When Capt. Ed Stahley turned green after battling an industrial fire in 1987 in his hometown of Kitchener, Ontario, his firefighter colleagues joked that he looked like Kermit the Frog. But the joke turned deadly when Stahley died of liver cancer in 1990. Within seven years, 23 of the 69 firefighters who responded to the Kitchener blaze developed cancer or Parkinson's disease.

"The firefighters," said The Ottawa Citizen, "had no idea what was burning" when they arrived at the plant that manufactured floral foam. First responders depend on accurate information -- much of it contained in essential records -- to protect their health and lives during disaster response.

In fact, all during the response phase, and during the recovery period that follows any emergency, essential records make a difference in how well the response is conducted and how quickly the community recovers. Understanding the concept of essential records helps emergency managers protect their own essential records as well as any such records they may encounter during a response and recovery effort.

Essential records can be paper or electronic, but they fall into five broad categories:

1. Essential Records Necessary for Emergency Response

Whether an emergency involves a single structure or regionwide destruction, first responders depend on critical records to facilitate their response. Maps, building plans, infrastructure and utilities plans may be needed to direct the response and determine the safety of affected structures. Material Safety Data Sheets will alert responders to potential hazards and required treatments in response to exposure. In wider emergencies, government agencies and businesses will need copies of emergency plans, contact information and even delegations of authority to facilitate the response. All of these are essential records.

2. Essential Records That Protect the Health, Safety, Property and Rights of Residents

Medical records are an obvious example of essential records that protect the health and safety of a community, but records protect in other ways that are less obvious. Almost every legal right enjoyed by a citizen is confirmed by some record: Proof of citizenship -- bringing with it the right to vote and all constitutional rights -- depends on birth records, marriage certificates or naturalization papers. Fair trials depend on court records. And property ownership can only be established with deeds and mortgages. All of these are essential records that must be protected during a disaster.

3. Essential Records Necessary to Resume or Continue Operations

During a disaster, government agencies and businesses can only continue operations if they can access paper or electronic records. As the disaster stretches on (after a hurricane, for example) the need for more and more records grows. Contracts and leases, payroll records and accounts receivable are just some of the essential records necessary for continuity of operations.

4. Essential Records That Would Require Massive Resources to Reconstruct

If an emergency manager uses GIS to maneuver in disaster areas, he or she is using a record that probably took countless hours to create. Such systems are complex and would require tremendous resources to re-create, resources that might be beyond the capacity of many organizations or government agencies. That makes such a record an essential record, one that must be protected during disasters.

5. Essential Records to Restore Order and Community After a Disaster

A disaster -- particularly a widespread one -- does not end when the last fire has been extinguished or all the water drained. Families and communities can only fully recover if their essential historical records have been preserved. Sadly responders sometimes fail to recognize the importance of such records in their understandable haste to mitigate the immediate effects