Posted by Firehouse.com (165.247.9.194) on September 19, 2001 at 08:58:42:
In Reply to: Security of Emergency Vehicles posted by Kevin Agard on September 19, 2001 at 08:48:25:
CNN and other news outlets reported throughout the night Tuesday that the FBI had issued a strongly worded warning to all fire and
emergency agencies about the potential for vehicles to be stolen and used as rolling explosive devices in future waves of terrorist
attacks.
It turns out, according to the FBI, that warning was later mostly retracted, advising only due caution and that the orignal report was
based on unconfirmed information.
"It's without foundation and it was a miscommunication," said Special Agent John Sennett of the FBI's Albany Field Office. "I'm not sure
exactly at what point in the chain of communication it happened but there is no basis for it."
In the Northeast, the original notice was sent out and retracted a short time later reiterating that it was not a credible threat. Some
officials said a simliar notice was also issued Monday, and that it may have been just one tip from the nearly 100,000 that have poured
into law enforcement agencies since the attacks last Tuesday.
Sennett said he was not aware where the first warning originated from, but that it was not out of the Albany Field Office.
There were reports by media and emergency personnel that other FBI Field Offices had passed on the warning to their local emergency
service agencies.
By late Tuesday, some field offices stated they were aware of the nature of the retraction and others had no knowledge of the original
notice whatsoever.
Despite this initial report being an unconfirmed threat, Sennett, as well as other FBI and emergency service officials said all
emergency service agencies should take extra precautions due to the incidents of the last week ... from the security of their vehicles
to their safety of their personnel on what might appear to be 'routine' incidents.
"If something like this had come out we would've been on the phones and letting everyone know about it," International Association of
Fire Chiefs spokesperson Gail Walters said early Wednesday, "We don't want to alarm everybody without having all of the facts."
Fire officials from several major organizations privately worried that the news reports of a fire truck being used as a potential bomb
would create a scare to the public, and prevent them from calling for assistance in time of an emergency.
In addition to CNN, NBC and ABC also reported the story Tuesday night, with CNN running a crawl that essentially was the same headline
that greeted hundreds of thousands of users on the CNN Web site: -- 'FBI: Fire trucks might be used as bombs'.
By 1 a.m. Wednesday, the story had been taken down from CNN's Web site.
The CNN story specifically stated that ICHIEFS and the National Volunter Fire Council had received the warnings, first listing them as
the source of the report. They later changed it to say that both organizations were passing word along to fire departments across the
nation, which representatives from both organizations told Firehouse.com was not correct.
ICHIEFS did receive a faxed notice from a New York State Police barrack, which essentially summarized the original FBI release that was
later partially retracted. One official quoted the retraction as strongly wording the fact that the original notice was not a credible
threat.
No information collected specifically points to fire department equipment as possible targets for terrorists, an FBI spokesman in
Washington told Firehouse.com earlier Tuesday. "We can't confirm this is a threat," the spokesman said. "Rather we are asking everyone
to be vigilant now that such possibilities have become realities."
"We're taking every possible precaution there is," said FBI spokeswoman Angela Bell of FBI and law enforcement officials acting on the
nearly 100,000 tips received in the attacks. "We're doing everything we can to minimize the threat to the American public."
E-Mail threads of such a warning have circulated across the Internet since late last week, and many national fire service organizations
have worked diligently to try to confirm it for the last few days to no avail.
Following initial rumors, Seattle Fire Department officials contacted the FBI to confirm their validity. The FBI responded advising that
there were no specific threats, only echoing rumors. But both the FBI and Seattle Fire Department said emergency units should use extra
caution, spokeswoman Sue Stangle said.
Maryland EMS officials issued a warning on Monday, recommending that statewide agencies 'take appropriate action to ensure that vehicles
are accounted for and used only by authorized personnel.' Maryland State Police officials said they were aware of the EMS agency's
notice, but said they knew of no specific notice from the FBI to them.
George Burke, spokesman for International Association of Fire Fighters, also said their organization has not been notified of a specific
threat to emergency vehicles, but had researched earlier rumors and found no firm basis for them.