Response Personnel Research Articles

Operational Stress Injuries in Disaster Responders: A Framework for Supporting Mental Health in Climate Crisis.

The rising occurrence of natural disasters linked to climate change has drawn the attention of disaster response leaders to the significance of addressing operational stress injuries among disaster response personnel. We define and describe operational stress injuries in this workforce and explore theoretical frameworks that can inform the development of programs and interventions to mitigate these effects. We aim to establish a conceptual framework for understanding an operational stress injury by introducing a model specific to disaster responders. We also emphasize strategies that can be employed within a stress injury awareness framework to promote the mental well-being of those who respond to climate-related disasters.

Revolutionizing Ocean Cleanup: A Portuguese Case Study with Unmanned Vehicles Fighting Spills

It is of the utmost importance for every country to monitor and control maritime pollution within its exclusive economic zone (EEZ). The European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) has developed and implemented the CleanSeaNet (CSN) satellite monitoring system to aid in the surveillance and control of hydrocarbon and hazardous substance spills in the ocean. This system’s primary objective is to alert European Union (EU) coastal states to potential spills within their EEZs, enabling them to take the necessary legal and operational actions. To reduce operational costs and increase response capability, the feasibility of implementing a national network (NN) of unmanned vehicles (UVs), both surface and aerial, was explored using a Portuguese case study. The following approach and analysis can be easily generalized to other case studies, bringing essential knowledge to the field. Analyzing oil spill alert events in the Portuguese EEZ between 2017 and 2021 and performing a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis, essential information has been proposed for the optimal location of an NN of UVs. The study results demonstrate that integrating spill alerts at sea with UVs may significantly improve response time, costs, and personnel involvement, making maritime pollution combat actions more effective.

Simulation Analysis of Loss of Coolant Accidents Based on CNIFA Program

Abstract The loss of coolant accident in the primary pipeline of a reactor is a typical accident in the safety analysis of nuclear power plants, and it is one of the accidents with a high probability of occurrence. Due to the extremely complex structure of the lower space of the containment vessel, it increases the complexity of fluid flow during a loss of coolant accident. This article is based on the internal water flooding analysis simulation software CNIFA of a nuclear power plant to simulate the water flooding of a rupture in the main pipeline heat pipe section of a power plant, and to conduct a comprehensive water flooding scenario simulation for this working condition. The quantitative information collected during the simulation process, including dynamically displayed water volume, water level, and their changes over time, facilitate emergency response personnel to choose the correct response plan in advance, it can also provide more accurate basis for various specialties in design analysis.

Move-over Laws and Incident Response Personnel Safety in the USA

As the number of motor vehicles on roads in the United States of America continues to grow, there is an increasing risk for all road users to be involved in a traffic incident. Although congestion and traveller delay are common traffic incidents, workplace-related injury or fatality among incident response personnel are a serious problem. The injuries may be alleviated with the help of effective laws about incident response personnel safety standards, including state move-over laws. This paper provides an overview, as of July 2024, of existing incident response personnel (“move-over”) laws for all fifty states. This study finds that there is a great variation in such laws among states, which may lead to challenges with comprehension and compliance. States that offer the least amount of protection to their incident response personnel were identified. Recommendations are provided on specific elements of the legislation to offer greater protection to the incident response personnel while working on the side of the roads. The nuances and the variation in move-over laws can make it difficult for drivers to understand what the law requires of them. The findings of this paper will be of interest to researchers, stakeholders, and policymakers working in the field of transportation and occupational safety.

Weather radar utility in hazard detection and response.

Publicly accessible weather radar data have significant capabilities for meteorological measurements and predictions and, further, have the potential to measure nonmeteorological events that include smoke, ash, and debris plumes as well as explosions. The ability to identify and track nonmeteorological events can be of assistance in emergency response, hazard mitigation, and related activities in locations where radar coverage both exists and is recorded and accessible to the user. In this study, events from multiple locations in the United States that are reported in news outlets are assessed using a manual inspection process of Level 2 weather radar data to identify anthropogenic and nonbiological returns. Explosive events are also identified, and a large high-altitude debris cloud from the intentional destruction of the SpaceX Starship is tracked across a wide area. Finally, future efforts using a machine learning model are discussed as a means of automating the process and potentially enabling near-real-time nonmeteorological event identification in the same areas where the data are accessible. Using weather radar data can be a valuable new tool for Department of Defense systems to aid in military awareness, and for interagency emergency response and forensic mission experts to consider national weather service data in their mission profiles. Radar data can be effective in detecting several common types of emergencies and inform and aid response personnel.

