Capt. John Delaney, Arlington County (VA) Fire Department

On May 31, 2005, DomPrep’s John F. Morton interviewed Capt. John Delaney, Arlington County (Virginia) Fire Department, located at the Arlington County National Medical Response Team (NMRT) Headquarters, Crystal City.

Capt. John Delaney is a career firefighter with extensive HAZMAT and National Medical Response Team (NMRT) experience.  In 2004, he was selected by Arlington County Fire Chief James H. Schwartz and Chief of Operations Ben Barksdale to lead a cutting-edge team to develop a firefighters’ manual for fire department response to a radiological incident.  His department worked with departments in other jurisdictions in Northern Virginia as well as those in the Washington Council of Governments (COG).  The team has just completed its manual with the technical assistance of Army Major Craig Moss of the Pentagon’s Force Protection Agency.  Capt. Delaney will present an overview of the manual in DomPrep.com’s upcoming WebConference on “Dealing with the Dirty Bomb.”

DomPrep.com divided the 16 minute, 59 second interview into two segments.

In Segmant One, Capt. Delaney outlines:

• The process of how he led the Arlington County Fire Department effort to produce a manual on protocols and standards for radiological incident response.
• The need for fire departments to find and establish relationships with local radiological experts, such as Major Moss, a health physicist who can speak the language of the first responder;
• The National Council on Radiation and Protection Measurements (NCRP) and its NCRP 138 Management of Terrorist Events Involving Radioactive Material, the most important document on radiological response that should be in every firehouse. For more information, click NCRP 138 ;
• The approach Arlington County took via mutual aid relationships and the Washington COG to establish radiological response procedures and exposure limits.  How guidelines evolved from the NCRP and input from local expertise, in this case from the Pentagon, nearby.

Duration :7 Minutes 53 Seconds

Play Segment

In Segment Two, Capt. Delaney addresses:

• The informed consent requirement for emergency workers.  How being informed on radiation is the key;
• Limitations for exposure levels.  Why Arlington County believes it can establish a 10 rem (10R) level for 20 minutes for emergency workers to operate in a hot zone;
• Training requirements for radiological incident response.  How radiological incident response will involve more than HAZMAT teams and require the services of an entire fire department in order to manage the scene;
• The radiological response manual as a work in progress, especially with regard to continuing improvements in detection technologies and the practical operational need to set higher exposure limits for emergency workers operating in a hot zone.

Duration :9 Minutes 6 Seconds

Play Segment