A Call for Help

A nonprofit coalition wants to make sure rescue workers never go through another September 11

More than 340 New York firefighters lost their lives on September 11, 2001, as they responded to the terrorist

attacks on the World Trade Center. Most tragically, 120 of those workers never heard the orders to evacuate the Twin Towers.

The emergency workers who helped create the First Response Coalition in 2004 were motivated by a desire to arm their fellow police, firefighters, and emergency medical technicians to fully handle another major catastrophe. But, says Steven Jones, the former Northern California firefighter who leads the Washington coalition, America’s first responders often still can’t communicate with one another, even five years after the terrorist attacks.

And that fact, he says, underscores a national crisis.

“People just expect that, when first responders show up at their doorstep, they have the resources to do the job safely and efficiently,” Mr. Jones says. “The reality is, when it comes to radio communications, that really isn’t the case. If you can’t communicate, you’ve compromised the ability to respond. We all pay the price for that.”

Five years after hijacked airplanes crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon — and a year after the chaos following Hurricane Katrina — the First Response Coalition says little has improved in the way the response to major disasters is coordinated. If British authorities had failed to thwart the recent plot to explode airliners over American soil, the nation’s first-response system would have faced many of the same challenges it did on September 11, says Mr. Jones.

“After Katrina, people kept asking me if this was a wake-up call,” Mr. Jones says. “No, September 11th was the national wake-up call. Katrina was a tragic reminder that really nothing has been done yet.”

A Hodgepodge of Systems

Mr. Jones has worked in the front lines of crisis response, having been a firefighter and emergency medical technician in his native Northern California. Just before taking his current job, he served as a policy analyst at the International Association of Fire Fighters, in Washington. In that role, he evaluated emergency-response systems throughout the country. He now serves as the First Response Coalition’s sole staff member, working with a nine-member advisory board.

The group operates on an annual budget in “the low six figures,” its leader says, and has approximately 40,000 members nationwide. The organization is financed with contributions from individuals and corporations, such as Verizon and AT&T.

The key thrust of the coalition, he says, has been to educate the public and policy makers about the pressing need to “fix the radios.”

In particular, the group is pushing for a national integrated communications system that would enable, say, a local volunteer fire department to communicate by radio with government bodies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

In a letter sent to President Bush in June, the group asked him to set a “target date” for achieving a national emergency communications system that would allow all first responders to talk to one another regardless of affiliation, location, jurisdiction, or other factors.

The White House has not responded to the group’s request for a target date, says Mr. Jones.

“For all the talk of ‘securing the homeland,’ and repeated commitments to provide first responders with the tools they need to safely and effectively do their jobs, the federal government still has not provided the leadership needed to solve the communications crisis,” he says.

Mr. Jones says the lack of a coordinated national effort has led to a hodgepodge of communications systems at varying levels of sophistication from state to state and community to community.

For example, South Carolina and Florida have extensive statewide systems with networks available to all jurisdictions. Meanwhile, Mississippi has 40 radio systems across the state, many of which do not talk to one another. Alabama’s Emergency Management Agency provides programmed radios to first responders during disasters, but has not developed a statewide network.

“There have been advances,” Mr. Jones says. “The problem is they have not been coordinated advances. Communities are establishing systems that suit their needs, but aren’t compatible. If we had a national network everywhere in the United States, we could save lives and property. Right now that doesn’t happen; there are just gateway fixes.”

Bill Dobson, executive director of South East Louisiana Search and Rescue, in Mandeville, says he’s seen the downside of “gateway fixes.”

After Katrina made landfall, his organization and other emergency responders were often unable to communicate with other first- response agencies. “Communications were almost nonexistent,” he says.

He credits the First Response Coalition for keeping the issue of compatible communications systems in the spotlight.

“Their efforts are outstanding,” says Mr. Dobson. “Someone needs to raise awareness on this issue. 9/11 made it clear what the problems were. Since then, not a lot has been done. A lot of money has been spent, but responders are still short-handed.”

Indeed, more than $11-billion has been given to the states for improving response capabilities, according to a report the coalition released in April. Also, the Department of Homeland Security has disbursed more than $1.5-billion to cities and states for communications equipment. Even so, says Mr. Jones, little has improved.

Seeking Attention

The First Response Coalition is trying to keep the issue in front of lawmakers — and the public. The coalition’s April report — released well before this year’s hurricane season — stated that many of the first responders in eight hurricane-prone states in the Gulf Coast and Atlantic regions still do not have the equipment and resources to make it easy for them to communicate with each other.

The report received widespread attention, including coverage in Newsweek and The Washington Post.

And the coalition is urging the completion of a survey being conducted by the Department of Homeland Security that would provide a snapshot of first-responder systems throughout the country and create a clearer sense of what must be done to create a national network. That survey, Mr. Jones says, is months behind schedule.

Among the coalition’s recommendations in its letter to President Bush is to streamline the process for jurisdictions seeking government aid to make their communications systems compatible and for disclosure of how much is being spent on such efforts.

The coalition says it is unclear how much money is being spent, citing reported figures ranging from $200-million to $5-billion that represent federal money available for upgrading communications for first responders.

The president’s proposed federal budget for the 2007 fiscal year sought $50-million for a National Preparedness Integration Program that would include improving emergency communications.

Congress is still working out how much to spend. The House of Representatives has voted to spend $15-million, while the Senate has approved $8-million.

Mr. Jones concedes that some first-response organizations themselves need to abandon long-standing turf wars and be willing to cooperate with other agencies.

“We need to put aside differences that exist some places between police and fire,” Mr. Jones says. “People need to put aside their egos and realize they need to work together to solve the problems that put their lives at risk as first responders and lives at risk in the communities they protect.”

Yet, Mr. Jones says the lack of federal leadership is the most persistent problem hampering the efforts to upgrade the communications system. With hurricane season in full swing and terrorists plotting against America, that lack of leadership doesn’t bode well for first responders.

“The mood right now among first responders is one of frustration,” Mr. Jones says. “Here we have first responders who are compassionate and dedicated to saving lives, but when they can’t communicate, they can’t do the job they signed up to do. Disastrous things do occur — that’s the sad fact of life. But it shouldn’t be exacerbated by the fact that the people trying to save lives and property can’t talk to each other.”

Elizabeth Schwinn contributed to this article.