The Miami-Dade Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security is located in the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue (MDFR) Headquarters in Doral, Fla., which also houses the county's 22,000-square-foot emergency operations center (EOC).
Coordination of emergency response and recovery operations, and development of plans and strategies occur in the EOC, which consists of 72 computerized workstations, advanced electronic information displays and telecommunications, a media center with production capability, a radio communications room, seven conference rooms, direct audio and video feeds, a 38-station call center with hearing impaired telephony, closed-circuit TV, and media monitoring stations.



The Firefighters Memorial, which stands in front of the MDFR Headquarters, was inaugurated on July 28, 2000, upon the headquarters' grand opening. This 6-foot, 1,200-pound bronze sculpture was dedicated to the memory of Miami-Dade firefighters who lost their lives serving their community. Artists at Honors for Excellence Ltd. in Minneapolis crafted the statue using phototgraphs of MDFR firefighters, and molded the actual bunker gear and equipment used by line personnel.



The EOC was designed with soft, incandescent lighting, ergonomic chairs, flat-screen PC monitors to reduce glare, headsets to reduce neck fatigue, and blue paint to calm, lower blood pressure and increase focusing abilities. For minimal noise, telephones and radios must have headsets, and the room is carpeted. The center has advanced and redundant telecommunications systems: digital, analog, satellite and 800 MHz radio. There are five status boards, 15 42-inch plasma screen monitors that are no more than 30 feet from any given point in the room, and 10 36-inch TV monitors. The incident commander sits at the front of the room, and the rest of the rows are broken up into area of specialty: public safety, health and human services, and infrastructure.



The facility's 311 answer center is staffed by 20 full-time professional call takers, but is expandable to 60 call stations. The center includes three telecommunications devices for the deaf and can take 1,800 calls per hour.



The press room was designed and subsidized by the Office of Emergency Management's media partners, and is equipped with professional lighting for TV broadcast. There are no chairs, lamps or wires for safety reasons. There are 10 camera positions available, and pool feeds are sent to local affiliates via microwave. A TV network can plug into one of the 13 walker boxes in the floor, and send audio and video directly to its truck parked outside.



All GIS maps for the Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security are generated in the Geographical Information Center. Various layers can be created, such as maps solely of schools or area storm surges. The machines against the wall to the left print the maps.


Photos courtesy of the Miami-Dade Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security JB