Changes In Response Patterns Of Fire Departments In Civil Disturbances
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Date
1972-11
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Disaster Research Center
Abstract
Description
As Allen Barton has noted, ''a collective stress occurs when
many members of a social system fail to receive expected conditions
of life from the system."' Common examples of extreme collective
stress situations are those usually associated with floods, earthquakes,
bombing attacks, riots, revolutions, and mass purges. Underlying
these situations and providing the parameters within which these
activities occur is the community context. Work done at the
Research Center (DRC) has isolated two basic community contexts:
consensus and dissensus. In consensus-type extreme situations or
crises, "there is general overall agreement about goals and about
what should be done. Consensus crisis situations are typically
exemplified in most communities during and after major disasters.
Most of the research at DRC has been concerned with just such situations.
However, dissensus-type extreme crises have not been neglected. These
latter crises are marked by differences about goals and how these goals
should be realized. Dissensus crisis situations are typically exemplified
in most communities during riots or civil disorders. One
major value from the DRC viewpoint in studying these latter situations
is the knowledge gained in the comparison of organizational activities
in the two contexts. In this report a dissensus situation, urban civil
disturbance, is studied in the light of the activities and operations
of one organizational component: fire departments. It is hoped that
the material presented may be useful in a comparison with the activities
and operations of fire departments in natural disasters.
Keywords
Fire Departments, Civil Disturbances, Fluctuating Stress, Peak Stress, Fire Prevention