4/13/2012 Manhattan - High Angle Rescue
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NY Times
The high-level rescue of three building workers left dangling on Friday from
safety harnesses 17 stories up took only 10 minutes, but it illustrated that
a lack of coordination between New York City's Police and Fire Departments
continues.
At 10:16 a.m., the three workers, who were doing brick work on the facade of
a 21-story residential building on the Upper East Side, lost their footing
when one end of their scaffold gave way, the authorities said. That left the
men suspended above 65th Street at Third Avenue, attached by harnesses to
the scaffold still anchored to the roof.
Firefighters hauled the three middle-aged workers to safety through a
17th-floor window, Battalion Chief Michael Massucci said. One had a minor
scrape and was taken to a hospital, while his co-workers refused treatment
from paramedics on the scene.
The operation exposed the friction that often arises between the Police and
Fire Departments' emergency responders, particularly when their work
overlaps.
At the heart of the conflict was a move by an Emergency Service Unit officer
from the Police Department who rappelled down from the roof to the trapped
workers even as firefighters had committed to retrieving them through the
window.
Glenn P. Corbett, an associate professor of fire science at John Jay College
of Criminal Justice, was monitoring the radio transmissions of the rescue
and said he heard a fire chief expressing confusion as to why the police
officer responded over the side of the building - something that Professor
Corbett said was considered a "last resort" in such situations. The fire
chief then requested that a police supervisor be sent to the command post,
Professor Corbett said.
"This is an ongoing issue that's been around for a long time, and I think
the real critical part is that we were told, several years ago, that the
citywide incident management system fixed this, and it did not fix it," he
said. "This was an issue on 9/11, with separate command posts for the Police
and Fire Departments, and there continue to be instances where coordination
is missing now."
Paul J. Browne, the Police Department's chief spokesman, said that in such
cases, known as high-angle rescues, the two departments used a shared
command structure. "It's unified command," Mr. Browne said.
He later released a note one of the workers e-mailed to the police officer
who rappelled down the building, thanking him.
But Chief Massucci said city protocols for instances like Friday's called
for fire personnel to maintain primary responsibility for "all life, safety
and rescue operations." He said he saw no need for the Emergency Service
Unit officer to have "put himself in such harm's way," particularly when the
workers were secured by harnesses to a scaffold under the firefighters'
control.
A police official said police officers arrived at the scene first and set up
a roof-based rescue because one worker was yelling that he could not feel
his hands. The officer who rappelled down, Detective James Coll, 39, a
15-year veteran of the force, actually secured the men and helped to ferry
them to the open window, where the firefighters were, the official said.
A spokesman for the city's Office of Emergency Management did not respond to
inquiries.
Chief Massucci, 48, a 22-year veteran, said firefighters wound up aiding the
officer, too. They pulled him in through the same 17th-floor window because
he could not climb back up the building's facade and most likely did not
have enough rope to reach the ground, the chief said.[/url]
The high-level rescue of three building workers left dangling on Friday from
safety harnesses 17 stories up took only 10 minutes, but it illustrated that
a lack of coordination between New York City's Police and Fire Departments
continues.
At 10:16 a.m., the three workers, who were doing brick work on the facade of
a 21-story residential building on the Upper East Side, lost their footing
when one end of their scaffold gave way, the authorities said. That left the
men suspended above 65th Street at Third Avenue, attached by harnesses to
the scaffold still anchored to the roof.
Firefighters hauled the three middle-aged workers to safety through a
17th-floor window, Battalion Chief Michael Massucci said. One had a minor
scrape and was taken to a hospital, while his co-workers refused treatment
from paramedics on the scene.
The operation exposed the friction that often arises between the Police and
Fire Departments' emergency responders, particularly when their work
overlaps.
At the heart of the conflict was a move by an Emergency Service Unit officer
from the Police Department who rappelled down from the roof to the trapped
workers even as firefighters had committed to retrieving them through the
window.
Glenn P. Corbett, an associate professor of fire science at John Jay College
of Criminal Justice, was monitoring the radio transmissions of the rescue
and said he heard a fire chief expressing confusion as to why the police
officer responded over the side of the building - something that Professor
Corbett said was considered a "last resort" in such situations. The fire
chief then requested that a police supervisor be sent to the command post,
Professor Corbett said.
"This is an ongoing issue that's been around for a long time, and I think
the real critical part is that we were told, several years ago, that the
citywide incident management system fixed this, and it did not fix it," he
said. "This was an issue on 9/11, with separate command posts for the Police
and Fire Departments, and there continue to be instances where coordination
is missing now."
Paul J. Browne, the Police Department's chief spokesman, said that in such
cases, known as high-angle rescues, the two departments used a shared
command structure. "It's unified command," Mr. Browne said.
He later released a note one of the workers e-mailed to the police officer
who rappelled down the building, thanking him.
But Chief Massucci said city protocols for instances like Friday's called
for fire personnel to maintain primary responsibility for "all life, safety
and rescue operations." He said he saw no need for the Emergency Service
Unit officer to have "put himself in such harm's way," particularly when the
workers were secured by harnesses to a scaffold under the firefighters'
control.
A police official said police officers arrived at the scene first and set up
a roof-based rescue because one worker was yelling that he could not feel
his hands. The officer who rappelled down, Detective James Coll, 39, a
15-year veteran of the force, actually secured the men and helped to ferry
them to the open window, where the firefighters were, the official said.
A spokesman for the city's Office of Emergency Management did not respond to
inquiries.
Chief Massucci, 48, a 22-year veteran, said firefighters wound up aiding the
officer, too. They pulled him in through the same 17th-floor window because
he could not climb back up the building's facade and most likely did not
have enough rope to reach the ground, the chief said.[/url]