C-HAND: near real-time coastal flood mapping

The Texas Gulf Coast region contains significant centers of population, infrastructure, and economy and is threatened by intensifying tropical storms. The flooding from these tropical storms often has multiple compounding drivers. This characteristic presents a complex numerical problem where a simulation must consider multiple hydrologic forcings. While several procedures exist for addressing this problem numerically, they tend to be resource-intensive and cannot be conducted in near real-time. We extend GeoFlood, a reduced physics approach for fluvial flood forecasting, to rapidly predict coastal and compound fluvial-coastal inundation. This method is validated against a numerical ocean circulation model (ADCIRC) simulation of Hurricane Ike, a major coastal flooding event that happened on the Texas Gulf Coast in 2008. We show that the inundation map generated by coastal HAND (c-HAND) has reasonable agreement with the ADCIRC simulation while taking about 1.7% of the time currently needed to run ADCIRC on a supercomputer. While our model correctly predicts 99% of ADCIRC-inundated DEM cells, it also overpredicts inundated area by a factor of approximately 27%. We combine c-HAND with the GeoFlood framework for fluvial flood forecasting to create a compound fluvial-coastal inundation mapping workflow that can be run in near real-time. c-HAND's fast wall-clock time and low CPU requirements can support decision making by first response personnel. The method provides timely and convenient access to crucial information, such as the locations of flooded roads and inundated coastal areas.

Projects for queering disaster: reciprocal knowledge exchange and practice

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to identify LGBTQ+ perceptions of and experiences with hazards, vulnerabilities and disasters in the San Francisco Bay Area in the USA and to co-develop applied projects to “queer” disaster knowledge production and risk reduction activities in the region.Design/methodology/approachThis is a community science project in which we collaborate with community members to enhance both community and scientific knowledge with the goal of utilizing it to produce a positive change to pressing social issues and their underlying causes. We do this through a series of four focus group workshops to identify community priorities, hazards, vulnerabilities and local action. We follow this with further ethnographic research and projects to apply findings from phase one.FindingsThe authors have found that: LGBTQ+ people in the Bay Area have unique experiences with hazards, vulnerabilities and disasters; there are significant gaps in the representation of LGBTQ+ hazard exposure in local scientific models that we can address through alternative methodologies; and tabletop exercises, learning modules and podcasts help orient and train disaster response agencies and personnel on LGBTQ+ inclusive operations.Originality/valueThis initiative entails novel approaches to community science for disaster risk reduction and creative collaboration with community-based organizations to foster the development of LGBTQ+ inclusive disaster risk reduction and response.

Coping with COVID-19: Standing up a comprehensive behavioral health response to the pandemic.

Integrating behavioral health (BH) into disaster preparedness and response is essential to mitigate and address the BH impacts of disasters, support incident response personnel well-being, and to integrate disaster BH concepts into response strategies and communications. This article describes the development, implementation, and lessons learned from a statewide BH response to this disaster by the COVID-19 Behavioral Health Group (COVID-19 BHG). Operating within the Washington State Department of Health (WA DOH), the BHG is comprised of psychologists and psychiatrists with expertise in disaster BH and response, BH epidemiologists, data analysts, systems specialists, emergency managers, and other DOH staff. The wide array of expertise on the team allowed the COVID-19 BHG to build response functions to match the demands created by the pandemic. This included an Impact & Capacity Assessment function, which developed and distributed monthly impact forecasts and weekly BH situational reports. A Training and Guidance team then collaborated with partners to develop and deliver trainings, resource documents, and public messaging. Additionally, the COVID-19 BHG worked closely with the Health Care Authority (HCA) and BH organizations statewide to maintain the ability of the BH system to deliver care and expand services to meet additional needs. This article describes the development and deployment of an innovative and unique statewide BH response, within the WA DOH during the COVID-19 pandemic.

