Fire chief outlines city's emergency response plan

As natural calamities and threats of terrorism become more common with each passing year, Carson City has not been sitting idle, Carson City Fire Chief Stacey Giomi told officials this week.

An emergency management policy is in effect in Carson City, which includes procedures for handling air crashes, floods, terrorism, earthquakes, hazardous materials, utility disruptions, fires and mass casualties.

An Incident Command System used by Carson City includes a number of tools such as chain of command, planning and organizational structure, facilities and resource management, and communication and information management.

"There is no ambiguity about who is in charge," Giomi said, adding that the structure is similar to the military's.

"Chain of command is a series of management positions in order of authority. Unity of command is the concept by which each person within an organization reports to one, and only one, designated person," Giomi said in his PowerPoint presentation Thursday.

The overriding strategic goals for all incidents are life safety, stabilization of the event, protecting property and protecting the environment.

When a local disaster occurs, such as the Waterfall Fire or Carson City's flood of 1997, city departments will use the ICS.

"In the flood of '97, we decided to focus on saving homes first, then businesses. That was a hard decision because some of those business folks were right there," he said.

Practice is key to a successful performance in the event of a real emergency, Giomi said.

"The Fire Department is very active at using ICS for every incident, every time," he said. "Public Works is much improved and the Sheriff's Department is working to get better," he said.

But another tool for local governments is the disaster declaration.

"Once local resources are depleted, we can ask for state help, and if they run out, the state goes to the feds," Giomi said.

Authority is dependent on the locale of the incident.

In a statewide event, the governor assumes direct operational control and has the authority, if necessary, to take property, order evacuations and suspend purchasing requirements for supplies in order to obtain what might be needed, although repayment is also required.

All these atypical powers are exercised to protect the health and safety of people and property.

Under Carson City Municipal Code, the board of supervisors has the authority to declare an emergency in the city. The declaration authority goes to the city manager if a quorum of supervisors isn't available.

Then, under Title 6, the city manager, with the consent of the sheriff, may establish a curfew, prohibit or ration the sale of petroleum products, protect and monitor stores which handle essential items and temporarily supend codes and ordinances.

"We're very cognizant of those powers. It's not a free-for-all. They are strong powers, but we have the responsibility to exercise them cautiously," Giomi said.

"The evacuation plan in Carson City includes people and animals," he said.

In terms of shelter, the city has several alternatives.

"Carson City doesn't have a safe house to go if something really bad happens, but we have shelter agreements with the school district and we could use the community center."

Giomi said his department holds regular training exercises and uses different schools each time. One conducted May 1 was at Seeliger Elementary. At each school, sleeping, entertainment and eating areas are designated.

The city also uses a Code Red system for notifying residents of a disaster or to deliver important information. Giomi said it has been used once a couple of years ago - to notify residents to stop outdoor watering when water levels were dangerously low throughout the city.

The city has its own database of homes and phone numbers, but residents can go to the city's website to enter their information if they want to be sure they are notified.

"We'd hit 70-75 percent (of the population) right now, but we can also use the federal Emergency Alert System (through television and radio) or go door-to-door," he said.

The city also has mutual aid agreements with other agencies, but they might not be available.

"Remember that if we have a large-scale disaster, it usually involves the neighboring jurisdictions as well as ours, so the potential that we won't be able to get assistance from our immediate friends and neighbors is great," Giomia said.

The city, however, has two additional resources, the federal Emergency Management Assistance Compact and the Nevada Emergency Management Assistance Compact.

GET INVOLVED

To add your contact information to the city's emergency notification system, go to www.carson.org and click on the "What's Happening," then "Emergency Notification."