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POST
INCIDENT ANALYSIS
Glendale Metrolink Rail Disaster
By Debbie Lawrence, Battalion Chief
Battalion 20-B
(At
the direction of Executive Staff members and motivated by interest,
BC Debbie Lawrence attended the Post Incident Analysis (PIA) conducted
by responding emergency response agencies to the January 26, 2005
Glendale Metro-link Rail Disaster. The following are notes of the
PIA as reflected by BC Lawrence)
- The
first 911 call came in at 0602-hrs. LFD TF 50 dispatched at 0603-hrs
and arrived at 0608-hrs. They were sent to the Costco address
and saw a light smoke column. The initial thought was they had
a vehicle fire. It had been raining with heavy ground mist and
was quite dark.
Units
got to the back of Costco and saw the overturned locomotive
with fire impinging on the 5000 gal diesel tanks and could see
people moving inside the first Metro-Link car which was now
perpendicular to the tracks. The fire was a threat to that car.
E50 took a hydrant and began fire suppression. The tillerman
started cutting the chain link fence. The AO did a lap for size-up
and the TFC started ordering resources. E50 personnel started
triage.
The
initial resource order bump was for 3TF, and 5RAs. LFD BN2 arrived
on scene at Costco, did a lap, and took command ordering 10
TFs, 10RAs, USAR, copters and 4 BCs.
- E50
personnel found a victim who was agonal and had to ignore him
which was very difficult for them (they made the comment its not
the same as condemning a cone at a MCI drill).
- Glendale
Fire Department got dispatched to San Fernando and Chevy Chase
(their training center is near that location). Glendale Info 2
was going to the TC to exercise and was first to arrive on scene
and was accosted by walking wounded coming from about a ¼
mile away.
He
gave a size-up and corrected the location. He sent the walking
wounded to a nearby public works yard. The first arriving engine
was given patient care at the yard, the BC sent the second engine
further down to scout it out and they found Magnolia St to have
the best access. He made that engine Magnolia division and Glendale
fire dept ran their operations from there.
- Glendale
fire dept BCs monitor their PD channel. Hearing them talk about
victims at Costco, THE Glendale BC went to investigate and that’s
how he hooked up with the LFD BC.
They
backed their command vehicles up to each other and ran a modified
unified command. They agreed it was Glendale’s incident.
They did not have the capability to talk to each other on the
radios (LFD eventually had 16 radio channels in use) LFD’s
comm. unit was on scene by 0650 and brought 25 spare radios
and many extra batteries.
- The
initial BCs decided to run separate Medical Groups because of
geographical limitations. Concerns were voiced about having separate
MED COMs and transportation areas. In retrospect the agencies
felt that they were more efficient running 2 transportation areas
as they could get patients loaded faster.
- LFD
radio traffic was jammed with incoming resources requesting assignments
(a suggestion is to either establish staging on a separate channel
or have them do a face to face for assignments).
- Both
agencies agreed that they should have placed numbers on each rail
car much earlier in the incident to avoid duplicate searches.
They did get spray paint from USAR units and used the “X”
system to indicate the search company, number of victims, etc.
They did eventually number the cars 1-6.
- The
Sheriff who died was found immediately and Glendale Police dept
posted an officer with the body.
- An
LFD EMS captain used his PA to send walking wounded to the front
of Costco.
- Glendale
fire dept ended up sending 4 patients per ambulance. Critical
patients went to USC by themselves.
- Both
agencies have RAs that transport patients. They responded several
AMR ambulances to keep their PM’s on-scene. LFD transport
officer used FFs to drive some of the RA’s.
- Fire
agencies agree that many difficulties were encountered with MAC.
Glendale fire dept RA 25 contacted MAC to tell them they had an
MCI and MAC said they would not help them because they were running
an incident with LFD. LFD called MAC and they were told that they
would not talk to them because RA 25 had already called. Glendale
fire dept RA 25 radioman called every nearby hospital on his cell
phone to get their bed status.
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