Good morning, here is the News:
Leadership Status—I am getting better, but I will not
be ready for duty for quite some time. Our leadership order remains the
same, Jennifer Tang is responsible and in charge until further notice. Please
direct your questions and comments to Jennifer at zhinan@gmail.com.
CE Opportunities—Please read the following Continuing
Education opportunities carefully. Time commitments are substantial,
especially for the second one, and once you are in, you stay in. Also
note that both of these involve at least some part of the President's Day
weekend, so your family needs to be on board with this. All that said,
these look pretty interesting. We will be supporting drills being held as
part of FireHouse World 2013:
a trade show/exhibition/conference offering serious hands-on
training to First Responders. Please note that the time frames for
our participation do NOT match with the hands-on training described on the Fire
House World web site, so do NOT draw any conclusions or form expectations based
on that information. We are probably supporting the certified training
programs, but again, don't form any conclusions. These kinds of things
are all about surprises.
Continuing Education, Catastrophe Role-Playing
Date: 18 February 2013
Time: 3:00pm—10:30pm
(Note: the signup page says it starts at 6:00pm, I will get
this clarified)
Location: Meet at NTC, transport to actual location
Description: You will be asked to portray a participant
in the aftermath of a disaster. Possible roles include Media
Reporter/Cameraperson; Local Landowner; Wildland Firefighter; Wildland Fire
Hotshot Crew Leader; Fire Division Chief. This drill may require you to run
quickly over uneven terrain AT NIGHT. You will be expected to maintain a
high level of energy, so I guess this is the chance to let that inner drama
queen run wild.
Continuing Education, Incident Command Role-Playing
Dates/Times: Sunday
17 February, 10:00am - 6:00pm
Monday 18 February, 8:15am – 11:15am (Break) 1:45pm – 4:30pm
Tuesday 19 February, 8:15am – 11:15am (Break) 1:45pm – 4:30pm
Wednesday 20 February, 8:15am – 11:15am (Break) 1:45pm – 4:30pm
Thursday 21 February 8:15am – 11:15am (Break) 1:45pm – 4:30pm
Friday 22 February 7:00am – 11:00am
Location: NTC
Description: There are
two role-playing positions. Both require a certain level of acting ability, as
well as continuity, i.e. you will be expected to play the role the same way
every time to maintain the training value. Roles are as follows:
Zone Dispatcher—you must be familiar with radio protocol as well
as fire and other operational terminology to simulate the dispatch function for
a zone. Further, you must be able to understand how to effectively track
resources during an incident.
ITF
Regional Emergency Coordinator —You will have to be credible as a commander
who knows how to function within an incident.
You MUST commit to attend all
days of this drill. I think it goes without saying that you will need
to be VERY familiar with ICS principles and procedures, if you do this one you
will want to break out the manual again and take another look at some of those
online NIMS classes.
To sign up for either CE, go
here:
February Team Meeting—
Sunday, 10 February, 3:00pm—4:30pm. At the Senior Center, but that may
change. We will be working with the FEMA Flood-Control training
module. Anticipated exercises include filling sandbags, passing sandbags
and building a flood control wall from sandbags. OK, we need your vote
here; this one will get dirty. If you are interested in participating,
please drop Jennifer a note (her address is above). If we don't have
much interest, we'll do something else.
Occasional Rant—OK Steve,
why flood control? When will we ever do this? Sooner than you
think, I'm pretty sure. Remember, we are a community team for the City of
San Diego. That means we may deploy someplace else in San Diego, like,
say, Ocean Beach. Flooding is a much greater problem than we give it
credit for, and we are way overdue for a really bad flood (check out old images
for the 1916 flood). Building a good sandbag wall is a skill. If
it's done wrong, a wall can let go suddenly, making a bad problem worse.
So I hope you'll consider participating in this next training meeting.
I'm still working on the details, but if we get enough people I'm sure I can
pull something together.
All for this week, questions,
comments, ask Jen, she knows.
-Steve
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