Increased Communication Key Since 9/11

Ten years ago fire engines, ambulances and squad trucks drove through the bright morning toward the blazing Twin Towers.

The vehicles were well-stocked and driven by well-trained emergency professionals, but the equipment they carried and the training they took would look hopelessly outdated in the aftermath of the largest terrorist attack in United States history.

Communication was the first word stated by every emergency worker.

The inability of police and fire personnel to communicate within the burning towers was legendary and that lack of communication wasn’t limited to New York City.

The hills of northern New Jersey were notorious for interfering with emergency communication in those days, but the idea that a crash on the highway or lake might not be the worst that could happen focused a good deal of effort on improving the technology.

“Communication plays a huge part in every emergency,” said Kathy Jacoby, chief of the Jefferson Rescue Squad.

Dean Anerios, a five-year veteran of the Jefferson Rescue Squad who is now a volunteer in Union Township, said communications equipment has improved enough to provide access to underground areas, through concrete or steel.

The creation of a county Office of Emergency Management and a homeland security division in the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office helped. The homeland security division is responsible for investigating, reporting and coordinating with federal, county and municipal agencies, and on school safety and security measures. It is a liaison to the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force.

Federal funds created the jointures and paid for the communications equipment. The money also paid for training no one would have thought about before Sept. 11.

Anerios said the extensive training also included cross-training between police and fire and police and rescue squad personnel.

“There was more terrorism training and it created an added awareness,” Anerios said.

“Some drills are different than before,” Jacoby agreed. “We train for different scenarios, for an attack on a train station or a school. We wouldn’t have thought of that before.”

Another thing now on the minds of emergency personnel is the fact that Picatinny Arsenal runs up much of the eastern border of the township. Though the 6,500-acre base is entirely within Rockaway Township, its proximity to Jefferson “is in the back of our minds,” Jacoby said.

“It is a military base,” she noted. Fire departments train with the arsenal, although squads don’t, she said.

“Everyone has to have some incident command training,” Cheryl Wood, Chief of the Milton Squad said, “and officers have to take more courses.”

Another aspect that has changed is in the level of precautions. Drills are held in schools and other public places that wouldn’t have been thought of before, Jacoby said.

Wood noted cyber precautions are now part of everyone’s mindset and training.

“Kids can learn how to make bombs on the Internet,” she pointed out.