Page 24 - InCommand Volume 31

Emergency Response System
Ret. Chief Bill Houk, State Coordinator
Ret. Chief Bill Shaw, Assistant State Coordinator
We hope that you, your staff, and your families have remained safe and by the time you are reading this article, we are on the downhill slope of the COVID-19 curve. Working remotely became
a reality and could you have ever imagined concern over a pandemic cure would become so common in our discussions in such a short period of time? Wow, life as we knew it changed quickly!
As we write this, the Ohio Fire Chiefs’ State Emergency Response (ERS) Team is still very active in COVID-19 activities for Ohio’s fire service. We plan to go into more specific details in a later edition of InCommand, but know that we were engaged with the State Emergency Management Agency (EMA) prior to the opening of the State Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and that involvement has continued up to
this point. Ohio EMA houses and coordinates the activities inside
the EOC and it is divided into Emergency Support Functions (ESF’s). Frequently, the various ESF’s will collaborate with one another with the goal of completing mission requests for assistance. When the EOC is activated during large-scale events, the ERS supports numerous state agencies, while representing Ohio’s fire and EMS agencies. The two most common state agencies we support are the State Fire Marshal’s Office and the Ohio Division of EMS. For this event, the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) was the lead agency and we helped to provide support for them as well.
The COVID-19 event has presented many challenges but the ERS has
been part of and witnessed amazing collaboration coordinated through
the EOC involving many agencies.
When in the EOC, there is a distinct advantage to having the ability to have a face to face conversation
with another ESF which fosters the collaborative efforts that occur, but that ability was hampered when, due to the potential transmissibility of COVID-19, Ohio EMA implemented social distancing within the EOC. They took other measure also such
as advocating daily temperatures, mandating masks in the EOC, hand sanitization, and they advocated working remotely when possible especially if your agency was not an ESF lead agency. The challenge of some personnel working remotely was over-come by incorporating regular conference calls to engage those not specifically in the EOC. From the time that Ohio EMA activated the EOC, the ERS had an in-person presence several times a week. Regardless of the ERS’s physical time in the EOC, it was not uncommon to communicate with the SFM & Ohio Division of EMS personnel multiple times throughout each day.
From the start, our main concern was for Ohio’s response personnel. Nobody appeared immune to dealing with COVID-19 patients and it was determined very quickly that personal protective equipment (PPE) was in short supply. That was potentially a formula that could have disastrous impacts. Normally, the ERS can move resources relatively easy, but we were concerned that overcoming personnel shortages could be problematic since the entire state was dealing with the pandemic. In fact, we felt reaching outside of the state might be a problem as well since the entire country was impacted and dealing with COVID- 19.
While it appears that for many
local jurisdictions overall runs have decreased, fire and EMS runs have
still been occurring. The same has held true for the ERS. Severe weather and large-scale incidents do not
cease during a pandemic, and that became obvious for us when we had
a request for resources in Licking County due to flash flooding. As is usual, our Regional Coordinators, in communication with Central Dispatch and a County Coordinator, worked to ensure that all needs were met. Once again, your Coordinators stepped up to the plate and hit “it” out of the park. We felt a baseball analogy was appropriate since we are not watching sports right now.
We hope that all of you stay safe and healthy.
24 InCommand JULY/AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2020 • www.ohiofirechiefs.org