Posted on 08/03/2002 9:43:44 PM PDT by ATOMIC_PUNK
NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York Fire Department's response to the Sept. 11 attack at the World Trade Center was plagued by communication problems and discipline lapses, according to a draft report obtained by The New York Times.
The report by independent consultant McKinsey & Co. concludes problems with the radio system caused commanders to lose touch with many firefighters who went into the twin towers, the Times reported on Saturday.
It said lapses in discipline led firefighters to rush to the scene without checking in with commanders at designated staging areas.
A virtual absence of coordination with police officials, the consultants say, meant fire commanders had no access to reports from police helicopters that hovered above the 110-story buildings, tracking their structural integrity and the progress of fires across the upper floors.
"This lack of information hindered their ability to evaluate the overall situation," the paper reported the draft report as saying.
Radio communications were sporadic and critical information was apparently never received by firefighters on upper floors in the building, it added.
The full report is due out as early as next week.
More than 2,800 people died, including 343 firefighters and 23 police officers, when the towers collapsed after being struck by two hijacked aircraft in an attack blamed by the United States on the al Qaeda movement of Osama bin Laden ( news - web sites).
The draft, significant parts of which were obtained by The New York Times, acknowledges the attack, which triggered fires that trapped thousands of people, was an overwhelming event that required an unusual level of coordination.
But it says the department must improve its planning, overhaul parts of its training, acquire substantial new technology and coordinate more effectively with other emergency agencies.
"We believe that the FDNY (Fire Department of New York) cannot adequately fulfill its mission to the citizens of New York City unless the city or state governments establish a formal effective process of interagency planning and coordination," says the report.
It also says the department's Emergency Medical Service had serious problems deploying, tracking and controlling its ambulance and trauma personnel.
Overall, the draft says, the department needs to be run with tighter standards. "Accountability needs to be increased at headquarters and in the field," it says.
The consultant, which specializes in reviewing management practices, spent five months preparing the report.
Everybody with more then three grey cells that can fire together realizes that "consultants" are spectators that can't really do the job, and act as second-guessing advisors...
Such is the case, here.
Un-friggin-believable...
Hey ... perhaps he's from the same OutSource outfit that helped set up the Proper Crisis Management Models in operation up there in Oregon.
Carry on, Comrade.
Of course not - but they did.
They don't go along with the trends, which is odd, since NY itself is so liberal. As an example, FDNY continues to use smooth bore nozzles with 2 1/2" for upper floor fires. Most departments went to variable flow nozzles years ago, and laughed at FDNY for being so backward. Now they're finding out that the advantages of smooth bore are very real, and suddenly FDNY ain't so backward anymore. I would hope that the result of this would be some improvement in onscene organization, but I have a feeling it will just be federalizing them. They will become as efficient as the Columbine Police Department was.
The fire fighters reponed to do what they are trained to do. Save lives! Ok back to the communications. I would imagine the radio trunking system when it did function was prioritized. Meaning certain Police officals first and then certain fire and parimedic radios functioned. These systems have drop out features. If the police Commissioners radio is keyed and a chanel is not open a lesser priority radio is dropped out of the repeater. This is the way a trunking system works more or less. It would be stupid not to say or expect that more firemen and parimedics were injured or killed as it is their job to go in.
It's strange the Port Authority which told persons to go back inside isn't mentioned. Now that was wrong. Evacuations are easier to apoligize for after being wrong than not to be done and harm inflicted. Why have an evacuation plan if it is not carried out till building saftey can be determined. This can not be guessed in a few minutes. That was the one true major blunder I have seen in the whole thing.
Last of all despite all promises saying otherwise no building is beyond being brought down. The force of the plane's weight & speed at impact vs height with added heat to damaged structure left little to support it.
I don't put it past the State or their Consultants on "Crisis Management" to use the deaths of these men to further their ends, however.
these dudes put their lives in danger everyday
And ... they also arrive on a moment's notice (with the able assistance of a patient New Yorker on the emergency line) to help out actresses who manage to get locked inside strange rabbit warren sorts of rehearsal buildings.
Poor guys ... they didn't even get to use any of their groovy metal cutting, door-breaking equipment. By the time they arrived, she'd managed to find a set of keys and -- once they pinpointed her fingers waving from under the metal gate that obscured the address of the building from view -- they were able simply to unlock the door for her.
She's just finished a run of a show she originally did with a friend from Station 28 (I believe) who perished. Weird that during the same week or so, the department would have to come to her rescue.
"But did you have to come using the sirens and flashing lights?" she asked, embarrassed to death, feeling a total idiot but still shaking, once it was all over. "You're special," the driver smiled.
As is every total stranger for whom they are prepared to give their lives at a moment's notice, I think. Surely there's a lesson in there somewhere.
Hear hear.
For example, have they ever been on a fire department and fought fires and rescued accident victims?
Or does their background only include a degree in fire department consulting?
Yes, just what we want, the NYFD reorganized by the consultants who are being sued for bringing us Enron. Enron is the house that McKinsey rebuilt. The brightest minds at the world's most prestigious consulting firm helped turn the lumbering old-economy gas distribution dinosaur into a new-economy success story envied by every corporation in America. .... McKinsey thinking helped Enron switch, seemingly overnight, from being a company that simply piped stuff around the US to a giant market place in which companies could 'cherry pick' commodities such as oil and gas contracts, seeking out new suppliers and cheaper prices over the web. Enron made its money from trading on their behalf and offering a range of additional high-margin services, which brought in far greater returns than its old, vertically integrated model of producing and shipping gas.
McKinsey called the process 'atomising'...
Imaginge. If they can turn a company that used to pipe gas around into a group of people that sold bits of paper to pension funds what these guys could do with a company that does an old economy sort of thing like fighting fires.
Here's hoping for a big time backlash!
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