A PROPOSED NATIONWIDE SYSTEM OF SECURE STATE-MANAGED DATABASES OF BUILDING DESIGNS AND EVACUATION PLANS FOR CRITICAL STRUCTURES

On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, first responders to the disaster at the World Trade Center rolled up on the incident with little understanding of the true severity of the crisis in which they were involved.

Responders did not know that some of them parked heavy fire equipment over four and five story voids that lay beneath thin concrete slabs. They did not have access to structural information concerning the World Trade Center, nor information on the temperatures at which large quantities of aviation fuel would burn, and the impact that those intense fires would have on the remaining structural members of the building. They did not have access to the names or means to immediately reach the key personnel in city government and the architects and engineers who built the World Trade Center and did have access to such vital information.

As a result: fire equipment nearly began to fall through non-supporting concrete pads, command centers were located in the tower lobbies, fire fighters rushed into both towers to try to put out fires that were unquenchable, and people (including first responders) who should have been immediately evacuated from both towers remained in the buildings too long on the floors below the fires, and died when the two towers ultimately and inevitably collapsed.

In the wake of both the World Trade Center and the Pentagon disasters, building and fire officials, emergency personnel, architects, engineers, building owners, and public officials have assessed and discussed actions that could have been taken to perhaps further reduce the loss of lives in future such disasters.

The National Conference of States on Building Codes and Standards, as a member of the National Alliance for Building Regulatory Reform in the Digital Age and The Infrastructure Security Partnership (TISP), participated in several of those discussions resulting in the Alliance, on October 10, 2001, amending its adopted Action Agenda to add a new work product that might address the above situation. That product is a nationwide system of secure state-maintained interoperable databases of the as-built designs, evacuation plans, and key personnel contact information for critical structures that first responders would access as they roll up on the site of a manmade or natural disaster.

The task of further developing an outline of such a secure database system was assigned to the Alliance’s Technology and Planning & Coordinating Task Forces at their spring 2002 meetings. At those meetings and in subsequent meetings and conference calls with state homeland security directors, officials from the White House Office of Homeland Security, and the Office of Science & Technology Policy, additional input and support for this initiative was gained. Moreover, the Alliance began actively reviewing possible software and information delivery systems to support such a service.

In late September 2002, the concept of such a secure database for first responders was identified as one of the highest national priority items in a Workshop on Critical Infrastructure Protection Priorities that was hosted by the Executive Office of the President’s Office of Science & Technology Policy.

This paper outlines for federal, state and local government and first responder consideration a structure and basic details that must be addressed to develop and deploy such a state-based nationwide system. This paper incorporates input received from the fire services segment of the first responder community at an Alliance workshop held at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in December 2002 and at a meeting with first responder and building officials, and state emergency managers held in Portland, Oregon, in January 2003.

Over the past ten years firefighters, EMS personnel, and other first responders in a small number of cities around the United States have had access to software and on-line databases that provide them with basic information on hazardous materials in buildings, some basic building designs, and even programs which assist them in planning the best way to attack a fire.

That data, however, has generally been basic in nature. With rare exceptions, it does not link different jurisdictions that may respond to a disaster situation, and usually has not included critical information regarding the evacuation plans of the building. Those data systems that do exist are not interoperable.

In recent years some state and local governmental agencies also have created databases containing information that are relevant to disaster response concerns but are uncoordinated and incompatible with similar databases in neighboring jurisdictions.

In conversations with building owners and operators, fire and building officials, engineers, architects, and software vendors, the feasibility of building the following more extensive interlinked system has been discussed by the Alliance’s Technology Task Force and Planning & Coordinating Task Force. In April 2002, those task forces released the following outline of such a system for review, comment, and consideration by federal and state governments.

Over the remainder of 2002 and early 2003, feedback on this outline has been incorporated into this updated version of that document. That input included: follow-up conversations with several states following the release in July 2002 of the White House Office of Homeland Security Report on "State and Local Actions for Homeland Security" which noted that 20 some states or territories identified first responder databases as a major area of need; feedback from an NGA hosted conference call with state homeland security directors; conversations with members of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers; input from the September 23-24, 2002, White House Workshop on Critical Infrastructure Protection Priorities; feedback from state and local public safety officials attending the Alliance’s Second National Forum on Building Smarter in the Digital Age in Louisville, Kentucky, October 20-22, 2002, input from a December 2002 Alliance Workshop on this project for fire service first responders held at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and a workshop with first responders, building officials, and state emergency managers held in Portland, Oregon, in early 2003.

