Which Way Do You Run ?

[Richard B the EMT]

My memory may be off a bit, but the first use of a "secondary device" may have been at a birth control clinic bombing, somewhere in the southern US, back during the late 1970s. It went off in a dumpster, roughly 50 feet from an on-scene television news reporter, who was doing a live coverage of the bombing.

I note that the 9-11 terrorists planned the second plane into the World Trade Center, knowing that the news media would be on the scene covering the first plane. Nobody, including the terrorists who planned the attack in the first place, or any of the PAPD, NYPD, other LEO agencies, FDNY, FDNY EMS, their supervisory personnel, and all agencies that had arrived on the scene, thought the "Twin Towers" would collapse.

Back in the day, NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation EMS had written plans for specific event locations, for example, Yankee Stadium, as to where, by pre-planning, the staging, triage, transport, and other "sectors" would be established. After the EMS/FDNY "merger", this was tossed. With the possibility of explosions being followed by "secondary devices", IMHO, this is, perhaps, a good thing.

[mikeymedic1984]

Richard, I am not sure it was the first, but the Abortion Clinic bombing was in Atlanta, with the secondary device being in a nearby dumpster that made a news reporter wet herself; maybe it was the first. You all are correct that logic would say put another where the first responders will be, or at the hospital you think most would go to. Don't give me. "I havent been there, so I do not know". Surely you have been in other dangerous situations and made a choice to go in, or stay out, whether it be fire, entrapment, scaling a cliff, diving in cold water, etc.......

[Richard B the EMT]

Don't give me. "I havent been there, so I do not know". Surely you have been in other dangerous situations and made a choice to go in, or stay out, whether it be fire, entrapment, scaling a cliff, diving in cold water, etc.......

Actually, I have to use the "I don't know". Speaking for myself, I've never been close to an explosion as it's going off. I briefly left a scene when a cop pulled his sidearm and fired, but returned 2 minutes later after a bunch of other cops arrived (pit bull attacked the cop, who shot in self defense, didn't see the dog until later. No human patients, as it turned out).

Within the last 5 years, a coastal California FD got a bunch of bad press when, due to their admitted lack of specialty training, they allowed a suicide to swim away from them and drown. I understand they now have gotten "surf rescue" training.