Mayor-elect Carolyn Kirk plans to request a formal "after-action report" on the emergency response to the fatal Middle Street fire.

Completing an AAR, as it is known, is a practice arising from the National Incident Management System put in place after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Kirk said the completing the AAR would require all emergency responders to create and submit reports, which would be used to guage how the city, its first responders and the resources called from other communities fit together and executed their assignments.

Kirk also said she was exploring the best way to undertake a review of the performance of the Gloucester Fire Department.

"The challenges in terms of equipment, staffing, management and training predate this incident, " said Kirk, who takes office Jan. 1.

Kirk said that through the AAR process, "each responding department or agency will compete a report. I will appoint an outside resource to compile the reports and produce recommendations on corrective actions that are identified as part of the process."

About 20 communities sent fire apparatus and personnel to Gloucester in the early morning hours of Dec. 15 after fire tore through the Lorraine Apartments building, destroying that building and the adjacent Temple Ahavat Achim, and threatening the nearby Sawyer Free Library. Lorraine resident Robert Taylor was killed in the blazed.

More than 100 firefighters and 15 pieces of apparatus were on the scene in response to eight alarms that were sounded.

Kirk said completing an AAR is required to become certified in the National Incident Management System.