The main tenet of this paper is that effective coordination is an essential ingredient for emergency response management (ERM) in the US. This finding is based on conversations with emergency responders. The study is documented by a detailed table of eight emergency response challenges and related noteworthy coordination activities. Current literature in this area is reported, including practitioner papers, government reports, and testimonies to Congress containing little formal research.

A framework is proposed to analyze emergency response coordination patterns, to be applied in a life cycle (pre-incident phase, during incident phase, recovery phase) for ERM. This framework considers five basic elements that are factored into each phase, including the “during incident” phase being broken into the mini-second coordination cycle (proactive) and many-second coordination cycle (more reactive). The framework is outlined in another detailed table presenting the coordination issues, the coordination goals, and the coordination mechanisms and support as each basic element is factored into each phase and subphase.

To show the real-world effectiveness of the framework, it is applied to the July 18, 2001 train derailment in the Howard Street Tunnel under the streets of downtown Baltimore, Maryland. A third detailed table presents that ERM situation with the proposed framework as a template. Finally, there is a call for formal research into the application of a number of emerging information technologies being used in ERM within the context of the framework.