Responding to a life-saving need

Andrew Edwards

A local business has created a tool its owners believe can save lives

if terrorists ever again strike in the United States -- and it’s only

a tap of a key away.

The Huntington Beach-based company, Responder 911 Inc., is

marketing training software its makers believe can teach emergency

crews how to use their gear, and their brains, when responding to a

terror attack.

The software, titled “Emergency Response to Terrorism,” is based

on a Federal Emergency Management Agency manual reproduced verbatim

in the software’s text and narration. Jon Muir, one of the software’s

creators, said the multimedia format lets firefighters and other

emergency workers see what they’d need to do after a terrorist

attack.

“This gets the first responders to think about what you are

supposed to do when this happens, and you think back to your

training,” Muir said.

The visual lessons take users through the ins and outs of the

dangers of political violence. Muir, who created the company with

James Melton, said the software includes information about the

history of terrorism and hazards posed by chemical and biological

agents, and it warns firefighters that terrorists could go as far as

to rig bombs to explode when triggered by fire crews’ radio

frequencies.

Muir, a paramedic, lives in Huntington Beach and works for the

Santa Ana Fire Department with his partner, Melton. The two hooked up

with Cliff Goldman, a college friend of Muir’s who owns the

Huntington Beach multimedia company Clockwork, Inc. Together, they

transformed tedious reading matter -- a printed government manual --

into a more visually stimulating format that adds bells and whistles

while keeping all the information from the source material.

The three began work on the project more than a year ago, Goldman

said, and within the past couple months, completed Version 2.0, which

adds narration to the lessons. They’re still fine-tuning the

software.

“We’re doing updates today, as we speak,” Goldman said.

The product includes a short film that simulates a chemical attack

at a federal building, followed by a sequence that shows firefighters

how to respond and use their fire trucks to set up a decontamination

shower for victims.

“We’re showing them something that they can actually do 10 minutes

after watching the video,” Melton said.

Muir and Melton got the idea to transform the training manual to

an audio-visual format months before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Muir

said he first came across the government publication eight months

before Sept. 11 and was immediately impressed by the material.

“I actually read it and thought, ‘Wow, this is pretty good

information,’” he said.

After the attacks at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Muir

and Melton were sure there would have been more survivors if rescue

agencies had widespread access to terrorism-response training.

“We knew right then and there, had people read some of this

material, it could have saved some lives,” Muir said.

The Santa Ana Fire Department sent copies of the software to each

of its stations, but the three hope to sell copies to Washington

rather than local fire departments.

“Our goal is that the federal government takes it over and

disseminates it to every first responder in the nation,” Muir said.

The software costs about $70,000 to produce, and so far the

company has made back only a small fraction of its investment.

Federal agencies have not contacted the company to buy copies.

Responder 911 sells the software for $89.95. Melton said

comparable programs can run in the $500 to $600 range, but they

wanted to make it available to individuals as well as government

agencies.

“We want to make it affordable, so you can take it home and study

it yourself,” Melton said.

The three would like to make additional training materials if they

can afford future projects. Melton said a second effort would teach

citizens how to work together in the aftermath of terrorism or a

natural disaster.

“Police and fire services will be totally consumed during a major

earthquake, and the neighborhoods will be pretty much on their own,”

Melton said.