An advanced assessment framework for seismic resilience of railway continuous girder bridge with multiple spans considering 72h golden rescue requirements

Given the common sense that people in danger could survive with high probability in the golden rescue time of 72 h after earthquakes, railway bridges that are important transportation hubs and the lifelines for earthquake relief have been required to satisfy the necessities of safe passage and fast traffic for emergency response personnel in this critical period. To ensure the post-earthquake temporary functionality of the railway bridges to a sufficient safety level in golden rescue scenario, an advanced resilience assessment framework, including seismic resilience determinations for individual bridge components based on residual responses with respect to the plastic capacities originated from performance limit state definitions, definitions of three recovery levels considering repair efficiency for different recovery phases, and the series-parallel and parallel-serial system resilience models developed in temporal and spatial domains, was established. A commonly constructed irregular railway multi-span continuous girder bridge was chosen to verify the practicability of the aforementioned framework. The finite-element model of the illustrative bridge was developed taking abutment-girder interaction effects and nonlinear seismic behaviors of girder into account. Average spectral acceleration was taken as the intensity measure (IM) to consider the response variations originated from higher modes and natural period extension during earthquakes, and the site-matched and IM-based scaled ground records were adopted in the multiple stripe analysis to obtain instantaneous peak and residual seismic responses. Based on the framework, post-event resilience characteristics of bridge components were discussed, four recovery strategies were proposed for bridge system, and the seismic resilience of the illustrated bridge was assessed at system level. The research shows that the response contribution of fundamental dominant mode is only 64.37 %, indicating the dynamic response contributions from higher modes are considerable and the case bridge can show a strong irregularity during seismic events. Obvious nonlinear seismic behaviors occur to the superstructure where material strain in girder critical sections can increase to 0.00422 during earthquakes, which illustrates the inaccuracy of girder modeling only taking elastic behavior into consideration. Also, the prestress loss after earthquakes can reach 31.14 % and attention should be paid to the prestress recovery in subsequent repair works. Most components can satisfy the easy recovery resilience level, and the resilience is closely related to ground intensities and repair-waiting time; earthquake-induced functionality reduction can be 46.57 %, and resilience can increase by 25.35 % if the waiting time is shortened by 5 h. System resilience is influenced by the similar factors with component and varies in cases of different repair sequences due to the accumulation effect of repair-waiting time for various subsystems.

Assessment of health and social implications of Gari factories for their host communities in Oyo State

This paper is a comprehensive assessment of the health and environmental impacts of gari factories on their host communities in Oyo State, Nigeria. Four health centers in the host communities of the gari factories under study were surveyed using structured questionnaires to gather data on the prevalent illnesses and perceptions of the local health personnel. The IITA Health Center serviced the IITA gari factory, Moniya served the Laniyonu gari factory, Agunrege catered to the Agunrege gari factory, and Aafin Health Center provided healthcare services to the Sakutu Sabo Oyo gari factory. The study revealed valuable insights into the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the health personnel respondents at these health centers. Notably, these health personnel played a key role in understanding the health dynamics within their communities. The health personnel's responses highlighted the gari factories' impact on the health of their respective communities and the prevalent health issues. Malaria was common in all communities, while headaches, respiratory infections, and cough were reported in specific areas. Stagnant water and cassava peels were identified as sources of environmental concern. In addition to the health assessment, the study explored the social implications of gari processing in these communities. Residents' perceptions of the gari factories varied, with some communities appreciating their contributions to employment and environmental development while others raised concerns about environmental risks. The findings of this study indicate that Agunrege gari factory poses the highest health threats and environmental risk to its host community due to concerns related to smoke and air pollution. These insights can inform policies and interventions to mitigate the negative impact of gari processing on health and the environment in these communities.

