Read about how the public information officer for UMB Police and Public Safety stands ready to help the community and its partners in the latest issue of “CATALYST” magazine.
Photo: Carin Cardella, public information officer for UMB Police and Public Safety, answers questions for members of the media outside a funeral for one of the Baltimore City Fire Department members.
The Baltimore City Fire Department (BCFD) has suffered unimaginable losses in each of the past two years.
Lt. Paul Butrim, Lt. Kelsey Sadler, and firefighter/paramedic Kenneth Lacayo were killed in 2022 as they battled a fire inside a vacant rowhome that collapsed on South Stricker Street, the largest loss of life the department had suffered in decades. Tragedy struck again just 21 months later, when Lt. Dillon J. Rinaldo and firefighter/EMT Rodney W. Pitts III died of injuries they suffered fighting a fire on Linden Heights Avenue.
Their deaths shocked the city and region and brought thousands of mourners to their funerals, drawing people from all over the country.
Behind the scenes, when there is an emergency such as these line-of-duty deaths in the state, the Maryland Incident Management Team (IMT) helps local jurisdictions by providing command and control infrastructure to manage operational, logistical, informational, planning, fiscal, community, political, and safety issues. And in both cases, IMT called on the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) to lend its support by deploying Carin Cardella, MA, MS, public information officer (PIO) for UMB Police and Public Safety.
Cardella is a member of IMT, which means that she can be deployed when a crisis happens. She has received a vast amount of training and experience in different crisis and emergency situations at UMB and in her previous role as PIO for the Maryland Department of Health’s Office of Preparedness and Response, where she managed public health crisis communications for the state and served as the Maryland Emergency Management Agency joint information center manager for national exercises and statewide events. Her experience makes her a valuable asset to the state when critical incidents happen.
“The IMT’s work is incredibly important to support the fire department as they mourn the deaths of two of their own,” Cardella said after the Linden Heights Avenue deaths. “I was requested as an asset by the IMT as the only current PIO in Maryland who has supported multiple Baltimore City Fire Department line-of-duty deaths.”
Read more about Cardella's work in the latest issue of CATALYST magazine.
You can read the Spring 2024 issue of CATALYST magazine, which highlights UMB's new “Climate Change, Health, and Society” elective; innovations such as the School of Dentistry's Division of Artificial Intelligence Research; the Francis King Carey School of Law celebrating 200 years; new Health Sciences and Human Services Library Dean Emily Hurst and Chief Philanthropy Officer Greg Bowden; Fahren Nipple, autopsy assistant for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and assistant program director for the Master of Science in Forensic Medicine at the Graduate School; and much, much more!