Give Emergency
Workers Better Tools,
Training, Organization

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D. J. Peterson is a political scientist at RAND. In 2001, he and a team of RAND colleagues convened a conference of more than 100 emergency personnel who had responded to the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, and the subsequent anthrax incidents.

AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS/FDNY New York City firefighters from Manhattan's Ladder Company 4 and Engine Company 54 carry the flag-draped remains of a fallen comrade from the World Trade Center site, as recovery efforts continue on March 14.

Emergency responders lack the equipment, training, and organization they need to protect themselves, let alone their communities, against major terrorist attacks. About one-sixth of those who perished at the World Trade Center—more than 400 people—were emergency responders. Clearly, government officials need a better understanding of how to protect those who protect us.

Emergency responders who were involved at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and other attack sites included firefighters, police officers, emergency medical technicians, and construction workers. Many who survived the attacks have identified the following limitations of their existing equipment, training, and site management procedures:

• Personal protection equipment—respirators, shoes, clothing, and eye protection—was inadequate for the extended search-and-rescue campaign, particularly at the World Trade Center. Firefighting gear is designed for operations that typically last 30 minutes to an hour, not several weeks. Firefighters were hampered by such rudimentary impediments as wet garments and blistered feet.

• There was an acute shortage of respirators in the first few days at the World Trade Center, and the many types of equipment being used by various organizations were often not interoperable.

• When appropriate equipment was available, it was often not used, either because of a lack of information regarding the immediate hazards or because of lax enforcement of safety standards.

• Not all emergency responders at the various attack sites were trained to use the protective equipment. On-site training was needed for emergency medical technicians, construction workers, and volunteers.

• Emergency responders were perhaps least prepared for the anthrax incidents. In this case, the problem was not lack of information but, rather, information that changed every day.

• There were widespread problems at the World Trade Center and Murrah Federal Building, in particular, with controlling site access, monitoring and assessing hazards, communicating risks to frontline workers, managing and distributing safety equipment, and enforcing safety standards.