a Rescue Team Manager with the FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Team (MOTF-1) out of Boone County, MO. He is also a certified EMT, HazMat Technician, and instructor on CERT.

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