A quadrant shrinking heuristic for solving the dynamic multi-objective disaster response personnel routing and scheduling problem

In the aftermath of natural disasters there is a need to provide disaster relief services. These services are offered by diverse disaster relief personnel teams that are specialized in the provision of the required services, e.g., teams that set up temporary shelters, teams that are providing medical services. These services are provided during a rolling horizon and the demand and supply characteristics of the disaster relief system evolve dynamically over time. In this paper we are presenting a dynamic variant of the multi-objective disaster relief personnel routing and scheduling (DDRPRS) problem, which considers efficiency, fairness and transportation risk objectives. We introduce a Quadrant Shrinking Method (QSM) based heuristic algorithm to approximate the Pareto Optimal Solutions of the DDRPRS problem under consideration. The proposed algorithm considers the performance of the solutions over the entire planning horizon and their robustness over time in terms of their efficiency, fairness and transportation risk. We apply the proposed heuristic for routing and scheduling personnel involved in evacuation and medical operations using data from the 2018 Lombok Earthquake in Indonesia. Our heuristic implementation covers both the dynamic and static variants of the disaster relief personnel routing and scheduling problem. Computational results show that the proposed heuristic can generate in a short time sufficiently large number of Pareto Optimal Solutions which cover the entire Pareto frontier as indicated by the diverging behaviours of the Pareto Optimal Solutions and the associated hypervolume metrics.

Experiences and perceptions of military and emergency services personnel identifying as LGBTQIA+ and their families: a qualitative systematic review protocol.

The objective of this review is to explore the perceptions and experiences of military and emergency personnel who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, intersex, asexual, or other (LGBTQIA+), and the perceptions and experiences of their families. LGBTQIA+ military and emergency first response personnel report disproportionately poorer career and personal outcomes than their cisgender and heterosexual counterparts. Research examining the underlying lived experiences and perceptions of people serving who are LGBTQIA+, particularly those of their family members, is sparse. Hence, the aim of this review is to identify, aggregate, and synthesize relevant qualitative research findings. This review will consider studies of LGBTQIA+ military or emergency first response personnel and their families that include qualitative data capturing their experiences and perceptions of navigating industrial institutions and service communities. Military personnel include those employed in any role within any military organization; emergency first response personnel will include ambulance workers, paramedics, police, firefighters, and other public safety roles. Families will be limited to any configuration of immediate family members of active or retired LGBTQIA+ service personnel. No limits will be applied to the age of service personnel or their family members, nor to duration or chronology of service. Databases searched will include PsycINFO, PubMed Central, ProQuest Central, Scopus, MEDLINE, Embase, and PTSDpubs. Domain-specific journals will be manually searched, and gray literature and unpublished studies will be searched via ProQuest Central. Study screening and selection against inclusion criteria will be performed in Covidence. Data extraction and critical appraisal will be performed using the standardized JBI templates and checklists for qualitative research. All stages will be performed by 2 independent reviewers, with conflicts resolved by a third reviewer. PROSPERO CRD42022323913.

Early fire detection technique for human being using deep learning algorithm

Fire and smoke detection in today’s world is a must, especially in clustered areas where a quick response can prevent significant damages and save lives. Early detection plays a significant role in preventing the fire from spreading by alerting the emergency response personnel. It may not be possible to install traditional fire and smoke detectors everywhere. As a result, incorporating fire and smoke detection into existing closed circuit television (CCTV) systems in various places can provide a warning to the appropriate authorities, allowing for quick action to prevent the fire from spreading. This work aims in developing an early fire and smoke prediction model with CCTV footage images and video frames. The images and videos are collected from multiple datasets available online. A convolutional neural network (CNN) model is developed for early detection and prevention of the spreading of fire and compares it with transfer learning models ResNet50 and VGG19. The model obtain an accuracy of around 94% using CNN model, 95% using VGG19 and 98% using ResNet 50. A model with high accuracy can replace traditional fire detection systems which can be both cost-effective and easy to implement to existing surveillance cameras.

