Bloomberg Touts Emergency Response As ‘Massive, Quick, and Coordinated’

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The New York Sun

Mayor Bloomberg was sitting in front of his computer screen yesterday when he saw a news headline about a plane crashing into a Upper East Side highrise.

Seconds later, his Office of Emergency Management confirmed the crash. Hundreds of responders were dispatched to the scene and military fighter jets were sent to patrol the airspace around New York, Washington, and other major cities.

While the images of a Manhattan skyscraper shrouded in black smoke immediately triggered fears that terrorists had again used a plane as a missile, emergency officials said the fire was little more than a standard blaze that was relatively easy to put out.

Mr. Bloomberg billed the response as proof that police and fire officials, who historically have conducted turf wars, could seamlessly work together in an emergency. He described the response as “massive, quick, and coordinated.”

“It went perfectly according to plan,” Mr. Bloomberg told reporters during a briefing at Sotheby’s auction house a few blocks from the East 72nd Street crash site. “They did exactly what they were supposed to do.”

If his description of the smooth emergency response stands the test of public scrutiny that is sure to follow in the coming days and weeks, it would be a testament to how far the city has come since the communications breakdowns that plagued the World Trade Center response.

Faulty radios and lapses in protocol at the twin towers, coupled with the unparalleled scale of the rescue operation, prevented police and fire officials from warning each other of danger.

In the years since the 2001 attacks, police and fire officials have butted heads over planning for future emergencies.

Last year, the Bloomberg administration approved its so-called Citywide Incident Management System, which outlines which agency takes the lead in an emergency.

The new protocol drew criticism from the highest-ranking fire officer, Chief Peter Hayden, who broke with the administration. Mr. Hayden said putting police in charge in cases where chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear materials are suspected adds confusion and undermines the FDNY.

Yesterday, the city put its upgraded command centers, equipment, and procedures to use.

Fire officials activated their new $17 million command center, built at the recommendation of an outside consulting firm that evaluated the city’s trade center response.

Lieutenant Daniel O’Byrne, who oversaw the fire department’s response at its headquarters, ranked the response a 9 on a scale of 10. “This one went pretty smoothly,” he said, adding that he didn’t give it a perfect score because “we can always do better.”

Still, he said that while fire and emergency service personnel didn’t even sit in the same room less than a year ago, they now have a high-tech command center where they can screen real-time video, digitally find any building in the city, and instantly share information with their counterparts on the scene.

“We’ve come a long way,” he told The New York Sun by telephone. Mr. O’Byrne said the department activated the same center earlier yesterday for a five-alarm fire at a two-story building in the Bronx. He said it has been used regularly since it opened in January for incidents citywide, including the explosion at a brownstone on East 62nd Street in July.

Also yesterday, the Office of Emergency Management set up a mobile communications hub in a Greyhound-style bus across the street from the crash site.

Emergency officials sought to downplay comparisons to the Trade Center response, saying the small, lightweight plane caused minimal structural damage to the building. Causalities might have been higher, but Mr. Bloomberg said it appeared that several of the apartments were combined to created larger homes, so fewer people were inside.

The fire department said there were two large apartments on each of the two floors the plane crashed into. Elevators functioned normally, allowing firefighters quick access to the blaze. Officials said most of the residents evacuated without help.

Emergency responders have conducted a number of simulated exercises to sharpen their skills in preparation for a terrorist attack, accident, or natural disaster.

While officials have been satisfied with those drills, each has disclosed weaknesses that they have hoped to shore up. In a March simulation of a chemical explosion, responders were delayed in reaching “victims” and vehicles bottlenecked around the area.

Mr. Bloomberg said all of the drills paid off as emergency responders went into the blazing building yesterday. He acknowledged what many New Yorkers feared as they watched smoke billowing from the windows of the Belaire.

“Obviously, everybody is very sensitive when they hear something like a plane crashing into a building,” he said.


The New York Sun

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