In response to recent terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., several Ames firefighters offered to make the trip east to help the rescue efforts.

Clint Peterson, fire chief for the Ames Fire Department, said several of the Ames firefighters called the local emergency management coordinator Wednesday and volunteered to go to New York.

“They are overwhelmed with volunteers right now,” he said. “The city of New York is actually requesting that no more volunteers show up.”

While the firefighters probably will not be heading to the East Coast, they are doing what they can to help the New York department from Ames. There is a fund set up by the Association of Fire Fighters for the families of the lost firefighters.

“We are contributing to the fund for the widows and their families that were lost,” he said.

Peterson said there is a special kind of bond between firefighters that makes them want to help one another.

“The fire service is a brotherhood,” Peterson said. “The people in the community understand that firefighters belong to this fraternal brotherhood that is very important to us.”

Peterson said several Ames firefighters knew some of the 200 New York City firefighters who died last week.

“Through conventions and training, we have met with them,” he said. “However, even if we didn’t know them personally, it still hurt because all firefighters have a fraternal bond.”

The Ames Fire Department is part of a network of emergency response organizations that have mutual aid agreements and emergency plans to supplement the immediate efforts of the city’s disaster response plan, which includes a response to terrorism, Peterson said.

These mutual-aid agreements and emergency plans are required by state code, said Lori Morrissey, emergency management coordinator for Story County.

“Story County has a wide multi-hazard operations plan for all disasters,” she said. “This is not specific to terrorism. It includes all emergencies and how we will respond to them.”

Morrissey said three or four chapters of the emergency plans are reviewed every year through emergency management.

“Our main objective is to do what we can before a disaster occurs in order to prevent or even lessen the effects,” she said.

The main threat to Story County right now is hazardous materials, Morrissey said. However, tornadoes and floods have caused the most damage.

“We try to keep track of our biggest threat and what our hazards are,” she said. “We look at where they are happening and why.”

The Emergency Management Department is working with the Ames Fire Department and Emergency Medical Services for quicker and more effective responses, Morrissey said.

Emergency management personnel have been meeting on terrorism and planning and training for it for the past two years, he said.

“Now we are looking more in-depth to terrorism and the resources available,” she said. “We will continue to train for it.”