Firefighters take on terrorism-fighting role

'The evolution of fire service'
Separately, the fire services in Washington, D.C., Phoenix and Atlanta have also been receiving terrorism-related intelligence training.

Los Angeles County provides intelligence training so firefighters and inspectors can spot dangerous chemicals or other materials that could be used in bombs. And the fire service is also represented in at least 13 state and regional intelligence “fusion” centers across the country — where local, state and federal agencies share information about terrorism and other crimes.

In Washington, the fire service made its first foray into the intelligence world about two years ago, and now D.C. Fire/EMS has access to the same terrorism-related intelligence as the police, said Larry Schultz, an assistant fire chief in charge of operations.

D.C. firefighters and EMS providers are in 170,000 homes and businesses each year on routine calls, Schultz said.

“So we see things and observe things that may be useful to law enforcement,” he said. “We can walk into your house. We don’t need a search warrant.” If an ambulance team shows up at a house and sees detailed maps of the District’s public transit system on the wall, that’s something the EMS provider would pass along, he said.

“It’s the evolution of the fire service,” said Bob Khan, the fire chief in Phoenix, which has created an information-sharing arrangement between the fire service and law enforcement through terrorism liaison officers.

Firefighters on front lines
Because firefighters are on the front lines, the fire service needs to know about intelligence that could somehow affect what they do, said Gregory Cade, who as head of the U.S. Fire Administration is the nation’s top fire chief.

If, for example, Washington is hosting an International Monetary Fund meeting where there will be a large group of protesters and a truckload of gasoline has been stolen in Baltimore, firefighters need to know about intelligence from overseas that terrorists are trying to make explosive devices out of gasoline, Schultz said.

“Getting appropriate, actionable intelligence is important for a fire chief in deciding what to do and how to allocate resources and to know what’s going on,” Cade said. “No one is expecting us to be the analyst person who is sitting down, trying to connect all of this stuff together and determining, ’Oh, yes, this looks like a terrorist plot.’ “

But Cade said that until recently, there’s been no mechanism for fire departments to share what they learn with law enforcement and intelligence analysts who could use it.

“If in the conduct of doing their jobs they come across evidence of a crime, of course they should report that to the police,” said the ACLU’s German. “But you don’t want them being intelligence agents.”

Officials fear backlash, worsened reputation
It’s of particular concern for communities already under law enforcement scrutiny. “Do we want them to fear the fire department as well as the police?” German asked.

The Detroit metropolitan area, which has one of the largest concentrations of Arab Americans in the country, does not conduct this type of intelligence training, nor does it plan to. “That’s a touchy area,” said Detroit’s deputy fire commissioner, Seth Doyle. Detroit firefighters do receive training about hazardous materials, but not the details that New York and D.C. firefighters are now on the lookout for.

A structural diagram of the Ambassador Bridge, which links Detroit to Canada, materials and literature to make a bomb and a bomb prototype are things firefighters should pay attention to, Doyle said. But the bridge diagram by itself might not be enough. “I don’t want our folks to be put in a position where they’re reporting something that creates a situation where there was really no real problem in the first place,” Doyle said.

Jeff Zack, a spokesman for the International Association of Fire Fighters, said the union does not know enough about the training programs to say whether it’s a good idea for the country, but the union is concerned that the training be done properly and that this new development does not take away people’s rights.

Advocates of the fire service’s intelligence role say privacy will not be violated. Homeland Security said if its program with New York is expanded across the country, civil rights and civil liberties training would be included.

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