Literature Review Before endeavoring to conduct a risk assessment for the Largo Fire Rescue response district, it was essential to ascertain what industry standards and best practices already existed. Risk assessments are carried out in virtually every industry and in almost every part of the world. The National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) Firewise Communities Program conducts them to analyze a community’s wildfire risk. Oil and gas companies perform risk assessments to guard against adverse environmental consequences when drilling or fracking. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has developed an Influenza Risk Assessment Tool (IRAT) to assess the potential pandemic risk posed by various influenza strains. Even …show more content…
When considering potential risks and hazards, DHS recommends that communities take into account the likelihood of the type of incident as well as the significance of its impact. Communities ought to consider only those threats and hazards that are plausible and have substantial consequences (DHS, 2013, p. 7-8). The Vision 20/20 document “A Guide for Conducting a Community Risk Assessment” provides a detailed approach to Community Risk Reduction. It outlines a six-step Community Risk Reduction model that includes:
1. Identifying Risks.
2. Prioritizing Risks.
3. Developing Strategies & Tactics to Mitigate Risks.
4. Preparing a CRR Plan.
5. Implementing the CRR Plan.
6. Monitoring, Evaluating, and Modifying the CRR Plan (Stouffer, 2016, p. 1).
Steps 1 and 2 relate directly to community risk assessment. However, as noted in the guide, there is no standard CRA that will work for every jurisdiction. Additionally, a community risk evaluation process can be as compicated or as simple as local resources dictate. As aforementioned, the Vision 20/20 document outlines the first step in completing a CRA as identifying risks, which involves assembling and analyzing data. This data can be gathered from many sources including, but not limited to:
• Incident dates and times.
• Incident types.
• Incident locations.
• Causes of ignition of fires; heat sources; areas of
The Government Accountability Office has pointed out that the important practice of effective risk management is a challenge for the Congress and the administration. Risk management is a strategic process of helping policymakers to make decisions about assessing risk, and having limited allocating resources in taking actions under conditions of uncertainty (GAO, 2008). However, with the policymakers recognizing the risk management, it helps them to make informed decisions, while Congress and the administration have charged federal agencies to use a risk-based move to prioritize resource investments. In addition, the federal agencies often do not have enough comprehensive risk management strategies that merge well with the program, budget, and investment decisions (GAO, 2008). Between combing the approach of risk management, the process of decision-making is very difficult for any organization. In addition, it has been reported that the GAO says it is particularly difficult for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to be given its diverse set of responsibilities. Homeland Security is responsible though for all hazards in the homeland security risk from natural disasters, industrial, and terrorist attacks. Experts have provided the history of natural disasters with the extensive historical data used to assess risks (GAO, 2008).
Risks assessments will identify any hazards and/or dangers and who might be harmed and how this may happen, allow the risks to be evaluated and check if the precautions are
The third assessment piece is entitled neighborhood and community safety. This information was obtained from local agencies. I noted the Health Department and local hospitals are very involved in providing health services, education, and discussions for the community free of charge. The air quality for Kent County is considered poor. We have had at least 7 air pollution days per year due to fine particulate matter and ozone. The water quality in the last 5 years has been excellent. 0.09% of public water supplies exceeded contamination levels during this time frame (2011, Kent County Health Department). The wild life in the area can cause a potential for disease, and the many surrounding lakes, rivers and streams can cause a potential for drowning. Due to the location of Kent County we risk potential severe weather events. The violent crime rate in the area was 0.34% significantly lower than the national average. It was also
Health and Safety Executive (n.d.2) explain five steps of risk assessment that are ‘identify the hazards, decide who might be harmed and how, evaluate the risks and decide on precautions, record your significant findings, and review your assessment and update if necessary’.
6. The risk assessment team will conduct an inspection of the department/area being assessed for risk or observe the process being assessed for risk in action. The members of the risk assessment team will individually document their findings on the “ABC Proactive Risk Assessment Worksheet” (Attachment A). To determine the appropriate score for each identified risk, the reviewer will consider information obtained through a physical tour of the facility, review of annual incident
As we move into a new era were a more robust and urgent homeland security program is needed, it is important to talk about how officials are managing all of the risk. There are a multitude of threats; from terrorism, where tactics are all the more unconventional an unpredictable, to climate change, with extreme weather conditions causing severe droughts or other catastrophic storms. The risk accepted by federal officials must be weighed and prioritized in a manner that is conducive to the longevity of the nation but also eliminates political or other personal agenda. To ensure a standardized approach the Department of Homeland Security adopted a risk management. The following will look at defining what risk management is as well as an example of how it is being incorporated within the homeland security enterprise and how doing so is of benefit.
exposure. All municipal activities should be evaluated and facilities inspected. Court decisions and legislation that affect municipalities must be reviewed. Insurance and risk management publications should be studied for the latest information on loss avoidance. Attending courses on risk management may prove beneficial.The importance of the human element cannot be overemphasized when identifying risks. Asking employees and supervisors for their input because they are in the best position to identify risks. It is important to communicate with people in other municipalities who are involved in risk management that might have faced and solved a similar problem in the past.Obviously, a great amount of guesswork is involved in risk identification, and some potential losses may be overlooked. However, by making a conscientious effort, the most common losses can be reduced or perhaps totally avoided (Marcus, 1986).
It involves a systematic approach to the identification and characterization of physical, chemical, and biologic hazards to individuals and populations in their environment. The consequences of such hazards can include severe illness or injury, an irreversible health consequence, an unfamiliar disease, and an undesirable situation that might have been avoided by use of an alternative approach or technology. Risk assessments typically require that attention be given first to the most important hazards, that is, the ones that can result in the worst health-related outcomes.
Fire district 13 is located in the forested valleys and steep foothills of the Cascade Mountain Range at the base of Mount St. Helens. Access to our district, primarily reached by one main county road, is limited. With automatic mutual aid to neighboring districts with, major rail, and freeway- interoperability is key. Located above the Cascadia Subduction zone, Clark County is due for a catastrophic earthquake. The area that includes fire district 13 is a transitional zone between unoccupied forest land and human development. Being a part of the wildland urban interface zone puts us at a higher risk for wildfires.
Therefore, the risk process places a high emphasis on risk workshops, initial risks, and how risks are identified throughout the course of the project. The next two sections describe different methods of identifying risks.
The constant threat of focusing events, places a high level of pressure on emergency managers to respond appropriately to various levels of complex disasters. Past focusing events, highlight the importance of communication and coordination before and after disasters. Consequently, citizens expect emergency responders and government agencies to be accountable for rapidly responding to disasters in an organized manner. Prior to a focusing event, it is beneficial for emergency mangers to determine disaster risk prioritization. I present methods that emergency mangers can use to determine these priorities. Lastly, I discuss the integration of geographic information systems (GIS) to identify hazard zone areas.
2. How do you align the results of the qualitative risk assessment to risk mitigation?
As described in the example guide from the United States Fire Administration, conducting a community risk analysis is the first initiative in order to provide emergency planners knowledge of safety problems and demographics. In this first step, researching and analyzing data is required in order to identify issues and develop a profile of the community as a whole. In
At the most abnormal amount, a hazard evaluation ought to include figuring out what the present level of satisfactory hazard is, estimating the present hazard level, and after that figuring out what should be possible to get these two line where there are confounds. Hazard Assessments ordinarily include the rating of dangers in two measurements: likelihood, and affect, and both quantitative and subjective models are utilized. From multiple points of view, hazard evaluations and danger demonstrating are comparable activities, as the objective of each is to decide a strategy that will convey hazard to a worthy