The Dakota County Board of Commissioners this week recognized five firefighters and a police officer from cities across the county for completing arduous national certification to be qualified responders to building or structural collapses.

This is the first time such response capability has been available within the County. The six are all members of the 30-member Dakota County Special Operations Team, which includes members from Dakota County and police officers and firefighters from major cities in the county. The SOT responds to large-scale disasters or unusual emergencies, such as those involving potentially hazardous materials. Before the six were certified, no one in Dakota County had training for dealing with large building collapses, a need that came into sharp focus during the terrorist attacks in September 2001 in New York.

A few firefighters in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Edina and Rochester also have earned this certification. This team is unique for two reasons: they represent several cities across the County, not just one, and a police officer is part of the group. Grant funds received by Dakota County were used to pay for the training.

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety, Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (HSEM) was required to develop a state strategy to identify gaps in the state’s emergency operations plan when responding to an act of terrorism. Through this process, it identified that Minnesota has been challenged for many years on how best to respond to a major building collapse within our state.

The initial response to a collapse structure is the primary responsibility of local government with assistance from state and federal government. In Minnesota, the ability of local and state government to respond to and manage a major multi–level structural collapse is limited. Assistance from the federal government Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) Team is at least 24 hours away.

After identifying that local and state government had limited capabilities to respond to a building collapse, the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management started to implement a plan in 1999 to fill this gap. Through roundtable discussions with interested local responders. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and USAR Team representatives, a work group was established to develop a program that would be compatible with the response of a USAR Team prior to their arrival.

As a result of those meetings, the Minneapolis Fire Department was identified as a Heavy Team. The Edina Fire Department, Dakota County Special Operations Team, St. Paul Fire Department and the Rochester Fire Department were identified as Medium Teams.

A Heavy Team consists of 100 team members from the Minneapolis Fire Department and various surrounding communities. They have several pieces of specialized equipment, which includes a rescue truck and trailer, various metal and concrete saws, pneumatic tools (air bags and air shores), hydraulic tools, search cameras and hazardous materials monitors. A Medium Team consists of 30 members and includes a rescue truck and equipment similar to the Heavy Team, but on a smaller scale.

Expected deployment time of each team is within 20 minutes of receiving the request. Depending on the severity of the incident, each team is expected to deploy a minimum of 10 people on the initial response, with backfill becoming available as needed.

Each member of the team is trained to the level of collapse structure rescue technician. Collapse structure rescue technician training is a rigorous three–week course taught by an accredited institution with FEMA certified instructors. In addition to the collapse structure rescue technician training, each member is required to be trained as a first responder or EMT and to have attended or to be certified in the following classes, which are requirements within National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Standards 1006 and 1670:

• Minnesota Incident Management System (MIMS)
• Introduction to Technical Rescue
• Confined Space Technician
• Trench Rescue Technician
• Rope Rescue Technician
• FEMA-USAR Crush Victim Management

The success of this program has already been felt throughout the state when members of the Minneapolis Heavy Team responded to the city of Ramsey on December 28, 2004, when a building exploded from a leak in a natural gas line. The team was able to provide specialized equipment and technical expertise to the Ramsey Fire Department to find and extricate the victims of this incident.

If you are in need of a team to respond to an emergency, call the Minnesota Duty Officer toll free at 1-800-422-0798 or 651-649-5451. For more information about the Collapsed Structure Rescue Teams, contact Gary Hendrickson at Homeland Security and Emergency Management (HSEM) at 651-215-6946.

(This article appeared in the July-August 2005 Minnesota Fire Chief magazine.)

In preparation for demolition of a factory in Dakota County, Minnesota, hazardous waste from the factory was temporarily stored in a shed, which was not effectively secured. During a late afternoon in September 2004, two teenagers entered the shed and found two canning jars containing approximately 21 pounds of elemental mercury. The teenagers brought the mercury back to their neighborhood, where they and approximately 12 other youths played with it, throwing handfuls of mercury at each other and splashing in a large puddle of mercury on an outdoor basketball court. This initial exposure was limited to <2 hours because of rapid response by a parent who saw what the youths were doing, told them to go home and shower, and contacted the police. Subsequently, 48 persons, including 18 youths, were decontaminated with water and detergent by the Dakota County Special Operations Team between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. Beginning at 9 p.m., homes were scanned for contamination by using a real-time mercury vapor analyzer. On the recommendation of Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) staff, residents of 12 contaminated homes were sheltered in a motel by the American Red Cross.