Module 1 – Case assignment
Question 1: Fire department as lead disaster management organization
The city 's fire department need to be the lead disaster management agency because the department has taken greater responsibility by offering a broad range of emergency services. Among the services that the fire department offers include emergency medical services, emergency management, fire suppression, special rescue situations, hazardous materials response, and disaster mitigation (May & Williams, 2012). Therefore, the fire department will take greater responsibility and collaborate better with other organizations.
Since the fire department has diversified its operations and responsibilities into other disaster response services, it can easily work with other agencies to prevent or minimize disaster occurrences. To achieve this, the department must align its organizational position by creating transparent management structures. The fire department can also take sophisticated equipment in disaster-stricken areas to help in disaster response.
Also, the fire department has created a thorough disaster response plan that considers potential technological, man-made, and natural threats. It should also involve main personnel during the planning process to help
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Assessing threat is critical because it provides an understanding of what is likely to happen (May & Williams, 2012). Hence the organization prepares by determining the resource requirement. Also, evaluating a risk before it occurs, presents an organization with viable alternatives for managing the immediate and long-term effects of the situation. Planning ahead and being prepared is key to protecting public safety. Preparedness and planning are also essential for safeguarding the health of the
Additionally, it’s important to keep personnel in mind when drafting a department’s mission statement, for all too often, leadership in fire departments create mission statements that sound great to those outside of the fire department, but it is either confusing to personnel or just plain out impractical (Brennan, 2010).
The duties and responsibilities of the fire department are most importantly responding to fires and other emergencies that involve the assistance from the department such as vehicle accidents, flooding, emergency rescue, and first aid response. When it comes to a fire departments duties and responsibilities when it comes to mutual aid agreements it is to coordinate planning, multiply the response resources available to any one jurisdiction, ensure timely arrival of aid, arrange for specialized resources, and minimize administrative conflict and litigation post-response.
The National Response Framework is a guide designed to assist local, State, and Federal governments in developing functional capabilities and identifying resources based on hazard identification and risk assessment. It outlines the operating structure and identifies key roles and responsibilities. It established a framework to identify capabilities based on resources and the current situation no matter the size or scale. It integrates organizational structures and standardizes how the Nation at all levels plans to react to incidents. The suspected terrorist attack will have health, economic, social, environment and political long-term effects for my community. This is why it is essential that local government’s response is coordinate with all responders. Response doctrine is comprised of five key principles: (1) engaged partnership, (2) tiered response, (3) scalable, flexible, and adaptable operational capabilities, (4) unity of effort through unified command, and (5) readiness to act. An introductory word about each follows. (Homeland Security, 2008)
The goal of 2011 of the National Preparedness Goal, and a month later by the National Preparedness System (NPS). ‘Prepare’, or ‘preparedness’ is a key term here, as is ‘risk’. In order to properly examine the National Preparedness System these terms… (2011 National Preparedness Goal). The National Preparedness Goal can only work in risk management planning with prudency coupled with dispensation of resources at the local levels. Depending on the budgetary issues the financial appropriation might not be enough to sustain a carefully planned risk management. The forefront for the local authorities to mitigate against risk is funding. Of the pro at the community level are the loyalties of its employees of the local government and local community, and on hand resources that amplifies its footprint with the community in making sure that there is an uninterrupted continuation of life. The local government can device a well thought out plan to activate most of its resources when the alarms are sounded of a pending
Both man-made and natural disasters are often devastating, resource draining and disruptive. Having a basic plan ready for these types of disaster events is key to the success of executing and implementing, as well as assessing the aftermath. There are many different ways to create an emergency operations plan (EOP) to encompass a natural and/or man-made disaster, including following the six stage planning process, collection of information, and identification of threats and hazards. The most important aspect of the US emergency management system in preparing for, mitigating, and responding to man-made and natural disasters is the creation, implementation and assessment of a community’s EOP.
Another human factors problem that I identify in the case study is the miscommunication between the 911 operator and the Fire Department dispatcher and also between the Fire Department dispatcher with the nearby fire station unit. Although the operator clarified the address was No.9 to the dispatcher, the 911 operator missed the word “avenue” as part of the address when the operator was informing the Fire Department dispatcher the location of the fire incident. Moreover, due to the miscommunication between them, the rescue actions had delayed more than four minutes. To make the situation worse, the dispatcher sent wrong address, 3100 block of 9th Street in his order to the nearby fire station for rescue action which should be 3102 block 9th Avenue.
For centuries, the men and women of the fire service have been pioneering new ways to “do more with less”. When faced with a predicament, these individuals use the resources available to them to find a suitable resolution. How will this be possible if those resources are not available?
Early recognition of a need for ICS and a prompt initiation by the Oklahoma City Fire Department allowed for a swift implementation of a command structure which in turn allowed recourses to be allocated quickly and
Real-world events is probably the more significant of the group; using a risk management program allows decision makers access to critical information related to potential outcomes of an event/incident. The decision makers use the information to exam the most appropriate and lower risk approach to an event/incident. The NIPP risk management program used the risk management for three specific threats, physical, cyber, and human to protect CIKRs (U.S. DHS 2009, p.33). When risk management is implemented correctly and all areas assessed thoroughly, it can produce the best course of action to protect homeland security infrastructure over a larger area through the cooperation of and between the different NIPP established sectors. Exercise planning and risk management work well together exercises also provide feedback for risk management for real-word events. Exercising the possibilities of an incident/event provide a realistic basis for establishing certain understanding of an incident without the high risk associated with a real-world
In order to provide for the emergency management of the city, and further in order to provide for and protect the
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is an organization of the United States Department of Homeland Security, initially formed by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 and applied by two Executive Orders on April 1, 1979. The initial first response to a disaster is the job of local emergency services with the nearby help of the surrounding sources. A major disaster can be a result of tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, and floods. The event must be absolutely more than the state or local governments can handle alone. If confirmed, funding comes from the President's Disaster Relief Fund, managed by FEMA and the disaster aid programs of other joining federal agencies.
In this case a large engineering consulting firm was contracted by the government to perform civil engineering work for the installation of equipment that would be later used to train firefighters. Prior to the actual work being commenced on site, Donald J. Giffels, president of the consulting firm soon realized through careful observation that there was a significant amount of ambiguity in how critical safety systems were to be designed. In this situation, what are the ethical issues that the consulting firm faces in accepting such a contract from the government. What is the optimal strategy in responding to what Donald J. .Giffels identified as an unacceptable lapse in safety. These two important questions are discussed in further detail with a conclusion of noteworthy facts surrounding this case following.
After visiting some actual fire departments, I realized as a firefighter you certainly have a lot to be proud of. It’s not your average job and does require quite a bit of organization to stay on top of everything. Everyday you have to be ready and prepared for just about anything that can happen. You never know what kinds of jobs you are going to be set out to do in one day. This means your equipment should be in order, checked and ready to go.
This research topic is originated from my experience in working in the fire service since nineteen ninety seven. In the last sixteen years I have moved up the ranks from probationary fire fighter to fire lieutenant. I am currently hold the rank of fire lieutenant. This topic is very important to me because one day at work I can be the Incident Commander on a incident, to the o...
The Fire and Rescue Service employ a number of styles of communication to suit diverse audiences and for different purposes. The organization communicates with its members of staff differently depending on the circumstances and the message which is being conveyed. With such a large organization approximately 2200 members of staff effective communication is essential. Effective communication plays a vital role in the delivery of all Fire and Rescue Services.