Rebuilding the Iraqi Fire Service: Firefighter Tells Of Six-Month Mission To Iraq
Assistant Chief Monte Leonard Fitch was a Montgomery County, Maryland firefighter and Maryland Task Force One USAR member who retired in October 2000 after over 35 years of service. Last August, however, he received a phone call offering him the mission of a lifetime; to help rebuild the Iraqi fire and rescue service.
The offer took him completely by surprise. A county fire official had recommended him for the mission, and he was soon hired by the Department of Defense for a six-month deployment to Iraq to train, equip and modernize the fire service. He found himself on a flight to Baghdad on October 3, 2003 with very little idea what to expect.
"Being a firefighter, I thought it was a good opportunity to help another fire service in trouble," he said. "I knew they were in need of assistance to rebuild the infrastructure of the fire service."
The task ahead of him was monumental, and the experience was at times hectic, but extremely rewarding, Fitch said.
Findings In Baghdad
Fitch worked as a DOD civilian with the Coalition Provisional Authority, first working with Chief Master Sergeant Glenn Robinson of the U.S. Air Force. Robinson was then relieved in mid November by Chief Master Sergeant Gene Rausch. They were the only two people Fitch worked with full time on this massive endeavor until late February, when they were able to bring in some assistance.
They began by documenting the location and condition of Iraq's fire stations and equipment. They mapped the locations by gathering GPS readings from their own visits to fire stations, and from GPS coordinates sent by assisting military units each time they located a fire station.
As for equipment, they found that the Iraqi fire service had no personal protective equipment or breathing apparatus, no formal training academy, no communication systems and no nationwide water distribution systems. There was almost no communication between fire stations and very little of their equipment worked.
The fire stations needed generators because electric power is unreliable, and firefighters had a hard time maintaining enough fuel for the apparatus because it is in extremely high demand.
In addition to all of these problems, the firefighters needed to carry weapons to protect the stations from looters and to protect the vehicles during emergency runs. One engine was taken from firefighters at gun point while on the scene of an incident, and was found a week later looted, Fitch said. A second looted fire truck in Basrah was found with people living inside the compartments.
Fitch said one of the greatest security concerns is that terrorists will use a stolen fire truck or ambulance to carry a bomb into the scene of an incident or into the "Green Zone," a military-controlled area and living quarters for most of those working for the Coalition Provisional Authority.
In the face of all these challenges, Iraqi firefighters respond to many fires, especially residential fires caused by dangerous heating methods. Another serious fire safety issue is that people often store both kerosene and gasoline in their homes to protect it from looters. Fitch said firefighters go through a massive amount of foam to put out these fires. "They use more foam here than I've seen anywhere," he said.
Fitch saw the devastating effect of these home fires up close when the sister of one of Baghdad's local fire chiefs died from kerosene fire burns before they could transport her to a burn center.
Fitch, Rausch and Robinson sometimes felt overwhelmed by their mission and worked seven days a week, often up to 18 hours per day, Fitch said. However, they were also able to make decisions and act much faster than the larger committees they are used to at home. "Everything we did was compressed by the amount of work and time constraints for completion," Fitch said.
A Close Call
Just as the mission was getting underway, the Al Rasheed hotel where Fitch was staying was hit by a rocket attack on October 26th, the first day of Ramadan. He was living on the tenth floor of the 15-story hotel, located within the Green Zone."
The first hit occurred at 6:10 a.m. while most people were still asleep, followed by seven more RPG's that struck the west side of the hotel. It was a harrowing wake up call.
"All of the mirrors in the room shattered, you could hear people screaming, and the smoke was down to the floor," Fitch said. He opened the door to see people running through the smoke towards the center core stairwell.
His concern was to safely reach the ground floor and exit the hotel, but first, he thought, "Well I made it this far - I'm a firefighter, I can't leave until I search for injured."
He searched the ninth floor and found a man who was unable to move his legs and had shrapnel and glass in his back. Fitch and three other men carried him on a blanket to the lobby of the hotel.
Fitch then returned to the eighth floor and continued searching until he met up with newly arrived KBR contract firefighters, and together they searched up through the 15th floor. During the attack on the hotel, one person was killed, six people were hospitalized and a total of 21 were injured.
After the attack Fitch moved into one of the trailer camps also located in the Green Zone.
For those living in this city of trailer homes and tents, Fitch said, there was the continued concern for personal safety as they listened to rockets going off at night, often coming closer and closer to their living quarters. They were attacked by rockets both in the morning and evening of Christmas, and on one occasion the rockets hit a parking lot across from the trailers, causing shrapnel damage to 47 vehicles.
"During these constant attacks you would learn to differentiate on how close the rockets were hitting or the sound of a car bomb detonating in Baghdad," Fitch said. "We would put our flack jackets and helmets on, and when appropriate hold up in a safe area or work with our helmet and vest on at our desk until the all clear was announced."
The Iraqi Firefighters
Fitch, Rausch and Robinson traveled to fire stations throughout the country's 18 provinces and met frequently with local fire service leaders to discuss their needs and to answer questions. The travel was very difficult because each trip required an armed military escort or Blackhawk flight for greater distances.
They coordinated with local firefighters though Dr. Ali Sa'eed Sa'doon, the Director General of Iraq's fire service, called the Iraqi Civil Defense Directorate (CDD). Dr. Ali spoke and read some English but they communicated at meetings through the CDD's Public Relations Officer, who spoke five languages.
After meeting the firefighters, Fitch said his concerns about language barriers and bureaucracy melted away.
"Firefighters speak the same language of the JOB everywhere," Fitch said.
"Once you meet with the firefighters, we're all the same," he said. "It's just like here except for language. They're very eager for training and new equipment."
Budget And Strategy
Fitch and Robinson began the mission with a budget of $500 million, but after Rausch came onboard in late November they had to drastically cut back their plans because the budget was reduced, leaving them $282 million to rebuild the entire fire service infrastructure for Iraq. They used the Internet to find prices and other information to develop the budget and write requirement specifications, while at the same time writing a ten-year strategic plan and new policy for the fire service.
One of their top priorities was to build a national fire training academy in Baghdad along the Tigris River, plus develop a plan for two satellite training locations in Northern and Southern Iraq. For immediate training needs, they developed specifications for a contract to train firefighter recruits outside of Iraq. Their goal is to train 400 recruits every 11 weeks in order to add 4,000 firefighters over the next two years to the country's current 8,500 firefighters.
Fitch said they also developed a plan to build 200 new fire stations and to renovate 174 of the existing 235 stations. Since the budget was reduced, however, they now plan to build just 30 new stations in 2004, and expect the remaining construction will be included in the 2005 budget.
In addition developing a plan for training and construction, Fitch and the other workers wrote the specifications for new equipment orders. These included orders for 95 mini pumpers, essential because of narrow streets and traffic congestion. They also ordered 74 auto extrication tools; 1,800 sets of breathing apparatus; 10,507 sets of PPE; 400 command cars; tow trucks; and maintenance vehicles. Fire boats were ordered for cities along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, and will also support water supply to fire engines.
Fitch said they also began looking for donations and grants, such as a $20 million donation from Japan that will include 78 equipped fire engines, and a donation from Singapore of tents, cots and blankets to place in the Civil Defense shelters.
In October and November Fitch said they also distributed 300 new Mercedes fire trucks that had already been purchased during Saddam's reign on "Oil For Food" money, but had been held up in Egypt since before the war. When these trucks were delivered, it was the first new equipment the fire service had received since the 1980s.
Fitch said they also began work to implement a national fire service database to track fire stations, equipment, personnel, requirements, and priorities for construction. They were also successful, he said, in developing a pay scale that would triple the pay of the firefighter EOD personnel and implement a hazard duty pay benefit and system for line of duty death benefits.
Return To the U.S.
Fitch's deployment to Iraq ended in March 2004. He said he is happy to be back to his family and to safety, and he knows that the mission will be in good hands with his replacement Jack Myers and Rausch's replacement Chief Master Sergeant Joe Rivera. If everything goes as planned, he said, the Iraqi fire service should have their new training academy completed this year and most of their new equipment by late 2004 or early 2005.
Fitch said it is unclear, however, how long the Coalition Provisional Authority will continue providing guidance to the Iraqi fire service after the transition to an Embassy on June 30. He requested that CPA personnel be retained to mentor and support the Iraqi CDD for at least another year to help distribute and train Iraqi firefighters on the new equipment while supporting the 2010 Strategic Plan and developing the 2005 budget.
Even without further CPA support, however, Fitch said that the Iraqi fire service will manage to carry on from here thanks to all the mentoring, assistance and rebuilding they have received so far. They have the heart and willingness, and now the tools to do the job, Fitch said.
"They're very similar to firefighters in the United States," he said. "They will do their job in spite of all odds and do what it will take to get the job done."
In addition to his co-workers Chief Master Sergeant Glenn Robinson and Chief Master Sergeant Gene Rausch of the U.S. Air Force, Fitch credited several others for their efforts in the mission to rebuild the Iraqi fire service: Steve Young from Queensland Australia, Jack Myers, Jeff Turkel, Ron Swartz, Van Smith and Major Tuttle, as well as Maj. Brent Gerald, Capt. Mark St. Laurent and Capt. Richard Cote of the military's civil affairs units, which supported various community needs including renovations to firehouses.
