WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Washington region's public safety agencies have learned a lot about each other's operations since the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the Pentagon. Now, they're trying to improve their response capabilities for the next big challenge.
``In this post 9/11 era, we could be the target, and we need to be sure that our people in the field are able to recognize signs, deal with the situation and keep themselves safe,'' said Jay J. Brown, deputy chief of the Loudoun County, Va., Department of Fire and Rescue.
Training scenarios widely used in the region over the past two years have included simulations involving nuclear, biological or chemical exposure of public safety personnel arriving to treat patients injured by a conventional explosion or other hazard.
While technology and lifesaving protocols are improving, many departments are facing the retirement and loss of some of their most experienced personnel. About 150 paramedics, emergency medical technicians and emergency physicians from northern Virginia, suburban Maryland and the District of Columbia spent the day discussing ways to close the gap.
``We have a two-year training program for paramedics that isn't putting out paramedics like it needs to be,'' said Dr. Fernando Daniels III, medical director of the D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department. He cited the loss of income, and strain on personal lives as reasons for declining enrollment.
Emergency medical technicians in his department now outnumber paramedics by a ratio of six to one. That means EMTs will be called upon to perform more services.
Local departments are also being encouraged to be flexible about their mutual aid plans so that their home territories are not left vulnerable during regional incidents.
``We have jurisdictions that could go either into the Baltimore region or into the national-capital region,'' said Dr. Robert R. Bass, executive director of the Maryland Institute for EMS Systems.
In Virginia, EMS operations are broken into eleven regions, making it more likely that departments belonging to the Northern Virginia EMS Council will work with their D.C. region counterparts than with units from Richmond, said Melinda Duncan who has served as executive director of the council since 1987.
``Washington D.C., is right across the river, and Maryland is a little further up,'' Duncan said.
