Thanks for the comments. In regard to the bystander response, I’m dying to find a report written by Quarantelli on spontaneous bystander response to the Guadalajara gasoline explosion- the link I put on here doesn’t have the paper he wrote but some references to the research. It was a great paper that I have on pdf someplace, but can’t find it on the internet anymore. I’ll keep looking and if I can find it, I’ll put it up for reading.

Thanks again for your insight.

Mick

First, here’s my take on bystanders: they’re extremely valuable. Here’s how I can see the value of bystanders during a hypothetical hurricane scenario: In many cases, bystanders can make rescues and/or offer assistance well before the arrival of professional rescuers. For example, how many people pull neighbors from collapsed structures and offer first aid after hurricanes?? After hurricanes, how many live people do professional rescuers remove from collapsed structures? The bystander happens to be in the right place at the right time to offer assistance which, otherwise, may not arrive for quite some time. Also, after your arrival, these citizens can be extremely valuable to you. They can provide intelligence (how many stayed? how many lived in that house?) and physical labor for moving equipment through/across downed trees, etc.

People want to help. As the incident commander at this incident, I can assist people with their desire to help by assigning tasks for them (and help me control them) and assist my company(s) by using the company’s higher skills and training for other purposes while the bystanders help with physically moving equipment to needed locations.

As for credentialing bystanders? A system for “credentialing” these people has existed for several years. Unfortunately, our county emergency management organizations (in SC) haven’t been very succesful in publicizing, organizing, training, and/or using Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT). Having residents organized and trained to assist themselves and their neighbors during and after an emergency? What a concept!

The glory hounds? Like you, I detest the idiots. I am angered by having to dedicate my valuable time to dealing with the idiots when I could be more focused on the incident. I have no mercy for jerks like you mentioned.

So if this is the case, what is the dog tracking when we’re out on a real live pile? Has he hit on a live person? Is it a deceased victim? Is it Fluffy? Or is it a t-bone?

I don’t know who all the “certifying” agencies are out there, but given the fly-by-night nature of some of these guys, I’ll just stick with the pros I am sure about- people like Theresa McPherson, Jim Bastan, Roxanne Dunn, and Debra Burnett, as well as the people from my task force who I trust implicitly.

But I’ll talk more about this in my next post anyway. Thanks.

In the committees brought together to develop credentialing requirements, it doesn’t seem like enough momentum ever occurs to withstand the assault of dissent that occurs with some of these things. If you ask me, I’d just say, adopt a minimum standard and be done with it. If you want to do more than the standard in your jurisdiction, then do it. But the absolute MINIMUM that someone can do to be a technician of whatever discipline is just that- the minimum.

To me it seems very clear cut – particularly when the training guidelines and certification programs are being developed by the experts in each field. National groups comprising the best of the best help define the standards. What is so distasteful or onerous about this, for those with arguments against credentialing?

Its similar to a doctor being identified and certified – a person who takes courses in bermuda to become a “doctor” isn’t recognized as one in the US until he/she passes a standardized test, recognized in the US, and receives the proper identification.

From dealing with some of this over the course of a few years, my opinion is two fold: 1) the wild west “attitude” and reigning it in, in the name of public safety, and 2) lack of education on what is, and has been, defined as the accepted standards for training and identification (e.g. credentialing).

I’m interested to see the rest of your argument!

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