National Incident Command System

Firefighter safety is the most important thing for the deployment of firefighters in an emergency situation. Incident command system or ICS is also known as national incident management system or NIMS these systems were developed as a systematic set of guidelines for the command and control of an incident where a firefighter wellbeing will be at a risk. During the late 1960’s, California experienced a number of wildland/urban interface fires that destroyed billions of dollars in residential property located between the forest/wildland area and the coastline after the destruction is what lead to the creation of the Incident Command System. Also around 2004 is when the Incident command system started to be also known as the national incident

There are five ICS functions and they are command, operations, planning, logistics and finance. The command of the operation is responsible for the overall management of an incident. Command makes the strategies and tactics for the incident that has occurred. The command is staffed with the information officer, liaison officer and safety officer. The command has an IC or incident commander and his or her responsibility is to oversee the overall management of the incident. The IC is a duty that is selected by and only by their particular qualifications and experiences. The information officer or IO is responsible for developing and releasing information about the incident to the news and other agencies that are a need to know basis. The IO does the appropriate news conferences and news releases to various outside sources. The liaison officer is the person that is assigned as a point of contact for personnel assigned to an incident that is a multi-jurisdictional or multiple agencies are assigned to an incident. The liaison officer makes and secures contacts and keeps supporting agencies up to date on the

A unified command is when an incident happens within a multiple jurisdictional boundary or it can also be a single jurisdiction with multiple agencies assigned. Most of the time unified command is multi-jurisdictional. All strategies and priorities are determined by the all the agencies assigned. Operations function is to accomplish the strategy command develops by directing the tactical objectives. Operations directs all of the tactical operations of the incident and assists command in the development of the IAP or incident action plan. Within the operations function there is an operations section chief and his or her job is to directly supervise all operations of branch, division, group and air operations personnel. He or she develops the operations portion of the IAP. Most of the incident personnel assigned to the incident work under the operations section. The planning function is gather and evaluate all the information that is needed to prepare for the action plan. The planning sections forecasts the probability of events course of actions so there can be an alternative plan in case the original plan has gone wrong or incorrectly