Bonfire Collapse - Texas A&M University (College Station, Texas - November 1999) » Lessons Learned

1. The bonfire collapse reinforced the need for pre-incident planning and the necessity for developing and exercising emergency management plans.

   Some people described the bonfire collapse as a freak accident, which was certainly not on anyone’s radar screen. Nevertheless, it happened. Fortunately, the local jurisdictions had an up-to-date emergency management plan that had been regularly exercised. There was a strong commitment by the local governments’ management teams to emergency planning and the event demonstrated to the agencies involved that what they had been practicing worked. Furthermore, the incident not only demonstrated the value of planning, but also the value of sharing resources and interagency cooperation.

   The need to play like you practice was also demonstrated by the incident. Given the number of deaths, injuries, and resources that were utilized to resolve the incident, local authorities would have been overwhelmed if they had not had a functional plan in place. Certainly, very few communities have bonfires of the size and significance of A&M’s. The reality is, however, that very few communities have access to the volume and type of resources required by many of the potential incidents that could occur in their own community.

   Therefore, planning becomes even more important in these situations. The time to identify potential sources and the availability of resources is before an event occurs. Additionally, emergency management plans should be evaluated and revised following an incident. One particular facet of the local plan that was identified as needing improvement in this incident was the management of volunteers and donations. The number of people that showed up to help without being requested challenged local officials.

   The sheer volume of donations that were received was equally challenging. On a positive note, however, a number of agencies and individuals called the EOC from all over the region and offered their assistance, but fortunately did not respond to the scene without being requested. It can be beneficial for agencies to notify an agency experiencing a major event about the availability of resources that might have been overlooked during the planning process. Local officials can then make a determination if those assets need to respond to the incident.

   No amount of planning, however, can prepare an agency for the strange phone calls that seem to come as the result of a disaster. During the search and rescue effort, which was being televised live in many areas, a psychic called and told officials that they were searching in the wrong area. The psychic continued by asserting that live victims would be located in another area of the stack. What do you do? If the psychic was correct, but ignored, there might have been significant ramifications. On the other hand, do you quit doing what you believe to be the right thing? In this instance, the psychic was wrong and the local officials made the correct decisions.

2. An adequate and reliable Communication System is essential during a large-scale event.

   Fortunately, the primarily response agencies had radio systems that were interoperable. Even so, the volume of radio traffic generated in a disaster will often congest many systems, at least for a time. In this event, the public telephone system was also severely taxed when the University requested that all of the students call home to reassure their worried parents that they were okay. The situation was both good news and bad news at the same time. Certainly, the positive side of the equation is that many fears were relieved and the calls home no doubt prevented some people from getting in their cars and driving to the University, which would have increased congestion and heightened anxiety. The downside, of course, was that the public telephone system could not handle the volume of calls that were being made.

   Many of the calls were placed on cellular telephones at a time that emergency responders were also attempting to use cellular phones. As a result, the cellular system was also overloaded. Officials should consider this problem during the pre-incident planning phase and work out a plan to have the local cellular provider respond to the scene early in the event to take control of their systems and to give priority airtime to emergency responders. Cellular companies may be able to make caches of cellular phones available to emergency responders for use during an incident.

3. Think big-scale down.

   The task, which confronted the first emergency responders on the scene, was initially very challenging. A similar incident of this magnitude may exceed the resources of many jurisdictions. Therefore, additional resources should be immediately summoned in order to speed their arrival and to insure that sufficient resources will be available to manage an incident. The incident commander should “think big”, i.e. think in terms of the worst-case scenario when ordering additional resources. If the resources are not needed, it is then possible to “scale down” the response.

   There are so many decisions that have to be made by the incident commander and so many people demand time and attention, that many of the resources, which are used on a daily basis, may be overlooked. For example, helicopters from a television station can be used for aerial reconnaissance. Videotape can be made while in the air and taken back to the command post and reviewed on a television and VCR. Additionally, a neighboring department might have heavy rescue vehicles that could be sent to the incident or the local country club might loan their golf carts to assist in a prolonged incident of this type.

   If the incident is going to take awhile to resolve, it might be advantageous to have electric power and hardwired telephone lines brought to the command post as was done in this incident. At least two telephone lines are desirable, one for incoming calls and one strictly for out going calls. Flashlights, maps, copiers, fax machines, batteries and battery chargers are also essential tools if the incident lasts very long.

4. An event involving multiple casualties can quickly exceed the capabilities of local medical facilities.

   In some areas within the United States, regulations in the national health care system has resulted in a significant percentage of the available number of beds in many hospitals being occupied much of the time, particularly during peak periods of the cold and flu season. Therefore, bed space, particularly for critical care patients, might be at a premium. In the event of a large-scale incident that involves a large number of casualties, some thought should be given to redirecting non-critical patients to other facilities, particularly if the incident occurs late at night or during the early morning hours when the hospital staffing is minimal. There are a number of methods to accomplish this, including the use of helicopter ambulance services to transport patients to other facilities in neighboring cities.

   If a large number of patients are to be sent to a specific hospital, it may be necessary to send additional personnel to assist the hospital staff with the unloading of patients and to assist in the emergency room as directed by the hospital staff. The influx of a large number of patients will also strain a hospital’s telephone system and may result in a large number of friends and family members descending on the hospital to ascertain the welfare of their relatives. Additional personnel might prove to be useful in managing such an occurrence and may also assist in the effort to keep track of the location and condition of individual patients.

   There is always a lot of confusion concerning the identification of victims in any disaster. The absence of identification on many of the victims compounded the problem in this situation. The University’s EMS service sent supervisors to each hospital and helped to keep track of the victims during this incident. In so doing, they were able to reduce the number of rumors that were quickly spreading throughout the community and helped to relieve tensions.

5. The incident reinforced the necessity of a strong incident management system.

   Fortunately, the fire departments involved in the incident used a standardized incident management system. Many agencies may not use any type of command system or may not be familiar with how the fire department’s system works. An incident is not the time to attempt the familiarization process. Equally important, is the ability to switch from managing an incident to managing a disaster. The following are items that might be considered:

   • The highest-ranking officer does not always need to be the incident commander, but might actually be more useful at the EOC or in the field serving as a liaison officer with the other agencies involved in an event.

   • An incident management system should included procedures on securing the scene, limiting access to the scene, and providing a means to identify responders by their function.

   • The layout of an operation evolves as the incident develops. The pre-incident planning process should include the development of plans for laying out an operation, which takes into account the proximity to resources. A planning officer, with an aid, is often a useful position to appoint during a prolonged incident as well as an official photographer to record key events.

   • Unified command is essential and representatives from every agency involved need to remain in the command post throughout an event and should be replaced whenever they leave. It is equally important in the EOC.

   • The record-keeping function is important, not only in the command post, but in the EOC as well as staging and the other sectors.

   • All positions within the command structure need not be fire personnel. Individuals from other agencies, even those involved in non-emergency functions, are often capable of fulfilling these functions.

6. An organization learns a great deal about itself and its members during a disaster.

   The members of an organization often wonder why things are done a certain way. A disaster often reveals the real reason for doing things a certain way. Likewise, a disaster can be a catalyst for profound organizational change. The post incident critique process provides an opportunity to evaluate the organization, its mission, and its effectiveness and to correct any deficiencies that may be identified.