DETAILED OUTLINE

1) Content of the Proposed Secure, Interoperable First Responder Database

The envisioned database will be:

• Multi-tiered "smart" database – containing basic information needed as follows:
  
  First-in Information – Basic information on building of immediate use to assure safety of first responders as they arrive on site and to assist them in saving lives.  Information to include potential hazards in the building that will do first responders immediate harm. Will include: basic most current as-built/operating design information (ultimately in 3-D) and evacuation plans for the structure and nearby facilities, overview of building, and decontamination information if needed (e.g. info on how to decontaminate people from bio-chem, etc.) Goal – No surprises for first-in, be they fire officials, building officials, or EMS.
  
  Information for Incident Commanders - Deeper level of information in click and get format, pulling in greater detail on building as-builts, lessons learned from responses to similar disasters at this type of building; information helpful in tactics; communications with other follow-up support coming into the disaster.
  
  Unified Command Information - Even deeper levels of information and communications with incoming additional responders (especially if these come from other jurisdictions under mutual aid agreements.)
  
• Secure (encrypted with limited specific access) – Each level of multi-tiered database must be secure. Security includes all redundant media (disc, wireless, landlines).
  
• Contain up-to-date construction information including as-built designs with structural information: electrical, mechanical, egress, foundation systems, water connections, and any HAZMAT information. (Later generation as-builts in 3D.)
  
• Existing pre-plans for building, evacuation plans for the structure, history of building and potential immediate hazards (e.g - Does the roof have 3 or 4 layers? Code violations? Security bars on windows? etc.). Use common nationally agreed upon symbols in database of as-builts.
  
• Searchable – click to gain specific information needed so as not to overwhelm the first responders and other users with data they do not need for exact situation they are in. Linking to real time data.
  
• 24/7 (24 hours/7 days/365 days per year) contact information for pertinent experts needed to assess appropriate response to the disaster.
  
• Online links to emergency, public safety information systems for additional levels of technical information relevant to safety of first responders/rescue personnel.
  
• Linked and accessible by other jurisdictions (including those across state lines) responding in support of the event. (Database must be on interoperable hardware/software.)
  
• Serviced by multiple software suppliers using secure interoperable software that can assure linkage across jurisdictional boundaries (including state borders).
  
• Must be available through redundant systems—landlines as well as wireless (perhaps on laptops/PDAs).
  
• Coordinated with and linked to other first responder database information systems, such as emergency medical data, GIS systems.

• Timeliness.
  
• Security, reliability, and redundancy of delivery mechanism.
  
• Assure first responders and other users are not overwhelmed with data and that system is coordinated with other (e.g. medical) first responder data needs.
   
• Input and update/maintain all information in database – who does this and at what cost? Develop a system under which input and updating of building design and other information captured by regulatory agencies can ultimately be done by building and fire departments without inconveniencing them as a part of their normal routine.  (Should select a prototype state where this can be done.)
  
• Provide security of proprietary information (architects designs etc.) and for sensitive national security structures.
  
• Address potential liability issues for using database (evacuation plans provided by owners).
  
• Ascertain the total cost of developing, implementing and maintaining system in a jurisdiction? In a state? Nationwide?
  
• Work with state/local jurisdictions to build and test a prototype system.
  
• Interface between this Alliance initiative and other Alliance information technology efforts such as the architecture of building regulatory systems being done in coordination with NASCIO and the interoperability work being done with IAI and FIATECH.
  
• Ascertain available software and potential software developers (interoperable). 

3) Role for the National Alliance

• Work with Department of Homeland Security, FEMA, state and local homeland security directors, first responders, and governments, insurance, construction, and information technology communities to assemble interdisciplinary work team to finalize this outline, discuss and set draft work agenda for this project, and select sites for prototype development and testing.
  
• Define and set Performance Objectives of a coordinated state-based nationwide system (near- and long-term) to include:  1) Foster interactive hazard/ incident-specific analysis capability; 2) Assure data is transportable/interoperable and up to date; and 3) Assure data is secure.
  
• Pursue and obtain funding to build an effective correct prototype and establish test sites and facilitate growth of a coordinated state-based system across the nation.
  
• Set-up criteria to select test sites and select. (Several possible candidates include Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, States of New York, Oregon and Washington.)
  
• Set up criteria and then monitor a test site(s).
  
• Share outcome of prototype/test site experience with federal, state, and local governments and homeland security community.
  
• Promote training/retraining to systems.
  
• Make refinements to proposed state-based nationwide system and work with elected and appointed officials at federal, state and local governments, develop, fund, and put in place.

For More Information, contact Carolyn Fitch at NCSBCS
 (703) 437-0100 ext. 238.