Accountability On The Fire Ground

Inherently the fire service operates in high-risk environments to facilitate the role of preserving life safety and property conservation. How these incidents are managed and safeguarded by our administration

When an incident occurs within the United States, the Incident Command System (ICS) is brought into action. The ICS process serves as a management system designed to provide an effective incident management structure by way of combining facilities, personnel, equipment, operating procedures, communications and operational standards. The ICS is not a flawless system, however its flexible design allows for adaptation and change. During Hurricane Sandy, the ICS was implemented with mixed results. More than 28,000 personnel were utilized for the response and recovery efforts from that hurricane. It was the Incident Command System that served as coordinating guidance for facilitating the organizational structure for the hurricane Sandy response

In one of the ICS’s most basic forms, it empowers the Incident Commander (IC) to manage the responding organization. It also puts forth an operations section chief to direct responders within operations and communicate the IC’s plan (NIMS, 2014). Depending on where an incident occurs correlates to how well the responders are prepared, equipped and ready to deal with large scale events. In some areas with less logistical resources and funds, incidents can turn into disasters that challenge the local citizens and responders. That is exactly what happened in a coal mine in 2006 in Sago West Virginia.

The problems that became evident during the response effort to these wildfires, leading to the eventual development of the ICS, were duplication of efforts and lack of coordination between the agencies involved, as well as communication issues which hindered the response. (Haddow, Bullock, & Coppola, 2017)

Based on what I read, the answer to protecting firefighter is a combination of policy, procedure implementation, and training. These are important not only to prevent death, but also to prevent any types of injuries. The Jersey City Fire Department (JCFD) trains its members on the Incident Command System and there are procedures for the members to use it (New Jersey Division of Fire Safety, 1993, p. 5). Additionally, they are trained to use the Jersey City Incident Command System (JCICS), based on the National Fire Academy’s system. Better yet, the members of the JCFD use the JCICS on all incidents. The JCICS would help to avoid miscommunication among the emergency personnel. The JCFD also provide firefighters with ladder training daily. The

Disasters involving WMDS can happen at anytime and being efficient is crucial to save as many lives as possible. This incident command system was created in the 70s in response to fires in california that killed and hurt people and cost millions of dollars in property damage. This event showed that the United States needed to be prepared for a variety of catastrophic events including terrorist attacks.Previously there was lack of accountly, lack of systematic planning, no defined integration of agencies, poor communication, and more this all needed to be improved to be ready for a attack with weapons of mass destruction. (Fema, 2016).

Patterson et al. (2013) describe a number of circumstances from their research, where they us a disconnect, between how people would address an individual who fails to meet expectations or live up to perceived norms of conduct, versus the reality of how they actually respond to similar circumstances in real life. While many of the examples utilized in the introduction of their book are products of designed social experimentation, I believe that Patterson et al (2013), point to an ongoing problem which renders leaders ineffective in the long run. This problem is the failure to hold people accountable and to address deviations from expected norms in the moment, rather than waiting for an issue to blow up.

The ICS has an Incident Commander and their staff will make operational decisions and allocate resources to implement these decisions. “The ICS is the framework necessary to manage the resources, personnel, apparatus, and equipment, used to mitigate the

Incident Management Systems (IMS) are structures used to manage and co-ordinate a response that is outside business as usual parameters. These critical incidents usually involve threat to life and property and can threaten important infrastructure, making it a priority to deal with the situation in an efficient and expedient manner (Dwyer & Owen, 2009). The response to these incidents may be by a single agency, though usually will require the input from several other agencies such as the police, fire service, ambulance service, civil defence, health service, defence force, or private organisations. All of these organisations bring their own

The separate incidences are then managed through the incidence management teams (Coppola, 2007). The area command will be important in terms of offering oversight and direction to the different and several incidences, this is to avoid offering direct action to a single incidence. The type 1 to 5 and the Incident management teams will be able to offer the direct action in this case. The area command is important in terms of management of the efforts of the various commanders with the aim of ensuring that the general objective in terms of fire fighting are being reached, and to set the priorities right among the incidences and allocate the scarce resources. This is a very important strategy that can be used by Montana National Park Service in order to ensure that the incidence command system is working as effectively as would have been

The Incident Operational Period is definitely a very effective way of further managing and incident. It allows the Incident Commander, and the rest of the section chiefs, to further break down the incident into smaller more manageable pieces, which will ultimately lead to the successful execution of the IAP. Without a proper IAP, the Incident Commander will have a more difficult time deescalating the incident, which could lead to terrible consequences. I like how you pointed out other individuals are also important in completing certain Incident Operational Periods, because as transitions are made to other operational periods different individuals will provide input and expertise to the IC to help further resolve the incident. Great

The fourth technology group is Incident Command System (ICS). The Incident Command System (ICS) monitors dispatch calls and monitor computer and radio traffic. The Incident Command System (ICS) staff must be able to identify possible threats and quickly mobilize patrol, special police units, detective, and other needed personnel. Once the Incident Command System (ICS) staff has a tentative plan they must began issuing operational orders to various units. By achieving the objectives it allows the department to achieve their strategic

RLS is when the ERC is less than OLS but greater than CLS. Sufficient capability is provided for an initial response, scene assessment and implementation of mitigation tactics. This level of service represents increased risk/loss potential due to lack of ERC to perform rescue and sufficient mitigation tactics simultaneously. FES objectives may not be successful during situations where simultaneous rescue and firefighting activities are required. While in RLS, the IFC allocates resources according to local risk factors with the goal to provide the highest feasible level of service during higher risk periods, while reducing capabilities when the risk is lower. At the high end of the RLS range, most FES objectives can be achieved at emergency incidents. As ERC decreases, cross-staffing and multi-tasking of emergency responders will be necessary to accomplish critical emergency response tasks. As ERC further decreases, the probability of accomplishing required FES objectives diminishes.

Establishing the incident command system is first and foremost. The system establishes a common organizational structure that is conducive for different types of agencies as well as multiple jurisdictions to be able to effectively work together in response to the situation. The components of this system include the Incident Commander, who oversees all aspects of the disaster response, operations, planning, logistics and finance/administrative (Briggs & Twomey, 2003).