As part of its role to connect leaders across borders, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) supports local governments in their efforts to foster regional, and even global, collaboration.
On May 18, COG’s Department of Homeland Security and Public Safety hosted a webinar event in partnership with the Northern Virginia Regional Commission (NVRC) and the Arlington Sister City Association to explore how European public safety and emergency response methods can be implemented into firefighting and rescue response in our region.
Since 2015, the Arlington County Fire Department (ACFD) has partnered with the fire department in Aachen, Germany – Arlington County’s sister city. Through peer-to-peer and technical exchanges, Arlington County has studied and learned about the potential applications of emergency response policies and technical innovations from their counterparts in Aachen. Several practices that the ACFD employ today are like those seen in Aachen and other fire departments in Europe.
About 40 participants attended the webinar including local fire departments, educational institutions, emergency managers, chief administrative officers, and other public safety and emergency response leaders around the region.
One major point of collaboration was the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. While still very new to the United States at the time, Europe was already dealing with the first wave of the virus which allowed Aachen Fire Department officials to offer ACFD advice on what to expect regarding workforce resiliency, department policies and procedures, masking, coordination with stakeholders, and more.
“Anytime you can expand your reach it gives you an opportunity to shop in that marketplace of ideas,” said Arlington County Fire Department Captain Justin Tirelli. “The connections you make can point you in directions that you just didn’t know were there.”
The two fire departments continue exchanging information on global hazards like COVID-19, but also explore other threats like extreme weather events, the intersection of public safety and climate change, and other fire safety techniques and practices, like equipment standards and response methods.