Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

New York City Fire, Police Departments Needs to Change to Avoid Losses of 9/11 in Future

Aired August 19, 2002 - 08:41   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: New structure, new strategy. The New York City fire and police departments need to change to avoid the losses of 9/11 in the future. Reports on those changes set to be released later today at city hall.
Hillary Lane is there covering the story for us, and joins us with a quick preview from there.

Hillary, good morning. What do we know now?

HILLARY LANE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.

In the months since September 11th, both the New York City fire department and the police department have conducted very detailed and very delicate internal reviews, but what is being released here this morning is an outsider's look in. And according to a source, who has seen the report, one of the major conclusions is that had communications been better, it is very possible that fewer lives in those apartments would have been lost.

Consultants from MacKenzie (ph) and Company, one of the nation's largest consulting firms, spent hundreds of hours talking to responders, and dozens of hours listening to communications tapes. They make very, very definite conclusions, and also very specific recommendations. This is not an exercise in finger pointing, but rather an exercise in preparedness, what to do if something on the scale of a World Trade Center attack should happen again, or something on an even greater scale.

Now sources telling CNN, this report dispels some of the misconceptions that firefighters, for example, rushed in haphazardly. Instead, the source tells us that of the 200 units that entered the World Trade Center, all but four of those had been dispatched there. There are other reports saying there that firefighters that were supposed to stay in the periphery of the building instead went it, and it has been reported many times before that there have been some very, very big communication lapses, especially at the New York City Fire Department.

The fire department lost 343 fighters. That's in comparison to 60 of police, both from the New York and the New Jersey area, a lot of that due to communications problems. We are hearing from one report that of the 20 recommendations, one of the biggest will be to bolster the hazardous materials unit, so that the fire department and the police department can be prepared for what could be a nuclear, biological or a chemical attack, to make that unit stronger, and especially to get those communications systems in place -- Bill.

HEMMER: Hillary, I guess two questions here quickly, how long before they could be initiated and set into motion, number one? And number two, any reaction from the fire department or the police department to this report?

LANE: We don't have any reaction to these reports yet, although at 11:00 Eastern Time this morning, there will be a news conference. We'll be hearing from both the chiefs of the fire and the police department. I'm sure we'll get response at that point. As for getting these systems in place, much of that work is under way. Communications problems, for example, in the fire department's monitors that they'd been using, that has been pointed out, highly reported and those systems are already being worked on, both in the fire department, and after the internal review in the police department, I'm sure that measures are being taken right as we speak.

HEMMER: About two hours away from that release. Thank you, Hillary. Hillary Lane, reporting in New York City here.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com