Platte County residents don’t have anything to worry about. We’ve been working hard to ensure residents are notified in a timely fashion and utilizing other methods, such as Platte Alerts.”

Tony Krotz, Platte Co. emergency management coordinator

PLATTE COUNTY – According to Albany County emergency management, the tornado sirens did not sound during the most recent tornado on June 17 due to the touchdown location being outside of the designated coverage area for sirens. According to Platte County fire warden and emergency management coordinator Tony Krotz, he and his crews tested the sirens in Platte County to ensure they are working properly.

Krotz said he tested the county sirens in April after some mechanical fixes and reported all the sirens registered without issue.

“Platte County residents don’t have anything to worry about,” Krotz said. “We’ve been working hard to ensure residents are notified in a timely fashion and utilizing other methods, such as Platte Alerts.”

Krotz said he and his crew continue to be weather spotters for the county to ensure all potentially hazardous weather is reported to residents in a timely manner.

Earlier this month, Krotz met with members of the county’s emergency management crews in a quarterly meeting in which the group discussed a number of items, including the new Platte County Emergency Management public information officer Pat Kondas.

Tony invited Kondas to the meeting to speak to members of emergency management about her role, how they can utilize her and what they can expect from local media if they are out at an emergency.

During the quarterly LEPC meeting, members discussed an upcoming assessment relating to emergency disaster funding, the importance of accurate fire size-up information for first responders, suggestions for deputies to potentially carry size-up cards and the need for clear, concise communication with other local agencies and the media.

The Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment, known as THIRA, is a three-step risk assessment process which helps communities identify and understand risks as well as steps to take in addressing them. Krotz said this process affects local Homeland Security and FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) funding in the event of a disaster.

Essentially, Krotz said the THIRA involves a three-step assessment: identifying threats and hazards, assessing impacts and evaluating community capabilities. Some of those assessments include identifying what threats and hazards affect the community and in what capacity to better understand the community needs. The later portion of these assessments include identifying current capabilities the community has or lacks in responding to emergency situations.

The new THIRA is due at the end of this year, and Krotz said he will be looking for input from other community partners and asking for input from all emergency responders,  as well as town and county officials as he moves forward in the process.

He also said the team would be coordinating with the hazardous materials coordinator to schedule training and familiarization sessions for first responders and industry partners on hazardous materials response.

During the meeting, Krotz asked if anyone was willing to fill the vacant role of vice president for Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC), or if anyone had any recommendations. He told everyone he plans to ask again for nominations at the next meeting.

A significant portion of the conversation centered around fire personnel training and fire size-up. Some of the participants told Krotz there is a need for fire personnel to be trained on what to look for when responding to fires and how to better communicate those things to local law enforcement and other emergency first responders.

A fire scene size-up includes identifying safety concerns for the crews and others, such as the location, terrain, size of fire, fuel type, values threatened, weather conditions, fire behavior, identification of resources needed and if known, the cause of the fire. Due to the very rugged terrain of Platte County, Krotz said not all fires are the same and can change from location to location which means fire crews need to be well-versed in how to size-up a scene. He also agreed with other members of LEPC, that there is a need to have better communication and training with local law enforcement agencies and first responders as it relates to sizing up a fire.

Krotz said the importance of effective communication helps get accurate information to avoid false alarms, misinformation, and to ensure proper resource allocation is emphasized.

Members of LEPC also discussed the importance of effective, clear and concise communication between fire, emergency management and law enforcement – as well as the challenges that exist.

Due to the fact law enforcement often arrives at a scene prior to fire or emergency management, Krtoz said he is working toward bridging the gaps the team has experienced in the past and has good feedback from law enforcement. He said he hopes to have those concerns addressed in future meetings.

One of those concerns is helping law enforcement learn how to size-up fires so officers or deputies could provide more information upon the arrival of fire and emergency management so the fire districts can immediately deploy only necessary resources. Some suggestions include working with local law enforcement leaders to potentially provide fire size-up cards specifically for law enforcement to have in their vehicles.

Another idea discussed is potentially inviting law enforcement officers and deputies on ride-alongs with fire personnel to better understand their operations in an effort to bridge communication shortfalls.

Some future training and collaboration opportunities for emergency management crews includes hazardous materials training, incident training, and improvement in adaptation training as it relates to Homeland Security operations.

The next quarterly LEPC meeting will be in September, and Krotz hopes to see more of the county’s emergency management crews and leaders at that meeting to discuss THIRA and preliminary findings.