Quote Originally Posted by Stan Zimmerman, Pelican Press
If you believe terrorism is a far-away threat, just remember that 9/11 perpetrator Mohammad Atta who flew into the World Trade Towers learned to fly at Huffman Aviation in Venice.

PART I: FEDERAL FUNDING

The Sarasota County Fire Department is one of a handful in the state trained and ready for terrorism and catastrophe. This week it received $118,000 from the state to remain at that level of preparation.

The Fire Department’s special operations team has 54 members on call, with about 10 on duty at any one time, said Fire Captain Doug Wolfe. "They’re trained on chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats," he said.

In addition to terrorist responses, the team is responsible for other delicate and nasty business, such as hazardous materials, including fuel and oil spills.

Each team member is the product of hundreds of hours of specialized training; depending on their specialty.

PART II: THE TERROR THREAT

Only seven fire departments in Florida have special operations teams, which were created just before Atta and his cohorts skyjacked four airliners, crashing one into the Pentagon and two into the towers of the World Trade Center. The fourth crashed in Pennsylvania when the passengers fought back.

After Sept. 11, 2001, the Department of Homeland Security began to support local anti-terrorist efforts. The $118,000 will be spent in training and equipment maintenance.

The training takes place not only in Sarasota but also at federal facilities such as the Dugway Proving Grounds at the Great Salt Lake Desert in Utah, center of the U.S. biological warfare community.

"Sometimes you can rule out the biological threat," said Wolfe. "If it’s a bacteria, you can see it in a microscope. The onset of symptoms is delayed in [a biological attack], so you have to determine the credibility of the threat or the materials you find."

Wolfe said that if biological attack is suspected, samples are sent to a laboratory, but results won’t be known for 72 hours. "We have to make a decision quickly, in 10 or 15 minutes, to get it out and analyzed," he said.

The county is considering a mobile analytic laboratory, he said.

Chemical attacks are a little easier. Air samples in the field quickly can determine the presence of known chemical agents such as nerve or blister gas. Dugway is the site, too, of the chemical threat training for Sarasota’s special ops firefighters.

Radiological threats also telegraph their presence through emission of alpha, beta and gamma radiation. Geiger and scintillation counters are part of the team’s kit. Specialized training for nuclear activity takes place at the Nevada nuclear test site.

Dealing with explosives remains the province of city and county bomb squads. But if any nuclear material is involved, the Sarasota County Fire Department special operations team is trained to tackle the problem.
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