Steve Burns
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON – (WMAL) At its height, Monday’s big College Park fire was being fought by over 200 firefighters from five different jurisdictions, with many more helping to cover stations in the region. Dealing with such a large response presents its own set of challenges beyond the fire itself, according to one local chief.
However, the D.C. region is lucky to have the level of cross-jurisdictional partnership it does, Alexandria Fire Chief Robert Dubè told WMAL.
“We go back and forth between borders on a regular basis,” Dubè said. “It’s not common, and you don’t have to go far outside of here to find it, where there’s no mutual aid, there’s no automatic aid, and jurisdictional lines aren’t crossed.”
He said fire chiefs in the region have a good working relationship, as they meet once a month through the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments to review strategies and tactics.
The challenges begin, however, once hundreds of firefighters show up to the same scene, as they did Monday in College Park. Dubè said the foremost issue on his mind at that type of scene is accountability.
“You’ve got so many people there, so you just have to make sure they’re all safe, they’re all operating where they were assigned to operate,” he said. “You get a couple hundred firefighters on the scene, you’ve got to be able to account where they are and what their assignment is and whether it was completed.”
Other challenges arise at a prolonged operation like delivering fuel, food, and making sure firefighters get shelter from the weather, whether it is snowing, raining, or sweltering. But different companies are able to communicate just by changing to the appropriate radio channel, Dubè said.
“We’re pretty fortunate here that I can call any department in the region here and I can get a response immediately.”
Copyright 2017 by WMAL.com. All Rights Reserved. (PHOTO: DC Fire Dept.)
