OPERATION SUCCESS: COLUMBIA SPACE SHUTTLE RECOVERY

Fire Management Today, Spring 2005 by Weaver, Traci

When the Space Shuttle Columbia exploded in the Texas sky on February 1, 2003, it ignited emotions and burned a memory into the collective American mind. The space shuttle disaster initiated one of the largest search efforts in U.S. history, involving more than 25,000 people and 450 organizations from all over the country. Largely due to an efficient Incident Command System (ICS), the wildland fire community remembers the 100-day Columbia Space Shuttle recovery effort as more than a tragedy-it was also a successful recovery mission.

Firefighters: A Crucial Component

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) officials, who were initially skeptical about including firefighters, soon praised their efforts.

"Using wildland firefighters with the incident management teams was the perfect tool for the job," said Sam Ortega, NASA deputy lead onsite representative. "From the overhead to the individual crews, I never saw anything less than pure dedication to the mission. They are the reason that we are able to start a return to flight effort so quickly."

"It became evident early on that it was going to require a long-term organized effort beyond what volunteers could sustain," Stanford said, adding that recommending fire crews to NASA and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) made sense.

Texas Forest Service

Providing 20 incident management teams and nearly 600 hand crews, the Texas Forest Service soon became a key player in the shuttle recovery effort. The search was the first incident under the new U.S. Department of Homeland security and one of only a few Federal incidents in which a State agency had a lead role. The goals of the Texas Forest Service during the recovery mission were to ensure public safety, recover the crew, retrieve evidence, and provide public assistance.

"Initially, some questioned why the Texas Forest Service was given a lead role in Columbia recovery," Stanford said. "The answer was simple. Most of the shuttle material was recovered on private lands. We have the authority to enter private property." Texas Forest Service liaisons worked with each of the incident management teams to contact landowners, gain access to private land, and collaborate with local governments and businesses.

The Search

In 3 months, search crews located 85,000 pounds (38,600 kg) of material. That was nearly 38 percent of the reentry weight of Columbia, exceed-ing the National Transportation Safety Board's initial estimate that crews would recover less than 20 percent. Searchers combed 700,000 acres (280,000 ha) by ground and 1.6 million acres (540,000 ha) by air. In the East Texas counties of San Augustine and Sabine, workers recovered the remains of the crew in just 12 days.

Enough crucial pieces of the shuttle were discovered for investigators to pinpoint the cause of the accident. A Florida interagency hand crew in Sabine County found the OEX data recorder, or "black box," which had been missed during two earlier volunteer searches.

"Our crews managed to search the entire targeted area along the flight path-a 2-mile-wide [3.2km-wide] strip stretching from west of Corsicana to Toledo Bend Reservoir," said State Incident Commander Mark Stanford, Chief of Fire Operations for the Texas Forest Service. "Searchers traversed a mind-boggling 552,000 miles [888,000 km]."

Early search points were based on where other key elements of the shuttle were found. By March 1, NASA had opted for a grid search along the flight path. Incident management teams were tasked with planning the searches 24 to 48 hours in advance to allow for ample notification of landowners.

"Parts of the incident were routine, like briefings and planning meetings," Stanford said. "Some things were unique, like the search-andrescue training all of the crews had to undergo. Initially, NASA wanted the search tight enough to produce a 90-percent probability of detection. They realized that was going to take too long, so they relaxed it to 80 percent."

Search Challenges

An unusually wet Texas winter prompted FEMA to approve extra boots and boot-drying trailers for searchers. Much of the search area was thickly wooded and covered with briars. As spring approached, snakes and severe weather, including tornados, joined the list of hazards.

"Despite adverse weather conditions, our crews searched every day but two, and that was when Corsicana was hit with an ice storm," Stanford said. "We were under time constraints, too. We tried to cover as much ground as possible before greenup, because we knew it would be more difficult to find material once trees leafed out and everything began to grow."

Weather and critters were not the only dangers. Each crew was briefed on hazardous materials. Fifty potentially hazardous items were recovered. Searchers were also told not to key their radios within 50 feet (15 m) of suspected explosive material. No one was exposed or injured.

Because many key agencies were unfamiliar with ICS, organizational struggles developed. Those with a basic understanding of the system were able to focus efforts more quickly.