Figure 2

Stages in the emergency response. The emergency response is divided in sequential stages. The transition between stages has been defined as the time of critical events in the response operation. The timeline indicates the duration of each stage. The mobilization/en route stage started when the explosion occurred and ended when the ambulance and medical commanders parked their vehicles at the incident ground (1525 to 1534/0 to 9 min, 9 min in total). On arrival was constituted of the first minute on scene (1534 to 1535/9 to 10 min, 1 min in total). The establishment of a joint command post with police, fire, and health commanders defined the transition between initial response (1535 to 1553/10 to 28 min, 18 min in total) and development. The development stage ended when all affected buildings had been searched for casualties (1553 to 1728/28 to 123 min, 95 min in total). The conclusion stage was protracted because secondary search of the buildings needed emergency medical service presence (1728-ca 2200/123 to 395 min, 272 min in total). It ended with the last ambulance leaving the scene.