Analysis of first responder-involved traffic incidents by mining news reports

Roadside service and incident response personnel face the risk of being killed or severely injured by passing vehicles when performing their duties on or along a road. This study investigated 5,113 responder-involved event news reports to understand the characteristics of first responder-involved incidents. Through text mining, this study examined and compared the characteristics of three types of responder-involved incidents: near-miss incidents, struck-by incidents, and line-of-duty-deaths (LODD). A higher proportion of struck-by and LODD incidents are associated with law enforcement agencies. In terms of the time of day, morning and night incidents are frequently reported in the news. Driving under the influence (DUI) or driving while intoxicated (DWI) is a major cause of LODD incidents. Compared to struck-by incidents, LODD incidents have a larger portion related to out-of-control vehicles. Further, this study built a logistic regression model to relate the incident characteristics to the odds of an incident being a LODD incident. The modeling result shows that tow truck drivers are associated with a greater likelihood of being involved in a news-reported LODD incident than other responders. LODD incidents are more likely to occur on early morning. Compare to entering/leaving/staying at the scene, responders are more likely to be involved in LODD event when assisting. The results offer insights into understanding the characteristics and possible reasons for first responder-involved incidents so that potential countermeasures could be developed to improve responder safety.

A Methodology for Calculating Inhalation Dose to Public Health Personnel Exposed to Material Resuspended from Evacuees Following the Detonation of a Fission Device.

Following a nuclear fission event, there likely would be a large number of contaminated persons who would seek assistance at community reception centers to be established outside the affected area. This paper provides a methodology for calculating inhalation doses to public health and other response personnel at such facilities who would be receiving and assisting potentially contaminated persons from whom particles can be resuspended. Three hypothetical facilities were considered: the Base Case is a rather small room with no forced air ventilation. The Preferred Case, which is more realistic, is a mid-sized room with an operating HVAC system with air being recirculated through a filter. The Gymnasium Case has only fresh air intake. Initial bounding calculations for the Base Case indicated the need for pre-screening of arrivals to avoid unacceptable doses to staff. The screening criterion selected was 1.67 × 10 6 Bq m -2 . Calculations are presented for radionuclide concentrations in air, dose to staff from inhalation, and how exposures and the resulting doses can be altered by air-turnover rates and the use of filters with varying efficiency. Doses are presented for various arrival times and for both plutonium- and uranium-fueled detonations. The highest calculated dose via inhalation with no respiratory protection was 0.23 mSv for the Base Case. The more important radionuclides contributing to dose with exposure starting at day D + 1 were 239 Np and 133 I. At day D + 30, 131 I and 140 Ba were the more important dosimetrically. The variable creating the highest uncertainty was the slough-off factor for resuspension of contamination from people arriving at the reception center.

Expanding and enhancing incident command system communications support

This paper explores how advances in technology, widely expanded consumer communications capabilities and the lessons learned from response and recovery efforts to address large and/or complex incidents and events have all contributed to changes in how the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and incident command system have been used since their introduction in 2007. NIMS underscores the importance of providing incident response and recovery personnel, along with other key personnel, with access to the tools and information they need to make and communicate decisions. As this paper discusses, however, the command structure was not designed with today’s technology in mind. This paper reviews the history and organisation of supporting voice, data and video capabilities for effective incident management, and where the approach to addressing these — and other — emerging needs is heading.

The Cs-137 radiological accident in Goiânia, Brazil: Conditions and results of the airborne radiometric survey

This paper describes the details of the aeroradiometric operations, the radiation detection system used and discusses the results. The low-altitude survey was carried out over Goiânia a few days after information of the accident was received by the national competent authority, the Brazilian Nuclear Energy Commission (CNEN). Given the little information at the time of the accident and the urgency to respond to the local and federal authorities, an aerial radiometric survey was proposed to evaluate the extent of the contamination and dispersion of the radioactive powder. The city's entire urban area and nearby dwellings centers, plus the two creeks crossing the city were surveyed in two days. The survey found only one additional contamination point 2.8 x 10-4 C/kg/h (1.1 R/h) that had not yet been identified by ground survey crews. Furthermore, no contamination was found along the margins of the Capim Puba Creek and Meia Ponte rivers which could be contaminated due to rainwater common at that time of the year. Detection tests conducted at different altitudes over the main contamination area showed that the Cs-137 gamma radiation could be detected even at altitudes of 350m above the ground. This was much higher than the 40 m - 70 m decided for the overflights. The survey demonstrated that the contamination was restricted to a few locations in the neighborhood of the metal scrap place where the source shield was broken. These locations were under the control of CNEN radiological emergency response personnel. Such a finding was an important indicator to calm down the population and the government authorities. This allowed concentrating attention on the remediation of the known points of high gamma activity.

