The article discusses the response to 9/11, focusing on the many issues that prevented hundreds of firefighters from evacuating when the towers fell. Although the article states that cooperation and even the firefighters desire to help more people can be blamed for the tragedy, the article presents communication as the primary reason so many firefighters failed to evacuate. The radio issues that prevented the evacuation order from being heard were well known, and the repeater that was installed to solve those issues did not function properly. While technical issues cannot always be anticipated and remain a potential problem, the lack of communication between police and fire prevented the police from passing information to firefighters who did not hear the evacuation order. The incident command system has been created and modified several times to create a system of cooperation between responding units, which will hopefully prevent such communication issues in the future.
Lead Risk