The History and Impact of the Incident Command System
The intensity and complexity of managing incidents always has, and will continue to be, in a constant state of change and this change must be accounted for. For decades, emergency responders and preparedness planners struggled with a growing need to involve multiple agencies in responding to disasters/incidents. The need for a single standard incident management system became necessary to ensure all parties involved were able to understand the situation and each other, no matter what agency or region they are from.
The answer to these problems became the Incident Management System (ICS). ICS stemmed from problems with managing quick moving wildfires in the early 1970s. A logical, new approach was needed to combat the numerous issues that needed resolved. Early on in the development process FIRESCOPE (Fire Fighting Resources of Southern California Organized for Potential Emergencies), which was an inter-agency taskforce started to design a standard emergency management system, began by keying on a few different requirements, which are the backbone of ICS today. These requirements include: the system must be organizationally flexible to meet the needs of incidents of any kind and size, agencies must be able to use the system on a day-to-day basis for routine situations as well as for major emergencies, the system must be sufficiently standard to allow personnel from a variety of agencies and diverse geographical locations to rapidly meld into a common management structure, and the system must also be cost-effective ().
The early problems regarding emergency management before ICS were often due to a lack of a clean, orderly planning process, a lack of predefined methods, poor c...
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...g section prepares the Incident Action Plan, which contains incident objectives. The logistics section primarily is there to support incident objectives by providing resources and other services necessary. Finally, the finance/administration section provides accounting services and monitors costs related to the incident. Each of these ICS sections can be further divided as needed to expand for a larger size incident.
Another aspect of ICS is a term called span of control. Span of control relates to the number of individuals or resources that one supervisor can manage effectively on emergency response incidents (). Being able to maintain an effective span of control helps to ensure the safety and accountability in the field. The recommended span of control on most incidents can vary from three to seven, however, the optimum goal is five reporting to one supervisor.
I think the National Incident Management System is a model to be adapted based on the circumstances. It is a good foundation that can be built upon and tailored to each department based on their specific needs and
The National Incident Management System, NIMS was introduced in March 2004, and is the country’s comprehensive approach to incident management. It outlines how first responders from different disciplines and jurisdictions can work together. The NIMS improves the coordination and cooperation between the public and private entities in different domestic incident management activities. It also creates a framework for compatibility and interoperability through balancing standardization and flexibility. As such, NIMS comes up with a flexible framework for the federal government to work together with private entities to manage domestic incident management activities.
The National response plan outlines four key actions the disaster coordinator should take. They are gaining and maintaining situational awareness, activate and deploy key resources and capabilities, coordinating response actions and demobilizing. Throughout the response it is essential that responders have access to critical information. During the initial response effort the situation is will change rapidly. Situational awareness starts at the incident site. For this reason it is essential that decision makers have access to the right information at the right time. By establishing an Emergency Operations Center (EOC) all key responders are brought ...
We all remember back in high school when a friend of ours was completely obsessed with his English teacher. He would talk about her all the time, especially about how good looking she was and how he imagined what it would be like to have sex with her.
There operations are in system in place to identify, manage and effectively respond to foreseeable crisis and emergencies. Collectively, these requirements are designed to enable our operations to safely return to full function as possible.
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.
When adapting these, critical incident technique, it is mandatory to all staff or healthcare provider to report the incident via proper reporting system which available in the units. It is importance to each incident to be classified as more than one incident type example such as according degree of injury such as using score risk
NIMS provides a uniform nationwide basis and way for federal, state, tribal, and local governments, along with the public to work on preparedness, recovery, response and mitigation no matter what causes an event. With all organizations using the same application, effective and efficient responses are possible. Organizations will be able to arrive on the scene and be ready to assist and understand exactly what each group is doing and why. Protocols are set and it is known what equipment and personnel are available. With NIMS all groups are able to integrate und...
Of all the systems used to measure crime and victimization, The National Incident-Based Reporting System is probably the most accurate and effective. The reason being is that the NIBRS provides crime data by nearly 6,500 participating federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies for 46 specific crimes.
Local, State and Federal government have unique roles which would allow the flow of communication and resources to transition smoothly during each stage of progression. The local and state level (first responders) are the most important source as they can assess, coordinate and notify the next available resources of what is needed. State and local governments are the front runners of planning for and managing the consequences of a terrorist incident using available resources in the critical hours before Federal assistance can arrive (Managing the Emergency Consequences of Terrorist Incidents, July 2002). A Terrorist Incident Appendix (TIA) was designed to mirror an Emergency Operations Plan in relations to terrorist incidents. The TIA consists of six phases: Initiation, Concept Development, Plan Development, Plan Review Development of supporting plans, procedures and materials and Validation of plans using tabletop, functional, and full scale exercises. The TIA should be compared to those plans of existing Emergency Operation Plans (EOP) in place at the local and state level. Comparing plans before and incident allows time for comparison and revision of the various functions which will prevent disconnects to ensure coordination and
If a critical incident should occur, the response and recovery from emergency situation can expense a significant monetary incurrence. Establishments that have put NIMS into operation are eligible to recuperate any portion of their operative expense from the federal government. “Additionally, NIMS offers a predefined, yet flexible, organizational structure that can be altered, as necessary, to ensure maximum effectiveness during small operations or complex responses and extended in scope if an incident grows in size” (Fazzini, 2009, p. 15). The flexibility of NIMS can be adjusted to accommodate operational function of the incident, geographical boundaries, or a consolidation of
whose span of control is typically 3-7 personnel, including one Engineer and one to three
Disaster Recovery Planning is the critical factor that can prevent headaches or nightmares experienced by an organization in times of disaster. Having a disaster recovery plan marks the difference between organizations that can successfully manage crises with minimal cost, effort and with maximum speed, and those organizations that cannot. By having back-up plans, not only for equipment and network recovery, but also detailed disaster recovery plans that precisely outline what steps each person involved in recovery efforts should undertake, an organization can improve their recovery time and minimize the disrupted time for their normal business functions. Thus it is essential that disaster recovery plans are carefully laid out and carefully updated regularly. Part of the plan should include a system where regular training occurs for network engineers and managers. In the disaster recovery process extra attention should also be paid to training any new employees who will have a critical role in this function. Also, the plan should require having the appropriate people actually practice what they would do to help recover business function should a disaster occur. Some organizations find it helpful to do this on a quarterly or semi-annual basis so that the plan stays current with the organization’s needs.
In any major accident, it is important that everyone involved in the co-ordinated planned response liaise with all Health services, Traffic control, Police, Fire services, ambulance and hospital. The action at an accident starts as: assessing the situation, in the management of an incident one of the most important steps is evaluating the scene accurately.
2. Detection of Incidents: It cannot succeed in responding to incidents if an organization cannot detect incidents effectively. Therefore, one of the most important aspects of incident response is the detection of incidents phase. It is also one of the most fragmented phases, in which incident response expertise has the least control. Suspected incidents may be detected in innumerable ways.