A Quick Response: U.S.D.A. Forest Service Provides Command Leadership

After the unthinkable disaster, all Americans wanted to lend their hands -- and hearts -- to the historic recovery effort.

But some people, like Arizona-based fire management officer Van Bateman, had unique and critical skills to lend to the rescue effort at Ground Zero, thanks to his 17 years with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service Incident Management Team (IMT).

Bateman and his fellow IMT members, experts at managing large emergency situations associated with wildfires and other disasters, were dispatched to Ground Zero by FEMA under the federal response plan.

The World Trade Center attack created a fireball of a magnitude most had never witnessed, requiring Bateman and his fellow IMT members to adapt their skills to respond to the unbelievable disaster. They quickly assumed a support role among the many federal, state, local, and voluntary personnel working at the site.

"A 10- to 15-acre disaster, which is the size of Ground Zero, would usually be no problem for our teams," says Bateman, incident commander of the Southwest Area IMT, one of three Forest Service teams at the World Trade Center site. "But the enormity of the devastation made the search and recovery seem overwhelm- ing at times."

Undaunted, Bateman and his 42-member team assisted the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) at the Duane Street fire station (Engine Co. 7/Ladder Co. 1) with information collection and intelligence for map updates. They also operated a mobilization center that provided transportation, food, showers, laundry, and other support services for the Urban Search and Rescue teams as well as managed a receiving and distribution center for supplies needed at Ground Zero. Other Forest Service personnel served as liaisons between the Forest Service and its federal partners, including FEMA.

Bateman, who normally works as a fire management officer at Coconino National Forest in Blue Ridge, Ariz., leads one of 16 national IMTs on call to fight fires and respond to disasters. Each team has a cadre of specialists with specific duties such as logistics, planning, information, and finance. When called out to a disaster, the teams of 37 to 42 arrive outfitted with enough equipment and supplies to carry out a self-contained operation from the moment they hit the ground.

"I think we overwhelm people sometimes with all the equipment and resources we bring," says Bateman. "We're trained to manage the entire operation from actual firefighting to developing budgets and processing invoices."

The USDA Forest Service IMTs were funded by FEMA through a $16 million mission assignment.

"This is not an assignment I would have hoped for," says Bateman. "But it was a humbling experience that I would not have missed for the world."