rdous materials (haz-mat) incidents. The Department continues to expand its hazardous materials capabilities by combining the Hazardous Materials Unit with first responders in a comprehensive tiered response to mitigate hazardous materials incidents of all levels. EMS provides medical decontamination, patient management and medical support for haz-mat teams as well as civilians. The threat of biological, chemical and radiological terrorism demands that the FDNY further expand this role for the protection of the City.
A number of communications difficulties hindered the FDNY on September 11, 2001 in response to the terrorist attacks on New York City. Multiple problems involving communications and technology prevented commanders from speaking to firefighters and EMS personnel and as a result, emergency responders died unnecessarily. One of FDNY's goals was to fix this problem. These difficulties made apparent the FDNY's need to acquire and deploy more sophisticated communications equipment. The new hand held radios issued post 9/11 have more channels and are more likely to work in high rise buildings. Thus, the FDNY has achieved one of its goals by improving communications between emergency responders and between responders and their commanders.
Another serious problem became evident on September 11 in New York. The FDNY and NYPD rarely coordinated command and control functions and rarely exchanged information
related to command and control. For example, there were no senior NYPD officers present at the fire department's Incident Command Post. Evidence suggests that there was little or no communications between the two departments on 9/11. One of the goals of New York's emergency management organization is to ensure that communication and coordination occur so that lives are not lost unnecessarily.
According to the New York City Fire Department website, when the Chief of the Fire Department issued a full recall on 9...