While the incinerator lit up another trial burn Wednesday, county and state officials lobbied the Anniston Fire Department to get the international firefighters union to join in the fight to release money for area first-responders.In the case of an accident at the incinerator or the igloos where the chemical weapons now are stored, the Anniston firefighters would be among the first to respond.
The meeting included all the county commissioners, who are up for re-election this year, and representatives from the Anniston Fire Department, the Anniston Fire and Rescue Squad, the state and Calhoun County emergency management agencies, and other county officials.
At the meeting, the Anniston firefighters said they desperately need more information, training and equipment, but they expressed dissatisfaction with the way that communication had been handled between the County Commission and other area agencies and their department.
Four weeks ago, Bryan Walker, a past president of the local firefighters union, said the International Association of Firefighters Union contacted him after learning that the Calhoun County commission's lobbyist was working in Washington, D.C., to release money for emergency-preparedness training and equipment in Calhoun County.
Walker said the international union, which had been watching what was going in the county, became concerned when Walker told them local firefighters had not received the protective training and equipment they would need in case of an accident at the incinerator.
On top of that problem, he said, was a lack of communication between the County Commission and the firefighters about what was going on to prepare them.
Walker said when he got the call from the union's D.C. office about the lobbying attempts, he was completely caught off guard. "We knew nothing about a lobbyist. It kind of blindsided me," he said. Gregg Poole, president of the Anniston Firefighters Association, also came to support Walker.
The county's lobbyist, Washington attorney David Springer, did not return calls seeking comment.
Walker, Poole and Anniston fire Chief Bill Fincher said the firefighters have little information about what to do in the event of an emergency where a cloud of deadly chemical vapor would spread off the Anniston Army Depot.
"We have gotten very little information - just enough to be dangerous," Poole said.
It is dangerous, the firefighters said, because they and their co-workers would not have the protective gear or training to know if it was safe to help people trapped in the contaminated area or if what they were doing was safe.
Lea Fite, County Commission chairman, apologized for not involving the fire department more, and promised to rectify the situation starting from Wednesday's meeting.
The goal now, according to Commissioner Eli Henderson, is to use the international firefighter union to put more political pressure on the Federal Emergency Management Association to release funds for protective equipment and training for area first-responders.
"We have tried for the last seven years (to get this money released for protective measures); so far we have not gotten it," Henderson said. "It's sad we have to get political, but we would love to have the international union support us."
Fite went on to blame FEMA for trying to cause fighting among the city, County Commission and state agencies so that no one would focus on FEMA's shortcomings.
"We have got to be together," Fite said. "We cannot continue to let the Army and FEMA split us apart."
After listening to Fite and presentations about how money from FEMA will be used for training and equipment, Anniston Fire Chief Fincher said he would ask the union if it has any strings to pull to support the commission's proposals.
FEMA spokeswoman Mary Hudak did not have a response Wednesday to the meeting.
"The commission has not been very good with communication in the past," Fincher said. "But as far as working with the union, they are a big tool, and we can use them to help, not only for the department, but also for the community."
The union's help is needed, Henderson said, because FEMA has refused for seven years to release funds for emergency training and equipment. FEMA has told the county commissioners that should an accident happen in the area closest to the incinerator, the people should use plastic and duct tape to shelter in place.
The problem, the commissioners said Wednesday, is that many of those people are elderly and would not be able to secure their homes in the five minutes they would have from the time the warning goes out until the time when the dangerous chemicals enter their neighborhoods.
About 4,000 elderly people live in the zone nearest the incinerator, Calhoun County EMA Director Mike Burney said at the meeting.
Additionally, the commissioners said, because the only full-time fire department does not have the training or equipment to rescue those people from their homes or even the information to know if it is safe to try to rescue them, such a plan is ridiculous. They have refused to endorse it.
"That (FEMA's plan) is ludicrous," Henderson said. He added that the commissioners would never accept such a plan.
FEMA has recommended that first-responders practice training without the equipment for now, Henderson said.
At the meeting, the firefighters and others listened to Gary Holt, an expert in first-responder training, who identified himself as a concerned private citizen. He said some training can be done before the equipment is on hand, but the equipment is needed before any practice exercises are done.
Holt said it is absolutely necessary that before local personnel, such as Anniston firefighters, practice exercises on how to rescue trapped residents, they must have all the tools and training, and that means the funds must be released from FEMA.
Holt went on to agree with Commissioner Robert Downing's opinion that it would even be counterproductive to practice before the funding was released.
What is needed, Burney and the commissioners said, is 500 level-A protective suits for first-responders, and protective hoods for residents in the pink zone, among other things.
The money is needed now, Henderson said, because training needs to begin immediately, with the incinerator set to start burning this September and the added dangers of terrorism.
"I'm worried, if they can fly two planes into two towers, then it is nothing to go out to those igloos," he said.
