The One Thing World Cup Prep is Missing

World Cup preparations are in full swing, but are cities around the country missing one crucial part of preparation?

While World Cup organizers across the United States, Canada, and Mexico are grappling with managing crowds, security, transportation, and emergency response plans, there's undoubtedly one thing they're missing in their MCI (mass casualty incident) plans.

Few people want to think about MCI planning, but that’s exactly what makes it so dangerous.

When hundreds of thousands of people descend on a city for a single event, the scale of potential emergencies skyrockets. Stadium security? Covered. Traffic management? Overplanned. Medical tents and ambulance staging? Checked off. But amid all these checkboxes, one critical aspect is overlooked again and again: rehabilitation systems for emergency responders themselves.

That’s right. Those planning for mass casualty incidents at events like the World Cup are missing the one system that keeps the very people responding to chaos from becoming casualties themselves.

Rehab is the missing layer of MCI response.

Mass gatherings are high-stress, high-temperature, high-risk environments.

Firefighters, EMTs, and law enforcement officers don’t just work in the environment, they absorb it. The physical toll of these events (especially in the heat of summer) is staggering. Without structured rehabilitation, responders run a serious risk of heat stress, dehydration, cardiac events, and collapse.

And still, rehab is seen as optional. As "nice to have." As “something we can figure out if it gets bad enough.”

Spoiler: it will get bad enough.

Rehab isn't just a fireground thing.

Most MCI plans don’t include a scalable, idiot-proof rehab systems, and that’s a fatal flaw.

Although we call it "firefighter rehab," the correct term is actually "emergency incident rehabilitation." Why? It's not just fires that require rehabbing responders.

Just like fireground incidents, MCIs require Accountability, Rest, Medical evaluation (vital signs tracking, symptom screening), and Replenishment (fluids and nutrients) for responders. The World Cup isn’t just a sporting event, it’s a magnet for unrest, celebration, heat exhaustion, alcohol, and dense, unpredictable crowds. In other words: a pressure cooker for emergency workers.

WearARMR was designed specifically for this type of incident: they scale fast, overwhelm resources, and leave little time for improvisation. Our system isn't just modular and deployable. It’s plug-and-play for EMTs, built to slide seamlessly into existing ICS and rehab operations.

If you're not training for it, you're not ready.

Systems are more important in MCIs than they are in other areas of emergency response; that's why we have triage systems that eschew judgement calls for a predictable, repeatable set of decisions that anyone can implement. These systems require training, but only a fraction of the training needed for certification in other areas (like PHTLS or even ICS).

Let’s be clear: firefighter rehab is a life-saving measure. Not just for the firefighters, but for the people depending on them to stay in the fight.

The Bottom Line

If your MCI plan doesn’t include structured emergency incident rehabilitation, it’s not ready for the World Cup or any MCI. Full stop.

Because one heat-stressed firefighter, one collapsed EMT, one unmonitored vital sign can turn an already chaotic scene into a disaster within a disaster.

It’s time to rethink what “prepared” really means.

It's time to WearARMR.