All first responders must be prepared to respond to suicide attacks. Staging safe and effective responses to these incidents requires knowledge of a number of unique considerations.

The research presented in this presentation used reviews of open source information along with site visits to multiple suicide bombing sites in Israel and the United Kingdom to determine the important considerations for first responders responding to suicide attacks. What is presented is not a specific standard operating procedure but rather a common framework that can help to facilitate a coordinated and effective response from all agencies involved.

Civilians and private security guards can play an important role in detecting the planning and execution of suicide attacks and sometimes even in their interdiction in the imminent attack phase. The suspicions of civilians must be taken seriously and citizens should be encouraged to report these suspicions immediately. The first responding emergency services personnel must be able to effectively begin their agency's response to the attack while maintaining a strong situational awareness. Also on scene, strong frontline commanders are needed to work together to lead a coordinated response. Interagency communication and using a scaled response is of increased importance at these incidents when first responders could be targeted by the secondary attacks or an initial threat that has not yet been neutralized. First responders can take the initial steps to promote the return to normalcy that is important after terrorist attacks. In the aftermath of attacks, efforts should be made to establish a collective knowledge within the emergency services community to share lessons learned in the response.

The results of this research can help local agencies plan for suicide attack response and also provides a strong foundation for future research to further investigate responses to the varying types of suicide attacks around the world.