First Responders

Every disaster is different but each will call upon first or emergency responders to become involved. These might include paramedics, fire and police as well as other healthcare providers and those that provide essential services (i.e. transportation, electrical grid, water). Some might require differing levels of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). They will have been trained and done exercises utilizing various protocols within their departments and in conjunction with many agencies. They will have to work together under an Incident Commander, possibly in a Unified Command structure. In addition to PPE they might need to be protected with vaccines, or prophylactic antibiotics from local or national caches. To function efficiently, they will need to have as complete a picture of what’s going on as possible. More information can be found at the Health and Human Services website: http://phe.gov/emergency/events/sandy/Pages/responder-safety.aspx