Mass fatality incident

Mass Fatality Incident (abbreviated MFI) is an emergency management term used to identify an incident involving more dead bodies and/or body parts than can be located, identified, and processed for final disposition by available response resources.

Although it is a somewhat relative term in that there is no widely accepted number of fatalities that define an MFI, it is generally recognized that if the number of fatalities exceeds the local city or county's resource capabilities causing them to request assistance, or mutual aid, from neighboring jurisdictions, the term applies.

Mass fatality incidents may or may not be a result of a mass casualty incident (MCI), which is considered a different type of incident and usually focuses more on managing the surviving victims of an incident. MFI and MCI may, and often do, occur simultaneously. MFI differ from MCI in that most, if not all, of the victims of the incident are deceased. A catastrophic plane crash with no survivors is one example of an MFI. Part of the distinction between MFI and MCI is because different kinds of resources are needed to manage each. Living victims are attended to by medical personnel such as EMS, deceased victims are attended to by medical examiners or coroners.

Mass fatality incident may be either man-caused, such as hazardous materials releases, transportation accidents, or terrorist attacks, or they may be the result of natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, or severe weather.

Some significant mass fatality incidents are:

• Hurricane Katrina
• 9/11 Attacks
• Oklahoma City bombing
• Bhopal Disaster
• Spanish Flu

Currently, the greatest fears for an MFI come from Pandemic Flu. The Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 killed millions and overwhelmed response resources on a global level. A modern Pandemic could have equally disastrous effects as people die faster than they can be buried.

Response functions

The primary response functions in a mass fatality incident are:

1. Body recovery - the search & rescue efforts to locate bodies and body parts, marking and documenting the location of found remains, and eventually transporting the remains to either decontamination or the site morgue for examination as appropriate.
2. Decontamination (depending on event) - the "cleaning" of either chemically or biologically contaminated remains to make them safe for further handling and examination.
3. Examination
4. Identification & death certification
5. Processing for final disposition

References

• Capstone Document: Mass Fatality Management for Incidents Involving Weapons of Mass Destruction, US Army Research Development & Engineering Command and Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office for Domestic Preparedness, August 2005.
• Mass Fatality Plan, National Association of Medical Examiners, 2005.