NEW CUMBERLAND, Pa. –
On June 24, 2021, at approximately 1:22 a.m., a 12-story beachfront condominium collapsed in the Miami suburb of Surfside, Florida. The collapse resulted in 98 fatalities and required emergency response operations from numerous federal, state and local organizations that extended over several weeks.
Representatives from the Pennsylvania Task Force-1, Pennsylvania Urban, Search and Rescue, as well as Defense Logistics Agency Installation Susquehanna Fire Captains John Fogg and James O’Brien, deployed to support the recovery efforts at the Champlain Towers collapse site.
To gain a better understanding of the coordination of the emergency response, search and recovery of that event, DLA Installation Management Susquehanna Installation Emergency Operations Center team hosted a lessons learned case study conversation featuring Marty Nevil of Pennsylvania Task Force 1 and program manager with the PA SCTF, who was on the incident command team during the event.
As a large and complex major incident, Nevil discussed and reviewed the challenges encountered during the response and recovery phases – logistical needs and requirements, use of intelligence and technologies, and the numerous lessons learned from the event.
“There was a very high level of stress, decisions were being made throughout the day, every day. There were other incident factors to consider. We had an incident within an incident (COVID-19) where we had to think of PPE (personal protective equipment) selection, COVID-19 testing, social distancing, requirements for decontamination, shower operations … those kinds of things,” said Nevil.
Weather was another factor to consider.
Tropical Storm Elsa was projected to become a category two hurricane and come ashore about 50 miles from the incident site, so tactical discussions were taking place on how that would affect operations since wind, rain and tropical heat was already a significant influence on operations.
“A tropical storm coming into an already wet environment would bring another set of incident circumstances like working in soaking wet PPE and personal clothing which can be a safety hazard for slips, trips and falls,” Nevil said.
Maintaining good situational awareness and establishing a common operating picture inside and outside of an emergency response is important said Nevil.
“You have to communicate. We jokingly say, and executive officers in the room know, you have to feed the beast. You have to feed the beast vertically in order to get the support that you need, and that requires good communication and a good common operating picture.”
According to Nevil the Miami Dade fire department had a Type 3 incident management team embedded into their organization and they had never supported a Type 1 incident.
“When we arrived there to help support them as an incident management team, they were so overwhelmed, not knowing where to start. We recommended going back to what they knew in terms of systems and processes, and start asking questions like, 'What’s step one?' in order to get to them to a first step and then what is step two, step three …,” said Nevil.
“After four days of walking them through it, standing by their side, they had it down. By the time we left, they were running every mission brief, conducting tactical and planning meetings, and we turned the incident management back over to them for stabilization.”
The part of the discussion that stood out the most for Fire Captain Fogg was Nevil talking from the command level at the extraordinary amount of coordination and inter-agency interactions that were happening behind the scenes.
“It was incredible how the command staff was working across not just national agencies but even international agencies for information on the victims, satellite images updated daily of the pile of debris, and updating plans for the day based on all that smart intelligence being gathered. I know from us being there first-hand that the data was driving decisions at the ground level, even identifying priority areas to dig and likely locations of victims,” Fogg said.
Nevil touched on the importance of building good relationships.
“We learn by helping others help themselves and we learn by helping them learn to execute their mission. Even if you have more knowledge and experience you still have to figure out a way to transfer that knowledge rapidly to give others the opportunity to execute that mission and let them own it.”