American Heritage magazine features an interesting article, “Heavy Rescue”, describing the history of search and rescue, and looking into the future.
The article covers both the improvements in technology and management of crises such as building collapse over time. This description of search and rescue operations in London during WW2 caught my attention, for instance:
Out of such chaos came timeless lessons in crisis management. Quickly discovering that a major collapse would turn out any number of local and regional units who sometimes began arguing over the next steps, British authorities invented the role of the “new incident officer,” typically an air-raid warden with good judgment who knew the neighborhood. After filing an initial report, he would set up a portable desk complete with blank forms. The desk flew a blue flag and also mounted a blue battery-powered lamp for night work. The incident officer wore a blue cloth cover on his hard hat. To all other emergency personnel arriving, the blue meant “check here before doing anything,” thus prioritizing critical tasks and preventing one team’s work from endangering another’s. One of the most important jobs—neglected by amateurs —was to fan out through the neighborhood to gather information on how many people might be trapped below. Without such information, rescue parties were sure to waste their efforts. Similar systemization can still be seen today at some emergency sites, where the incident commander works from a portable desk unfolded from the rear of his vehicle … often sporting a green or blue lamp.
The author, James R. Chiles, is also the author of Inviting Disaster: Lessons from the Edge of Technology. The review from Publisher’s Weekly: “In a book that is much more than a litany of disaster and tips on survival, Chiles also offers fascinating, detailed analyses of “system fractures” chains of events yielding catastrophes.” If you are a U of R student or faculty member, take advantage of our distance education delivery service and have the book sent to you.
