FINAL REPORT #37 DISASTER ANALYSIS: POLICE AND FIRE DEPARTMENTS Dennis Wenger E. L. Quarantelli Russell R. Dynes 1989. 1 F-nal Report #I on Phase I1 Federal Emergency Management Agency. DISASTER ANALYSIS: POLICE AND FIRE DEPARTMENTS t FINAL REPORT #l ON PHASE I1 for Federal Emergency Management Agency Washington, D.C. 20472 Dennis Wenger E. L. Quarantelli Russell R. Dynes i The Disaster Research Center University of Delaware Newark, Delaware 19716 under Contract #EMW-85-C-1981 Work Unit 2651 G March 1989 8 ACKNOVS As is true of nearly all DRC (Disaster Research Center) publications, what is reported herein represents a collective product. Some, of course, contributed more than others, and at different time points of the work, but all persons noted below contributed directly or indirect- ly to this volume, A substantial part of the data gathering and some of the initial analysis was undertaken by research assistants who were employed to work on the project. These included Michele DiPalo, Barbara Friedman, Laura Ketter, Sarah Kingsley, John Linn, Dorothy Lockwood, Lynne Snowden and James Wright. Undergraduate aides involved were Michele Klein and Stewart McEenzie, L The administrative and logistical aspects of the project were handled by the DRC Office 'Coordinator, Margie Simmons. We especially want to thank her for her usual able and efficient help during the whole course of the work, Ralph Swisher was the project officer in the Federal Emergency Manage- ment Agency responsible for liaison with DRC, He provided uqeful guidance during the research effort and was particularly helpful in giving feedback on an earlier draft of this report. Also, many local community officials around the country, especially in fire and police departments, provided the information on which this report is based. The great majority were very cooperative and helpful. Because, as a matter of standard DRC field policy, the specific officials contacted were promised confidentiality and that they would not be individually identified in a personal way in any DRC publica- tion, we cannot single any of them out by name, but we are grateful for their considerable assistance. This report also follows the traditional DRC and scholarly policy of citing references and otherwise documenting what is reported, However, almost all of the examples and statistics used were derived or computed from primary data in the files of the Center, All unreferenced \ material, therefore, can be presumed to have been derived by DRC from its own data base, Finally, since ours was the final decision on much of the data gather- ' ing and on all of the data analysis and report writing, any faults, shortcomings and errors in this report are our responsibility alone,. E, L, Quarantelli, DRC Director Russell R, Dynes, DRC Co-Director Dennis Wenger, DRC Co-Director i TABLE OF C0ll"TS A(=RNO.DG..S A(=RNO.DG..S ..................................................... i C0.S TABLE OF C0.S ................................................... ii Chapter 1 . I.ODUCTION ............................................. 1 Background of This Report ....................................... 1 The Field Work .................................................. 2 Field Research on Police and Fire Response to Disaster ..........5 Chapter 2 . POLICE DEPAXTMENTS ....................................... 9 Previous Work. .................................................. 9 The Nature and Problems of Police Departments ..................12 Predisaster Structure. Resources and Disaster Planning ....13 Organizational Tasks During Disaster ...................... 17 Traffic and Crowd Control ............................ 19 .Protection 0.f Life and Property ............ ;......... 20 . Search and Rescue Activities .......................... 21 Warning and Evacuation ............................... 23 Intraorganizational Adaptations During Disaster ........... 24 . Alterations in Activities and Practices ..............24 Alterations in Intraorganizational Structures.... ....28 The Authority Structure.. ....................... 28 The Decision Making Process. .................... 30 Communication Chagnels .......................... 31 Interorganizational Relationships. .........................32 Chapter 3 . FIRE DESARTMENTS. ....................................... 36 Previous Studies ............................................... 36 The Nature and Problems of Fire Departments .................... 39 Predisaster Structure. Resources.and Disaster Planning ....40 Organizational Tasks During Disaster ...................... 48 Intraorganizational Adaptations During Disaster ...........51 Interorganizational Adaptations During Disaster ...........54 Incident Command System ................................... 57 Chapter 4. BRIEF CASE STUDIES OF THE DISASTERS ..................... 61 Case Study #I: Explosion and Evacuation in Carbon Hi11 ........62 Case Study #2: Gas Spill in Astor .............................66 Case Study f3: A Tornado and Flood Strike Bunkus ..............72 Case Study 14: Hotel Fire in Solara Beach. .................... 79 Case Study 85: A Plane Crash in Trotter ....................... 82 Case Study #6; A Fire and Toxic Spill in Richdon ..............88 Case Study 87: Planes Crash Over Norwood ...................... 93 Case Study #8: A Train Crash in Maxwell ...................... 100 Chapter 5. RESEARCH FINDINGS AND TRENDS ........................... 108 The Structure. Resource Base and Planning for Disasters .......109 Police Departments ....................................... 1~ Fire Depar~ents......................................... 113 .J Organizational Tasks During Disaster .......................... 116 Police Departments ....................................... 116 Traffic and Crowd Control ........................... 117 Protection of Life and Property ..................... 120 Search and Rescue ................................... 121 Warning and Evacuation .............................. 122 Fire Depar~ents......................................... 124 Fire Suppression .................................... 125 Search and Rescue ................................... 126 Warning and Evacuation .............................. 127 Intraorganizational Adaptations During Disasters. .............128 Police Departments ........................................ 128 Alterations in Activities and Practices. ............129 Alterations in Intraorganizational Structure ........132 The Authority Structure........................ 133 The Decision Making Process.. ..................135 Communication Channels ......................... 136 Fire Departments ........................................ e138 Alterations in Activities and Practices .............139 Alterations in Intraorganizational Structure ........141 The Authority Structure ....................... -141 The Decision Making PTocesSI ....................143 Communication Channels ......................... 144 Interorganizational Adaptations During Disasters ..............145 Police and Fire Departments.............................. 145 Local Police-Fire Relationships .,... ................ 147 Relationships With Other Local Organizations........ 149 Mutual Aid Relationships With Other Police and Fire Dep~.tments............................ .151 Relationships Uith Other External Organiza- tions and Volunteers ........................... ..153 Incident Command Syst....................................... .155 Chapter 6. CONCLUSIONS. IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ..........165 Research ConcZusions. ......................................... 166 Police Departments and their- ........................... 166 Predisaster structure. resources and planning .......166 Organizational tasks during disasters ...............167 Intraorganizational adaptations during disasters ....168 Fire Departments and their- .............................169 Predisaster structure. resources and planning. ......169 Organizational tasks during disasters. .............. 170 Intraorganizational adaptations during disasters. ...170 Police-and Fire Departments and their- ..................171 Interorganizational adaptations during disasters ....171 Incident Command System ................................... 172 Implications and Recommendations ............................. -174 For both police and fire departments..................... 175 For police departments ................................... .76 For fire depar~ents..................................... 176 'BIBLIOGRAPHY....................................................... 179 iii Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION Background of This Report The Disaster Research Center (DRC) at the University of Delaware in the fall of 1985 initiated work under Contract EMW-85C-1981 on a five year project focusing upon community and organizational response to natura1 and technological disasters. During the First Phase of the project where the work extended over a year, the DRC undertook a comparative study of the responses of local emergency management agencies (LEMAs) during the emergency time period of disasters. The Final Report on the First Phase of the work (Wenger, Quarantelli and Dynes, 1987) reported on both the extensiveness and effectiveness of the disaster response by LEMAs in six communities. An empirically grounded eightfold typology of local emergency management arrangements was developed, and the effectiveness of the various types was studied in relation to such variables as disaster experience, disaster planning and federal assistance. In general,