Air quality impacts in the vicinity of a chemical herder mediated in-situ burn for Arctic oil spill response

Chemical herder augmented in-situ burning (ISB) is one of the most viable oil spill response techniques in partially ice-covered waters. Herein we report on the impacts of herder-mediated ISB tests on ambient air quality by making atmospheric measurements during ISB field tests in partially ice-covered waters in Fairbanks, Alaska. Concentrations of PM2.5, six combustion gases (CO, CO2, NO, NO2, NOx, SO2), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and herding agent (OP-40) in the airborne plume (6–12 m downwind) were measured during three ISB events. PM2.5 concentrations significantly (p-value = 0.8014) exceeded NAAQS (24 h) exposure limits, while the remaining pollutants were found significantly (p-value <0.05) below the established exposure limits. OP-40 herder was not detected in the collected aerosol samples. To our knowledge, this is the first study on atmospheric emissions in the vicinity of a field-scale herder-augmented oil-spill ISB study in a high-latitude Arctic environment and provides information that is helpful to ensure the safety and well-being of on-site response personnel.

Using Novel Technologies to Implement Belize's First Formal Prehospital Emergency System

Introduction:Belize has no formal prehospital emergency medical system, leaving the majority of acutely sick and injured persons overwhelmingly dependent on private transport. To address this issue, a collaboration of public and non-profit partners worked with the Belize National Fire Service to implement the country's first formal prehospital emergency medical service using novel communications technologies. With new resources and vehicles already donated to the fire service, the collaboration focused specifically on the communications component of the response system, specifically to improve the handling of incoming requests for emergency assistance from the public, as well as to improve the process of dispatching prehospital personnel using readily-available mobile technologies.Method:Working with the Belize National Fire Service, program partners implemented the country's first emergency communications center, trained new dispatchers, field-tested the dispatch technology through intensive training sessions, and launched the system in the capital district of Cayo.Results:Launched in June 2022, the program has thus far achieved the following outcomes: Active Dispatchers: 26Active Responders: 104Emergencies Dispatched: 156Average Scene Response Time: 7m45sConclusion:Over the past year, partner NGOs Trek Medics and Empact Northwest have worked collaboratively to implement a first-ever centralized emergency dispatch system for the Belize National Fire Service, using a novel cloud-based dispatch software running on readily-available mobile phones and mobile. In addition to drastic improvements in response performance, satisfaction among system managers and response personnel is high, with plans currently underway to scale the program nationally.

An Effective, Functional Approach to the Medical Operations Coordination Cell Structure

Introduction:Effectively responding to an incident across jurisdictions and coordinating with regional and jurisdictional partners is extremely challenging. The COVID-19 pandemic exemplified the need to develop an operational structure which would serve as a regional medical operations hub. Although there has been guidance for using a Medical Operations Coordination Cell (MOCC), the concept can be difficult to apply and develop for the specific needs of varying regions and jurisdictional entities.Method:The Mountain Plains Regional Disaster Health Response System (MPRDHRS) has developed a Medical Emergency Operations Center (MEOC) to address gaps in response coordination efforts across the six state Region VIII within the United States. This MEOC has been developed to synchronize and integrate existing systems and processes to manage the medical components of a response. This center is similar to other MOCC concepts. However, in a novel approach, the MPRDHRS organized a response framework that focuses on functional roles based on the specific needs of our region with response coordination and personnel availability. This organization is similar to the use of emergency support functions in a jurisdictional EOC.Results:While developing the MEOC, a local Lean team collaborated with the MPRDHRS on continuous improvement initiatives. Drills, workshops, and exercises were used to test the MEOC and offer just in time training to MPRDHRS members to staff different positions within the MEOC. The MEOC was activated for an incident response within the MPRDHRS region with many lessons learned.Conclusion:The MEOC is a new, developing system augmented to meet the needs of regional partners. The system was developed using feedback and ideas from partners, process improvement experts, and internal team members. Additionally, lessons learned from incidents and applications of drills, workshops, and exercises will be shared to leverage within any organization.