We all know the feeling of getting the page in the wee hours to respond to an incident that requires the attention of the public information office.

 The attempted car bombing that took place in Times Square in NYC on Saturday evening is one such type of incident where the split second coordination of internal and external information to and from many departments is required.

There is an interesting story in today’s Wall Street Journal that looks at how the flow of information reached Mayor Bloomberg who was in Washington attending the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. It’s a great snapshot of how information moves and decisions are made.

 Bloomberg Tracked Times Square News From White House Gala

By Michael Howard Saul, Wall Street Journal

For a New York City mayor, who is expected to be on the job 24 hours a day, there’s nothing worse than being out of town when a major incident in the city occurs.

When Mayor Michael Bloomberg first learned there was a car bomb in Times Square Saturday night, he was mingling with power brokers just feet away from President Barack Obama at the annual black-tie White House correspondents’ dinner in Washington.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, who also attended the celebrity-studded dinner, first learned about the incident at roughly 7:15 p.m., aides to the mayor confirmed Sunday. Police in New York had begun investigating the suspicious vehicle around 6:30 p.m.

Kelly personally briefed the mayor shortly after 8 p.m. At the time, the mayor was socializing at a table directly under the podium in the center of a massive ballroom filled with Washington’s elite and assorted hangers-on. Bloomberg was feet away from the president.

Over the course of the next three hours, as law enforcement officials in New York investigated the incident and its seriousness and scope became clear, Kelley, along with members of the mayor’s and commissioner’s detail, kept Bloomberg updated.

At one point during the dinner, the head of Kelly’s detail was crouched on the floor behind Bloomberg, giving him an update. The mayor was seated next to Sens. Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Maria Cantwell of Washington.

After the dinner, Bloomberg had planned to attend the Vanity Fair Bloomberg Party. The mayor and his group never made it there. When the dinner ended around 11 p.m., Bloomberg and his entourage headed directly to the airport. Aides said the mayor was disinclined to leave before the president spoke.

The mayor’s private plane departed for New York City shortly before midnight. In addition to the mayor, the passengers included Kelly; the mayor’s girlfriend, Diana Taylor; mayoral press secretary Stu Loeser; a member of the mayor’s advance team, Jamie Lee; and several police officers.

The plane landed at LaGuardia Airport at 12:35 a.m. Sunday. The mayor headed directly to Times Square for a briefing from law enforcement officials before he addressed the media at around 2:15 a.m.

“We were very lucky,” Bloomberg said. “We avoided what could have been a very deadly event.”

The mayor returned to his upper East Side townhouse around 3:30 a.m.

At 7 a.m., Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano phoned Mr. Bloomberg to discuss the incident and the investigation. Throughout the day on Sunday, the mayor received numerous updates from law enforcement officials. He spoke with Obama in the afternoon.

It was not the first time that a New York mayor was outside the five boroughs when a crisis hit the city.

In February 1993, when a car bomb was detonated below the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, then-Mayor David Dinkins was on an official trip to Japan. That evening, Dinkins addressed New Yorkers via satellite television, and, then, he rushed back to the city.

In 2006, when cops fatally shot Sean Bell, an unarmed bridegroom on the day of his wedding, Bloomberg was believed to spending time at his vacation home in Bermuda. The mayor busily worked the phones and assured elected officials he was monitoring the incident.

With modern technology, aides to the mayor have long said, he is able to keep in touch and monitor situations, no matter where he is in the world.

The mayor is scheduled to have dinner tonight with Mounted Police Officer Wayne Rhatigan, who played a key role in ensuring the incident wasn’t any worse. The mayor has also invited the street vendor who spotted the car smoking, but it was unclear later Sunday afternoon whether he would be able to attend.

The mayor will be dining at Blue Fin in the heart of Times Square.

“He likes to make a point of showing New York is open for business,” Loeser said.

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One of the rudimentary things we first learn in the volunteer fire service is to start your size up the moment your pager tones you out. Draw a mental image of where the call is, what type of building and its construction, what equipment will be needed etc. Another early lesson is to do size up virtually all the time, when you are driving through your neighborhood, when you enter a business, when you visit you kid’s school. This could prepare you for future alarms to these areas.

For a number of years I have done a size up of a parking lot behind a strip of stores in my town, Smithtown, on Long Island. The lot always seems to be in poor repair, dimly lit and pot hole laden. It always appeared to be an accident waiting to happen. Unfortunately on Sunday, the accident did happen, and it was deadly.

Seventeen year old Amiri Zeqiri, a college student, was working in a Dunkin Donuts. As on many other nights the owner asked Amiri to take the garbage out to the dumpster. A routine task. Amiri left the rear door of the shop and did not immediately return. Amiri’s cousin Faton, fourteen years old, also worked in the shop. Faton went out back and heard Amiri’s cries for help. Amiri had fallen into a deep open manhole that led into the buildings septic system. Faton ran for help while Amari hung on, running his hands on the walls looking something to grab onto.

Shop keepers left their stores to assist Amari. It was makeshift. The Pizza store manager lowered an apron, hoping Amiri could reach it so they could hoist him up. An aluminum pole was place in the hole for Amiri to grab. 911 was called. The Smithtown Fire Department was toned out at 9:11pm. A Suffolk County Police patrol car was on the scene in a minute or two, Suffolk Police Emergency Services arrived, and we had Chiefs, Rescue, Engines and ambulances to the back of the store in less than 5 minutes.

A rapid extrication of Amiri motivated everyone to work double time. Two pike poles were lowered into the manhole to work to pull Amiri up. It was silent down in the hole. Finally Amiri was hooked and brought to the surface. He was transferred on a backboard to stretcher. CPR commenced. From the initial tone to the time Amiri was pulled was a rapid 12 minutes. From the time of the initial tone to Amiri’s arrival at the hospital emergency room was 21 minutes.

Amiri succumbed at 10:10pm at St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center. A senseless and avoidable death.

We all sensed the inevitable when Amiri was removed, but our work continued. We continued to do a confined space search to make sure no additional victims suffered Amiri’s same fate.

As usual, in such a situation, as parents, friends and relative grieve; the property owner cowers behind unanswered phone calls and the coat tails of his attorney.

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 I have posted about the logistical problems of occasionally getting transportation to a scene forthwith. How can I not envy the deluxe digs the PIO staff travels in when heading to a scene in Los Angeles.

FDNNTV did a video piece on this superb piece of equipment. Here is the skinny on the rig and a video tour of the layout.

Oh, by the way, if you have PIO wheels send me a picture we can post – jeff@thefirepio.org.

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