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Copyright 1998 by Walter G. Green III
The natural focus of members of emergency services agencies is on the exciting, red-light-and-sirens, response phase of an emergency incident. This is where the action is. This is the pay-off for all the training and polishing of equipment and even mowing the lawn at the squad building. Our hearts race and we are psyched and pumped and motivated to do great things to save a life.
However, viewed from a systems perspective emergency response is an admission that we have failed. Something bad has happened, and, like for Humpty-Dumpty in the nursery rhyme, things will never be just the same again for the victims of the emergency. The ultimate payoff for the emergency services should not be the great shift when the city half burned down or there were six shootings, a dozen traffic accidents, and eight myocardial infarcts. Shouldn't it be instead when the crew came on duty and eight hours later left without any citizen needing help?
Mitigation tries to put the emergency services out of business, either by preventing bad things or by limiting their impact should they happen. Crime prevention activities, such as Neighborhood Watch, are mitigation. So are the healthy heart instruction in CPR classes and the small symbols on the menu in your favorite restaurant.
Public education activities bridge mitigation with preparedness and response. An informed public that can prevent routine emergencies and be prepared for the "big one" can substantially reduce the load on the emergency services. And remember that public education needs to include external public education directed at the general public and internal public education directed at agency members and their families.
Dollars spent in mitigation and public education do not seem as impressive as a new $375,000 fire truck or $100,000 ambulance, but they are just as effective. Building codes, a very simple mitigation activity, have substantially reduced damage and loss of life in events ranging from household fires to earthquakes and hurricanes. The challenge for the emergency services is to integrate these activities effectively as part of an overall community strategy of impact reduction.
At the end of this session each student will be able to:
(1) Identify common mitigation strategies related to their emergency services discipline.
(2) Describe a simple mitigation project that could be developed in their community or business.
(3) Identify an external public education message their agency or organization could disseminate and the way of doing so.
(4) Develop an internal public education message that could contribute to the safety of employees or their families.
During this session read the following material:
(1) Chapter 7: Fire Prevention Activities - Codes, Operational Tasks, and Inspections in Carter and Rausch (second edition) MANAGEMENT IN THE FIRE SERVICE or Chapter 4 in the third edition.
(2) Chapter 8: Firesafety Education in Carter and Rausch (second edition) MANAGEMENT IN THE FIRE SERVICE or Chapter 5 in the third edition.
In addition:
(3) Read your local newspaper and watch local television news for examples in which mitigation and educational activities may have made a difference in the outcome of an emergency or disaster event.
(4) Locate and read a brochure or other type of public education material relating to emergency preparedness.
Everyone answer three of the following five questions (one E-mail to the Listserver per question, and make sure you include a subject line that identifies which question you are answering). You may answer them in any order you wish. Remember also to read and comment on at least two answers to questions by your fellow students.
(1) Describe an emergency incident in the past week, either locally, nationally, or in the world at large, in which mitigation would have made a difference. What mitigation measures could have prevented or reduced the impact of the event?
(2) What should your organization's mitigation strategy be? Name three key components of such a strategy and provide a short description of what they might consist of.
(3) Briefly outline a mitigation project that your organization could undertake, either to reduce damage to your facilities or to help the community at large.
(4) Describe an external public education message that would be approrpiate to what your organization does. How would you get this message to the public?
(5) What is one internal public education message that would increase the safety of your employees' families? How could you disseminate this?