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Dan Glembot, shown in Iraq, has been Fort A. P. Hill's |
By RUSTY DENNEN
Dan Glembot protects soldiers in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait, but he doesn't carry a rifle.
In fact, the 44-year-old Beaverdam resident is not even a soldier. He's a civilian fire chief who has spent the past nine months in the war zone with a singular purpose: eliminating electrical hazards that cause fires and electrocutions on military bases.
Following an alarming string of electrical problems and injuries reported by troops in the field, the Army set up a task force in Iraq to investigate and correct them.
Task Force SAFE (Safety Actions for Fire and Electricity) was set up by Congress in August 2008 to inspect, assess and correct electrical, fire or safety issues at thousands of coalition sites in Iraq.
Glembot, fire chief at Fort A.P. Hill since 2002, was chosen by the Army for his fire-fighting expertise.
"You just knew that conditions there were bad, or they wouldn't be deploying a civilian to a war zone," Glembot said in a telephone interview this week from Baghdad, where he works for the Multi-National Force-Iraq.
DEADLY TOLL
More than a dozen U.S. soldiers have been electrocuted in Iraq since the war began in 2003. In one case, a Green Beret was electrocuted in a shower because of an improperly grounded electrical device. Fires are a byproduct of electrical malfunctions.
Glembot has been a firefighter on Army installations for 23 years, first at Fort Belvoir in Northern Virginia, and then as chief at Fort A.P. Hill starting in 2002.
He said it's been relatively easy to adjust.
"I've been working for the Army for so long I have a military mind-set. You just get one" working around soldiers all day. At the Caroline base, one of the Army's largest training facilities on the East Coast, temporary wiring is the rule at soldier's field camps and firefighters get lots of experience ensuring it's done safely.
In Iraq, Glembot says, electrical systems were hastily installed under combat conditions.
"One of the biggest issues was the lack of bonded and grounded [equipment]," he said. So when a circuit was overloaded, it might not trip a circuit-breaker and would result in an electrical shock or a fire.
"Things were put together fast, and not necessarily to code."
Many of those installing the wiring and other equipment are third-country nationals employed by contractors. Language and uniformity issues add to the challenge.
And, "there was a lot of counterfeit equipment," he said, such as substandard power strips from suppliers in Turkey and Bahrain.
AUSTERE CONDITIONS
The soldiers themselves have to be educated.
"We found some level of complacency" about the dangers of improperly installed equipment, Glembot said.
"They're used to a certain standard of living" at home, Glembot said. Then they wind up in a tent or shipping-container-size housing unit, "and they have 20 things plugged into one adapter. You wonder why there aren't more fires when you see the conditions. They're very austere."
His team handed out thousands of replacements for unsafe power strips.
Glembot helped develop the fire program from scratch, with an inspection process to investigate the cause of malfunctions.
The first few weeks he visited forward operating bases, working 18- to 20-hour days. He's the fire chief for the entire war theater, which includes Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait.
A rocket exploded near his convoy on one trip in Iraq. On another, the turret gunner in his Humvee fired at a truck that attacked the column.
SAVING LIVES
In Iraq, there are now 35 inspection teams, each with a fire-protection specialist and two master electricians--all civilians. And all fires and electrical problems are now investigated.
The efforts have made a difference.
Since September, the teams have inspected 60,000 of the 94,000 coalition sites across Iraq, leading to a 50 percent reduction in electrical incidents and fires.
"This has been a great experience for me," Glembot said. Back home, "I was taking care of [soldiers'] families. But this is direct support" of those on the front lines.
He's also helped train Iraqi fire officials.
John Thomas, captain and assistant fire chief at Fort A.P. Hill, said the Army made a good choice in Glembot.
"As fire chief, you've got to know it all," he said, adding that Glembot has kept in close touch with the department and came in during a two-week furlough.
"I think he was truly enjoying [the deployment]. He said everything has really improved since he's been there."
Glembot, who is married with two children, returns home in September.
Christopher Joyner, spokes-man for Fort A.P. Hill, said the Army benefits in two ways from such exchanges.
"Civilians on temporary tours in places like Iraq can come back with a better understanding of what we do. And the benefit for us here is that he gets additional skills that can only make our base a safer environment for warriors coming through."
Rusty Dennen: 540/374-5431
Email: rdennen@freelancestar.com
| Daniel Glembot grew up in Oxon Hill, Md., and is a graduate of Columbia Southern University in Alabama.
He began working as a firefighter for the Army at Fort Belvoir in 1986 and became fire chief at Fort A.P. Hill in 2002, supervising a department of about 30 people. |
