‘Find Them Quicker’

by Pat Pemberton

After a 30-inch natural gas pipeline exploded in San Bruno, California, sending huge flames into the air and leveling dozens of homes, search and rescue volunteers quickly assembled, with one primary goal: Find the missing.

“You couldn’t find anything with a naked eye,” said Lisa Harris, a unit leader with the San Mateo County Sheriff’s search and rescue team. “We were using dogs.”

As volunteers, firefighters, police and Red Cross workers descended on the scene in September 2010, Gary Bloom (Computer Science, ’82) was at the command post, coordinating the massive effort. Unlike most search and rescues Bloom has worked, the explosion represented a large-scale disaster. And, like the 2018 Camp Fire he worked, the goals were somber.

“There were no expectations of finding anybody alive,” he said. “We were looking for bodies, unfortunately.”

Bloom, a Cal Poly Honored Alumnus from 2000, is known for his work leading high-tech companies like VERITAS Software, eMeter and MarkLogic. But through the decades, he has also found missing people and saved lives as a member of search and rescue teams and as a volunteer emergency medical technician.

“Gary never thinks of himself as higher or better than anyone else,” said Brian Spencer, an EMT who has volunteered with Bloom at Rock Medicine (RockMed), providing medical care to Bay Area concertgoers. “From simple emergencies to life and death, there is only a handful of people who I want with me. Gary Bloom is at the top of that list.”

Bloom began volunteering on search and rescue missions the summer before his sophomore year at Cal Poly. He was working as a lifeguard in Pismo Beach when a local search and rescue team assisted Bloom and his partner with a complicated water rescue. During that rescue, a volunteer recruited him.

“I ended up going down to the Pismo sand dunes that night and doing medical calls with them,” he said.

After college, he had a brief stint with IBM in Colorado before moving back to California, where his rise in the corporate world culminated with multiple CEO positions.

After focusing on his career for 15 years, he returned to volunteering in 2007, leading the San Mateo search and rescue unit for four years and volunteering with RockMed and California Task Force 3, a FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Task Force based in Menlo Park. He also remained active at Cal Poly as a member of the President’s Council of Advisors.

“I believe it made me a better CEO to have distractions and not have 100 percent of my attention on one thing,” Bloom said.

At the same time, his corporate leadership skills helped him guide search and rescue efforts.

“There’s no doubt, whether you’re leading a volunteer group or you’re leading a company, there are a lot of similarities,” he said.

Whether faced with a search and rescue or someone having a medical emergency, Bloom said, the key is to not be paralyzed by indecision.

“That and just being comfortable giving people directives,” he said.

“He’s definitely a leader,” Harris added. “I think that’s his nature.”

Audrey Paulson, an RN and nurse practitioner who has volunteered with Bloom at RockMed, said Bloom’s face is a welcome sight at the Shoreline Amphitheater, where he has helped resuscitate people experiencing a medical crisis.

“He shines above and beyond in times of stress and or disaster,” Paulson said. “Gary delivers his care with competence, care and a confidence that makes all involved feel comfortable.”

While Bloom enjoys the volunteer work, it’s often challenging. San Mateo search and rescue volunteers, for example, have to have many skills, including CPR, first aid certification and the ability to hike through rough terrain.

Bloom and the San Mateo search and rescue team look for missing people not just in their area but around the state. Whenever someone is missing, they’re likely in trouble, making their rescue extremely time sensitive.

“When you really think about it, the responsibility is huge,” Harris said. “We usually find them — thankfully ... We don’t always find them alive.”

Most searches involve missing elderly patients or lost hikers. Search and rescue teams typically begin with around 30 people, but they can grow to several hundred.

Search and rescue requires a lot of logistics, Harris said. “It’s like a game, putting a puzzle together.”

Bloom’s business past, she said, helps him communicate with high-ranking first responders. But he’s also frequently called upon to interview families of the missing — a task that requires sensitivity and trust.

“When you’re leading a search team, you’re communicating,” Bloom said, “and when you’re doing the interview process, you’re listening.”

For search and rescue missions, there are usually three possible results: Find the subject alive; find them deceased; or never find them.

“The best possible outcome is where you find them, they’re alive, and they walk away from the experience, whether immediately or shortly thereafter,” Bloom said.

Finding subjects deceased is a sad occurrence, he added, but at least those cases provide closure.

“Not finding somebody is the worst possible outcome for a search and rescue team,” Bloom said. “Imagine being the family of someone that’s missing who’s never found. These families have to wake up every morning, going, ‘Where is he?’ ‘Where is she?’”

The explosion in San Bruno showed that volunteers have to be prepared for the unexpected.

“It was out of our element,” Harris said.

The incident, caused by a ruptured natural gas pipeline, began as a rumble, morphed into a flash, then exploded into a roar of fire many assumed was the immediate aftermath of a plane crash. The explosion was one of the worst disasters in the county, causing eight fatalities, major injuries to 58 others and substantial damage to 55 houses.

The tragedy also garnered a massive response that required calmness in the face of chaos.

“These situations can become stressful, with a lot of different opinions,” Harris said. But Bloom has an ability to diffuse tense situations. “He’s good at that because he works in high-pressure situations.”

Having recently retired from the corporate world, Bloom now has more time to focus on his volunteer work. But, he acknowledges, as he gets older, it will be more difficult to perform the more physical aspects. One way he will continue to contribute is by assisting Cal Poly computer science students, who are working with artificial intelligence and automation to make searches more efficient.

“There’s an adrenaline rush even after all these years,” Bloom said. “But at the same time, ultimately what we want to do is improve the outcome of each search operation — find them.”