A blog on the 2007 NFPA World Safety Conference & Exposition®.

Sunday, June 03, 2007
NFPA Chairman Warren McDaniels recalls lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina

NFPA Chairman Warren McDaniels, former fire chief for the city of New Orleans, officially opened the 111th annual meeting of NFPA in the grand ballroom of the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center.

Chief McDaniels was born and raised in New Orleans and joined the city’s fire department in 1969. He was the first African American in many of the department’s ranks including his appointment as superintendent in 1993. He retired in 2001.

In 2005, Chief McDaniels saw the city’s fire service and emergency response units through a very different lens, as Hurricane Katrina barreled through the Gulf region with intense fury.

“Rather than providing service I needed service,” he said. “Rather than responding to the needs of others, others responded to my needs and those of my family. Rather than helping evacuate others, I struggled with the decision of whether or not to leave my home. In the course of my nearly 40 years with New Orleans Fire, there were many times I told people to leave, pack what you can and go without thinking twice about it. I now know it from the other side. It was an onerous decision. Evacuating is not simply picking up and getting out of town.”

Chief McDaniel’s decision was complicated by health issues. In recent years, he has lost both legs due to diabetes and hypertension. He and his wife eventually evacuated New Orleans, driving in their motor home 100 miles north of the city.

“The evening we arrived, we looked at the TV coverage of the still-raging hurricane and knew everything we had was gone,” he said. “Two homes, a lifetime of memories, photos dating back to the 1930s, awards…all of it washed away. Our history, like that of thousands of other Katrina victims, now exists only in our minds.”

Chief McDaniels said that events in recent history and his own personal story have painfully reminded the nation of the importance of preparing for disasters - both natural and man-made. He said NFPA’s role in ensuring businesses, governments, and individuals are ready should these events occur is paramount and growing.

“NFPA 1600, Disaster Preparedness and Business Continuity Planning, has been officially designated as the emergency preparedness standard for the United States and is used in numerous other countries throughout the world,” he said. “Now in its fourth edition, it has been downloaded, at no cost, more than 120,000 times from NFPA’s Web site.”

In addition, the U.S Department of Homeland Security (DHS) adopted eight NFPA standards for first responder personal protective equipment. Three of the eight documents were adopted for the first time by DHS and the remaining five were re-adoptions of the latest editions of standards currently being recognized by DHS.

Read the full text of Chief McDaniel's remarks.

Mike Hazell
Web Publisher

1 Comments:

Jack Oliver said...

I had the pleasure of working with Chief Warren McDaniels back in the late '80s and early '90s when I was with the Louisiana State Fire Marshal's Office. Unfortunately, I lost touch with him after that and often wondered how he was doing. Your story about his speech at the NFPA Conference helped to answer many of those questions for me. I was sorry to hear about his health problems, but was glad to hear that he was still alive and well.

Chief McDaniels helped me to succeed with a project that I had been given and I will never forget that help.

Thank you for keeping me updated!

Jack Oliver
Life Safety Officer
Massachusetts General Hospital
Boston, MA

About the Conference

NFPA's World Safety Conference & Exposition® (WSC&E), being held this year in Boston, is the biggest event for fire protection, security, and life safety professionals. Visit the conference Web site. NOTE: The views expressed in education sessions, section meetings, seminars, and other programs at this meeting do not necessarily represent the ideas or policies of NFPA or any of its constituent parts. NFPA technical policy is expressed in its adopted codes and standards.