EFG, RTFC team for ICS for Industry
Emergency Film Group has just completed its fifth collaboration with the Refinery Terminal Fire Company (RTFC), as it wrapped shooting on a three part training series called
ICS for Industry.
Narrated by Greg Noll, Chair of the National Fire Protection Association Hazardous Materials Committee, the series will consist of three programs, “Incident Management,” “Organizing the Response,” and “The EOC & Crisis Management.” The programs were shot over a period of six days under the direction of Gordon Massingham.
The goal of the series is to provide industry with a guide for organizing incident management that will be compliant with the National Incident Management System. “This is important,” Massingham says, “because if you have an incident that exceeds the capability of your in-house response team, or if your plant is victimized by an outside event like a hurricane or flood, you need to be able to work with outside response agencies. To do that, you need to know how the game is played and who the players are.”
Massingham is enthusiastic in his praise of RTFC. “They are a highly professional organization with unique skills honed to deal with the very specific challenges of the petrochemical industry. So we feel quite fortunate to be able to work with them again.” more
IEDs & VBIEDs
IEDs and VBIEDs is the latest training package from Emergency Film Group.
"We began work on the project in the fall of 2007," says Gordon Massingham, director of the film. "We didn’t need DHS to tell us that this is a real potential problem. We pride ourselves on being the tip of the sword when it comes to finding solutions for emergency response problems."
He points to the company’s Response to Anthrax Threats released before the 2001 attacks and AIDS, Hepatitis & the Emergency Responder released before HIV was on anyone’s radar.
"Almost every single terrorist act in the West since September 11," Chertoff declared during his announcement, "has involved an IED, an improvised explosive device, whether it's the bombings in London, whether backpack bombs, whether it was the train bombing in Madrid, whether it was the liquid bombs they tried to put on airplanes as part of the 2006 plot. These are all IEDs. So when we prioritize IEDs as a focus, we are prioritizing what is far and away the greatest threat in the West with respect to terrorist attacks. It does not mean that we're limiting this to the very kind of sophisticated improvised explosive devices and roadside bombs you see in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is a much broader category."
The IEDs & VBIEDs DVD-based package should go a long way to training up emergency responders to recognize IEDs and have a good understanding of how they are used. The half hour interactive DVD is accompanied by a CD-Rom with a PowerPoint, testing materials, references, and other assistance for instructors to put on a course of instruction featuring the video.
Shooting was completed in Spring, 2008 with the assistance of police departments, fire departments, bomb squads, emergency medical teams and emergency management agencies in North Carolina.
A feature of the production is a spectacular car bombing at a postal facility with multiple casualties and a secondary bomber. “It was a training exercise," says Mike Cataldo, Assistant Director on the shoot, "but so real you could see the tension on the faces of the responders." Also included are a substantial number of field demonstrations clearly showing how various devices and explosive arrangements work. As well, there is footage of actual VBIEDs in Iraq shot by GIs and terrorists.
Serving on the Technical Committee for the project are chemist and hazmat instructor Dieter Heinz; Commander Tom Rancich, retired Navy Seal and veteran of tours in Iraq and Afghanistan; Chris Ronay, head of the Institute of Makers of Explosives and former Chief of the FBI’s Explosives Operations Group; August Vernon, Emergency Management Coordinator, Forsyth County, NC and former Iraq security contractor; and Trent Walker of the Greensboro, NC Bomb Squad.
"What is amazing is that we have not already been attacked, and while it’s the last thing we want to have happen, it seems almost inevitable," Massingham says. "We’re hopeful that our work can perhaps prevent some of these events, or at least help reduce the ensuing chaos when an attack occurs."
Recent success stories: