ASIS INTERNATIONAL HOUSTON CHAPTER

MEETING MINUTES: MARCH 31, 2004

The luncheon meeting was held at the Renaissance Hotel. Chapter Chairman Mike Crocker CPP presided. 79 members and guests attended.

Opening prayer: Jerry Garnett

Pledge: Mike Crocker

Committee Activities:

Newsletter: the March issue was mailed. It includes a color insert for the golf tournament, with the registration/sponsorship form.

Treasurer: the report was distributed.

Certifications:

CPP: Steven Bourg CPP stated they were wrapping up the latest session. He is planning a final session at the end of May. This will allow time to process test applications and study. Each session averaged 28 participants.

A job-analysis survey is being distributed to existing CPPs to help analyze and update the questions on the exam. If eligible, please make sure you participate.

Houses of Worship: Lewis Eakins explained the program to the luncheon attendees.

Training:

· Trey Williams announced the final application date for the new Masters Program at UHD is May 15. More information is available on their web page: www.uhd.edu

· Dr. Wong announced the final date to register for the trip to Taiwan is April 2. This trip is called the “Bayou Connection” and is an international outreach program through UHD to Security Professionals in Taiwan. The trip is May 18-22. An itinerary was distributed.

· There are a number of new conferences and training opportunities. Please check the local web page for more information. Of particular note is a conference on Terrorist Tactics and WMD presented by the International Counter-Terrorism Officers Association on 5/21 at the Johnson Space Center.

Membership: Kevin Galloway announced there are five new local members. The new local chapter directory is being drafted.

Golf Tournament: The date is May 17^th at Woodcreek Golf Club. AIG has become an Underwriting Sponsor with a donation of $5,000. Securitas Corp is a Gold sponsor, has 5 teams, and is a hole sponsor for total donations exceeding $5,000. Invoices are being processed and early payment is encouraged. We have approached the Club to see if we can add 5 more teams if necessary.

L.E. Award:

· Our honoree, HPD Officer Harold Bohn, was unable to attend. We hope to have him at the next meeting.

· In an effort to enhance local law enforcement support, the Chapter will announce fundraising efforts for those agencies. A flyer was distributed today for the HC Sheriff’s Department CPAA for a fundraiser on Sept. 25^th.

Ellington Field Task Force: There was a meeting held at Ellington Field to discuss the retention of Air Support in Houston, versus moving it to either San Antonio or Fort Worth. Mike Crocker is a member of the local group lobbying the Commission to keep it here. Over 230 people from the community, and Mayors from 16 cities, attended the meeting to show support. The Commission, including several Federal and State Legislators, responded favorably.

Legislation: It has been reported there is a verbal commitment from Cliff Grumbles, TCPS Executive Director, to award CEUs to licensed managers for attending our luncheons. This is in recognition of the training quality of our speakers’ presentations.

SPEAKERS:

Steve Cichon, HFD District Chief, Training Division

Charles Hutchinson, Security Manager, Crescent Real Estate, Greenway Plaza

Topic: High Rise Fire Safety; This presentation examines a fire simulation at Crescent-Greenway Plaza in partnership with HFD that combines fire fighter training, building operations and Security in a unique training platform. This training moves beyond the conventional fire drill, to a new training platform. This is a simulation conducted in real buildings, including a zero-visibility environment with a building in fire mode.

Steve and Charles will also be presenting this topic at the National Conference in Dallas.

Charles Hutchinson: Corporate Perspective; Plan, Prepare and Practice.

It took 1.5 years of planning prior to the actual simulation. No other agency in the US has attempted this, and the goal is to become a model program. It is a 3-tier program that allows participants to learn and train in a realistic venue. This cooperative effort trained 250 fire cadets and 320 line firefighters, in addition to the building facility staff.

Fast Rack Fire Training: This provides fire cadets, still in the academy, 1-2 days training in actual building systems and recovery practice.

Drill Tower Training: Siemens Building Technologies outfitted the four-story training facility behind Hobby Airport with a complete building system. This allows cadets to work in an alarm/strobe/sprinkler environment.

Fire simulation: This is the in-depth portion of the 3 tiers. One floor of the building was smoked for 45 minutes prior to the drill, making it a realistic zero-visibility environment. The drill involves 30-40 pieces of apparatus, elevators in recall, everything in actual working mode. This provides interaction with the building engineers and security departments, tests emergency operations and procedures for the building and fire training for the line officers.

If you prepare for the emergency, you know what to expect. The corporate goal is to know the scope of what the fire department will need to respond to your facility, have that equipment ready, meet them and greet them with your plans. The Building Emergency Response Personnel (BERP) know the fire and control features, elevator and building ops, emergency response plans and where emergency supplies are located. The BERP are key personnel such as the incident commander, communications experts, situation response team, critical systems response team and damage assessment team. They are prepared to handle fire, bomb threats, weather events, medical emergencies and crime/terrorism. The first steps include:

Establish Command and Control
Maintain critical communications such as radio, cell phones, land lines, satellite phones and pagers.
Response: identifying the nature of the incident, notifying 911, team member response; determining if you can safely enter the location.
Preparing for incoming EMS: is the elevator ready, FCR manned, traffic control, building floor information, keys, fire equipment ready (PRVs)
Know what to tell EMS: when and what happened; injuries; what did you find when you got there and what is the situation now; what are you doing now; where are the critical rooms on the plans; which are FM200 or Halon-system protected rooms, identifing the fire elevator phone jacks.
Fire Panel Operations:

Have a walk-through guide posted next to the system
Assign personnel to assist
Coordinate/assist with fire phone usage and the public address system

Command and Control Center:

Needs to be a dedicated room with cable/fax/computer jacks/phones/floor plans and maps.
Have all customer and vendor contact lists

Supplies needed:

Personal gear such as raincoats, boots, eye protection, masks, food and water
Tools such as hammers, wet vacs, fans
Fuel, plywood, portable lighting
Recovery supplies such as dumpsters, trash bags and cleaning supplies

Charles shared some lessons-learned from the four simulations held at Greenway Plaza:

Deployment
Resource Pool coordination
Command and Control
Elevator usage by fire fighters
Mobility around the fire scene

Chief Steve Cichon, the Fire Department Perspective

Be aware of the amount and weight of the firefighter’s gear. The basic gear weighs 50 pounds and the portable gear adds another 150 pounds. Usually, it only takes 20 minutes in a high-rise fire for the elevator to fail, so the weight of that gear greatly reduces the physical stamina of any firefighter. A 30-minute air bottle provides 15 minutes of endurance. A one-hour bottle provides 40 minutes of time, but the firefighter becomes physically exhausted.

The first Alarm for any multistory building is called the High Rise Box. This response team includes 13 pieces of apparatus and 36 fire fighters. If necessary, a second alarm is called which results in an additional 18 pieces of equipment and 42 more personnel. A third (and each subsequent alarm) adds 5 pieces of equipment and 17 personnel.

The number one priority is evacuation. There will be a Lobby Resource location and a Resource Pool (located 2 floors below the fire) which has extra equipment and is the staging area for the Fire Floor Sector (attack team). After locating the fire, it is then confined and extinguished and a secondary search is conducted. Some of the firefighters’ challenges are entrapment, disorientation, wind from broken windows, and debris. In zero visibility, it is feasible to literally “walk out” and fall through a broken window several stories up.

The Engine Company is considered the “infantry” and the Truck Company are the “engineers”. The Truck Company conducts the search and “opens” the building. Infrared imaging technology has become a key tool in a zero visibility environment.

Chief Cichon encouraged us to contact our local fire/police/ems/oem personnel and arrange a facility tour. Engage in cooperative training. Each training session must include a series of drills for all four shifts. Fire simulation is a real-time event that deploys all equipment to respond to a potentially real-life event. The simulation must be challenging, as the responders are timed and evaluated. Holding a debriefing session is just as important, as errors have to be understood and corrected. These drills also encourage networking between firefighters.

Each speaker was awarded a plaque in appreciation of their time and presentation. In addition, Keith Budd (AIM Funds) generously provided computer bags as a gift to each speaker.

Our next luncheon meeting is April 28^th. Kim Ogg will speak about the Crimestoppers Organization.