Does your department have a special operations team? Who would you call if you had a dive or a confined space rescue? How about a trench rescue? Most departments do not have the resources, financial or otherwise, to cover all of the special operations disciplines required to respond to such incidents in today's world. The required equipment is task-specific, and the training is intense. Keep in mind, we are still responsible for all the other functions-fire, EMS, inspections, and hydrants. Moreover, special operations responses are high risk and very low frequency. So how can the average fire department prepare for these types of calls? Well, as with any issue, there is more than one way to tackle a problem. The Coppell (TX) Fire Department (CFD) serves a city with a population of 39,000 that occupies about 14.7 square miles in northwest Dallas County. Coppell is surrounded by four other cities, and the average citizen would have a difficult time determining where one city ends and the other begins.
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