Napolitano to fire chiefs: Prepare for potential fall flu pandemic
Fire departments and paramedical services should “lean forward” this summer to prepare for a potentially more serious flu outbreak this fall, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told the nation’s fire services’ top brass recently.
 This spring’s H1N1 “swine” flu outbreak may be a harbinger of things to come, she said, addressing the board of directors of the International Association of Fire Chiefs, a NACo affiliate, at its meeting at NACo headquarters May 7.
“The concern we have is that this thing will mutate over the summer and come back in the fall as a much more lethal strain. That would be the 1918 experience,” Napolitano said. The 1918 flu epidemic killed 50 million people worldwide.
She encouraged the fire chiefs to train and conduct readiness exercises over the summer as if “there’s going to be serious pandemic in the fall.”
Fire chiefs from across the nation shared their concerns about a number of issues — from calling for greater inclusion of fire service professionals in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to concerns about the lack of a national strategy on interoperable communications.
Napolitano said she was there to listen and answer questions more than lecture.
On another flu-related issue, Chief John Sinclair of the Kittitas Valley (Wash.) Fire and Rescue, suggested that the federal government raise the priority of fire and emergency medical services professionals to receive flu vaccines.
Fire and EMS departments would play a key role in a flu pandemic — or any community-wide health threat — because they transport 85 percent of patients seeking emergency medical treatment, he said.
“I think that it’s important from a critical infrastructure protection perspective to elevate the fire service, and especially the EMS components of the fire service up much higher into the vaccination plan as it currently exists, because right now we’re in tier three,” said Sinclair, who heads IAFC’s emergency medical services section.
By telephone, he later explained that fire and EMS personnel trail medical personnel and at-risk nursing home patients in vaccination priority. He said the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) sets the priority.
Non-EMS fire personnel also need to be vaccinated at a higher priority, Sinclair added, because they would provide “surge capacity” to backup the EMS system.
For those reasons, Napolitano urged the chiefs to step up their contingency planning and consider how their operations would be affected by staff absentee rates of 10 percent to 30 percent for at least 14 days.
“What will you do when your firefighters’ kids have to stay home from school for two weeks? What will you do when [firefighters] start getting sick; how will you handle absenteeism and your continuity of operation obligations?”
Napolitano said, “Your ability to practice and exercise that — or table-top it at least over the summer — is key.” She added that she will share the chiefs’ concerns with other Cabinet departments, including HHS.
Other Issues
Jeff Johnson, fire chief and chief executive officer, Tualatin Valley (Ore.) Fire and Rescue, addressed the issue of interoperable communications. He said the nation lacks a strategy to create public safety two-way wireless communications interoperability — which, in turn, hinders local efforts. “We can’t put the puzzle together until someone shows us the top of the box,” Johnson, a former Douglas County, Ore. firefighter, said.
Napolitano responded that she’s asked the division within DHS that deals with interoperability to “get me a plan” on how to get out standards that fire departments can follow by the end of May.
The fire chiefs praised President Obama’s nomination of someone with a fire and emergency management background to head the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The nominee, Craig Fugate, has served as Florida’s director of Emergency Management and has a fire and emergency medical services background. The chiefs said they would like to see more individuals with fire services backgrounds in the DHS.
Napolitano said, “I’m always looking for good fire people.”
As if on cue, the IAFC brass handed her a thick, multi-page list — three copies of it — of candidates they believe are worthy of consideration.
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