Ted is a Deputy Chief with the Montgomery County (MD) Fire and Rescue Service. He is the County's Fire Marshal and also heads the Bureau of Life Safety Services. One of the sections in his bureau is Fire and Explosives Investigations. Ted was in charge of the Bureau of Operations from October 1995 to May 1999. He has served as the department's safety officer and training officer. He has 38 years of career service.
He has been an officer of the County's Hazardous Incident Response Team (HIRT) since its establishment in 1981. He is also a member of FEMA's Urban Search and Rescue MD Task Force 1. He spent nine days with the team in Oklahoma City, following the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Building
For more than five years, Ted has been working with others to improve the response capability of Montgomery County to respond to and manage acts of terrorism involving weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The County has received substantial training and equipment as part of the planning process.
Ted was the one of the chairpersons of the Chemical Weapons Improved Response Program (CW IRP), U.S. Soldier and Biological Chemical Command. He was also a participant of the Biological Weapons Improved Response Program (BW IRP).
During his three years with the CW IRP, he assisted with the testing of firefighters' personal protective equipment (PPE) against a chemical agent simulant challenge to determine the efficacy of the ppe. He also worked with the testing of positive pressure ventilation (PPV) fans to determine their effectiveness in removing chemical agent from a "contaminated" building. As a third project, he worked with the mass decontamination study committee to develop guidelines for use by emergency responders.
Additionally, he was an instructor in the Domestic Preparedness Train-the-Trainer Domestic Preparedness Program. In July 2001, As part of a similar program for Military Installation Protection, Ted spent nine days in Japan as one of the instructors. He is a member of the International Association of Fire Chiefs Terrorism Committee.
Ted is a member of the Washington Metropolitan Area Council of Governments (COG) Bioterrorism Defense Planning Executive Committee. He is also a member of the Executive Board of the Maryland Emergency Response and Information on Terrorism (MERIT) organization. Moreover, he served as a member of the Advanced Technology Integration Demonstration (ATID) Senior Review Group.
He was a member of the Center of Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), CBRN Terrorism Task Force. Currently, he is also a member of the FEMA, USAR WMD Ad Hoc Work Group; SBCCOM Cold Weather Decontamination Work Group; TSWG/PHS Mass Personnel Decontamination Task Force; and Montgomery County's Local Emergency Planning Commission (LEPC).
In December 2000, Ted was appointed to serve on the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Advisory Committee to Task Order #1 under AHRQ's Bioterrorism Initiative. Congress directed AHRQ to sponsor research in healthcare readiness for bioterrorism preparedness and response. The Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) was awarded the task order.
Ted spent nine days in Portsmouth, New Hampshire (TOPOFF) Chemical Exercise, as part of the CWIRP technical team.
He is a co-author of a work-in-progress titled "Field Expedient Chemical Agent Decontamination for First Responders" for the USPHS, Office of Emergency Preparedness.
In December 1998, He testified with others on behalf of the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service before the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation to obtain a permanent variance to allow use of a non-NIOSH approved negative pressure chemical mask. In February 1999, DLLR granted the variance.
He was one of the principal persons who successfully prepared two Department of Justice Grants to acquire a total of $450,000 to purchase WMD-related equipment and materials. The purpose of these items is to bolster Montgomery County's domestic preparedness efforts. After final purchases, the County will have more than $700,000 worth of CBRN equipment and materials.
Ted has been a speaker at many conferences and programs on the subject of domestic preparedness against terrorism involving weapons of mass destruction. He has met individually with several members of Congress including Representatives Curt Weldon, Constance Morella, and Albert Wynn. The subject of these meetings was local preparedness and response to terrorist attacks involving weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
In January 2000, Ted designed and created a website titled WMD First Responders. The website was published on the World Wide Web in February. It is dedicated to improving the response capabilities of first responders to manage the consequences of terrorist attacks involving weapons of mass destruction.
Ted is a member of many fire protection-related organizations and is also a member of the University of Maryland's Salamander Honorary Fire Protection Engineering Society. He holds both BS and MS degrees in Fire Protection Engineering from the University of Maryland at College Park. Ted is also a Certified Emergency Manager (CEM).
Related:
