ATLANTA -- Firefighters in Israel not only have to deal with the hazards faced at an emergency scene, they have to worry about terrorists out to harm civilians and to target them and their fire stations.
Tel-Aviv Fire Chief Ori Shoval spoke to several dozen fire service leaders at the Institution of Fire Engineers International Forum on Thursday. The forum was co-located with the International Association of Fire Chiefs' Fire-Rescue International conference in Atlanta.
"Our role is to minimize damage to property and minimize risk to public safety," Shoval said.
That's not an easy task when enemies are lobbing homemade missiles into your community and suicide bombers wait for first responders to arrive at the scene of carnage to detonate a second attack, killing and injuring firefighters, Shoval said.
In his first lecture delivered in English, Shoval told the audience about the hazards the 1,350 professional Israeli firefighters face routinely.
Shoval said car crashes, building collapses, hazmat situations and wildland fires are the routine calls his men face. In addition they have to respond to acts of war and terrorism.
Since 2005, 452 Israeli civilians have been killed by acts of terrorism and 1,630 have been injured, Shoval said, noting that the firefighters are typically the responding agency in charge of helping the wounded and recovering the dead.
"We must remove all the pieces of flesh and blood," Shoval said. And Jewish customs require all pieces of the person's body be recovered so the corpse can be buried as one.
That is a labor intensive and emotionally draining task, Shoval said. In answer to a question from the audience, Shoval said Israeli firefighters do not participate in stress debriefing sessions as firefighters in the United States do. He said the country must do better protecting the emotions of firefighters regularly facing that kind of carnage.
Firefighters also clear shattered glass from damaged buildings and pick up ceiling tiles to help prevent further injuries.
While doing all that, Shoval said his firefighters must be on the lookout for terrorists. Often a secondary explosion occurs minutes after responders arrive, as suicide bombers run to where firefighters are staged.
"They are familiar with our operations and know where we will be," he said.
When a report of an attack is received, the typical response is for two pumpers, a heavy rescue and necessary ambulances, he said.
On larger scenes, Shoval said he can summon military reservists who have specialized training to augment his crews. There are no volunteer firefighters in Israel, he said.
Because normal turnout gear doesn't afford much, if any, protection against terror attacks, firefighters are issued additional gear to protect them from shrapnel and other debris, Shoval said.
If equipment and turnout gear gets exposed to infected blood, that gear or equipment is discarded, he said.
Additional protection is afforded by dispersal of fire equipment all over the city, effectively hiding the resource from attacks, Shoval said. He showed photos of battle-scarred fire stations and burned out fire apparatus.
Shoval said a separation wall that remains under construction has dramatically reduced the number and frequencies of the attacks. The trade off is rockets launched over the wall indiscriminately hitting homes, buildings and even touching off wildland fires which tax firefighters even further. He said in one attack, 400 forest fires were reported.
In all, there were 3,970 attacks reported in Israel in the Second Lebanon War and of those, firefighters only responded to 2,536. The rest went unanswered, or may not have needed fire department response, he said.
He acknowledges that Israel might not have sufficient resources in the country to handle all the attacks and he's appreciative of the mutual aid the country receives. Firefighters from Bulgaria and Greece have traveled to Israel to help with first responder activities.
"We need to build up our fire departments," Shoval said.
