Bomb Threat SOP

[stone35]

At present our department is revising our SOP's and one of our major concerns is the response of our dept. to bomb threats. I am requesting that anyone with SOP's please email a copy or fax them to me. FAX (270) 924-2111. Also, if anyone has any suggestions for code words, (ex. Code Orange for a County-wide understanding of a bomb threat) or bits of knowledge about safely dealing with bomb threats, they would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Stone35

[fireball61]

Hey Stone
We are also revising our SOP for bomb threats. So any info would be appreciated. But for right now we respond without lights or siren, (we don't want to draw alot of attention) and evacuate the area. And wait for the bomb squad or state police. We are not trained in bomb identification. Plus it is not worth the risk to our firemen. BOOM!! The most important thing is to get everone away and scure the area. Let me know what your sop is. Thanks

[mfgentili]

I agree with fireball61. SOG in my department is to stage our apparatus around the incident. All members required to wear PPE including SCBA (not on air of course) and ready to go if needed. No entry is made by fire department members. If a suspected device is reported as being found, the State Police Bomb Squad is called in to investigate. Firefighters stand by with a charged hose line and take direction from the bomb squad. It is good to learn how to get an officer out of the bomb suit they wear. It has ripcords like a parachute which when pulled break the suit away from the individual. If there is no device found but only a threat we usually wait on scene for a reasonable time. If a time of possible explosion is given we wait until that time passes. Bomb threats are referred to as "In Service Inspections" in our department. Remember, if you are not an explosives expert, you should not be making entry into or searching a building for explosive devices. What does a bomb look like anyway? A backpack in Atlanta's Centennial Park. A "Ryder" truck in New York and Oklahoma City. A 20# propane cylinder in Littleton. How about a lunchbox, briefcase, shopping bag, handbag, shoe box, letter, package. Just food for thought. Good luck with your new SOPs.

[jpm]

JUST MY TWO BITS

ALLWAYS ALWAYS BEWARE OF THE SECOND DEVICE.

THAT ONE IS INTENED FOR US.

[Nik]

I live in Vermont, small state, small towns.. but we are having *rampant* bomb threats in schools. One area high school even had threatening grafitti, which would have been laughed off before, but not during everyone's heightened senses following Colorado and most recently, Georgia.

mfgentili has a good point. Who knows what a bomb looks like? And it's sad that we have to worry about this, but jpm has a point as well: there will be those terrorists who will wait for the fire and rescue to go in before detonation. Fortunately, the bomb scares in the area have all been false alarms. However, our SOP is remaining thus: we stay outside the building, unless there is a fire danger to be fought.

The problem our area schools are having is who *does* go search for the bomb? They're expecting teachers and janitors to do it. Because of the heightened awareness, parents are going into a panic at any threat, making fire departments the crowd control during bomb scares as well. (All it takes is one phone call and the entire town is down there) And since everyone and their dog has a scanner, just the mention of bomb threat gets everyone running.

It's not an easily solved problem. I'll be curious to hear how other departments are dealing with it.

Nik

[Ickymow]

I posted a responce to bombs and bomb threats in another section, but I would like to get it in here also. It wasn't till last year that our department came up with a SOP in reguards to bombs and bomb threats. There was a county wide threat called in to our 911 center and that set every thing in motion. Almost every department in the county was going to a school in there responce area. We were no diffrent. We cover three schools for the second largest district in the county. I had made up my mind before I even got in the car to drive to the fire house what I was going to do. As a captain during the day time with no chiefs around I knew I would be in charge. As we rolled up to the drive way I told the driver not to pull into the drive way but to stay out side the area. I got out and started to walk to the school from the main road. I was met by the princaple and a local police officer who comfirmed that there was a bomb threat made for all schools in the county. I was then told by the officer that I was to have my crew help him search for a bomb. My next few words to him summed up the new SOP adopted by the department that night. I sais "Sorry but we don't do bombs." I explained to the officer that we have absolutly no experiance with bombs and I would not commit my crew to search for some thing we didn't know any thing about. I asked him what he was looking for any way and his reply was "A bomb". I replied "whats it look like" when he couldn't tell me he realized my point. I had a long talk that night with the Chief and the Deputy Chief who both confermied what I had said earlier. "We don't do bombs." That night we drafted our SOP and it was read to the members the next day. Basicly it said we are not trained to search for bombs therefor we will not commit any FFs to search for any bombs. We will stand by if requested to by the county bomb squad and by them only. We will stand by and if detonation occurs we will preform any rescue nessary and provide first aid to any one in need of it. We are willing to help but only in the mannor we are tained to. This SOP was sent to the local police, state police, and the sheriffs office. It was also sent to the school district so they would know in advance what we would do in the future. We have since met with the commander of the sheriffs bomb disposil unit who has commended us for the SOP. He taught us that our place was outside waiting for him to come out and tell us we could go home or to be ready to pull him out if some thing happened. He did tell us the best people to do a search are the people that work in the suspect building only because they will know if some thing is out of place, or if some thing dosen't fit in. They know if the bag in the corner wasn't there yesterday. They know if the brief case dosen't belong in the room. They know there work space. He said if they think some thing is wrong then that is where he fits in and will go and check it out. It makes sence to me. I know people get upset about teachers and janitors doing the search, but they know if some thing is out of place or dosen't fix in.
I hope this helps you. And one other thing he reminded us about is those secondary devices. Ther are some real bad people out there that don't care about the school all they realy care about is seeing the police and the FD get hurt bad. They are real sick and we need to be real carefull when it comes to bombs and bomb threats. After all most are fake but it will only take one to kill you.
Thanks for letting me get this in here and like I said I hope it hepls some one out there.

[fireball61]

Hey, it's me again. I had a chance to talk to a school board member today and I told him to be prepared for me to ask for a bomb threat procedure at the next school board meeting. Just so I know what they expect from the fire dept. Or is it "customer service"??? I think this will help us to help them. This school board member is also the newly appointed police chief. He told me that there was a plan in place but I might not like it. Hmmmmmmm. I would say that the next meeting might be interesting. I'll write back after the meeting.(june 7th)

[LT trk106]

Ive been reading the posts here and they cover about the same stuff ours does. Those secondary devices are bad news. One thing I would like to add is , our dept. sops call for no radio or cell phone traffic while at a bomb threat. We never know if a radio trip device might be in use.We also have the building personel and the P.D. do the looking. Same reasons as already listed above. Keep it safe.
LT.

[K A]

Treat all bomb scares as real. We walked into 1200 lbs of C4 one afternoon after an office clerk called and said, "it was probably nothing." She had a envelope with the words, "this is abomb, no joke" on top of a new copier that was delivered during lunch break. If she'd move the package maybe 5000 would have died or more.