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21 June 2024
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Featured FRI Magazine article: Towards a national incident management (IMS) system by Colin Deiner (FRI Vol 2 no 5)
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https://www.frimedia.org/uploads/1/2/2/7/122743954/fri_vol2no5_lr.pdf
This week’s featured Fire and Rescue International magazine article is: Towards a national incident management (IMS) system by Colin Deiner (FRI Vol 2 no 5). We will be sharing more technical/research/tactical articles from Fire and Rescue International magazine on a weekly basis with our readers to assist in technology transfer. This will hopefully create an increased awareness, providing you with hands-on advice and guidance. All our magazines are available free of charge in PDF format on our website and online at ISSUU. We also provide all technical articles as a free download in our article archive on our website.
Towards a national incident management (IMS) system
By Colin Deiner, chief director, Disaster management and Fire Brigade Services, Western Cape Government
The fact that large numbers of personnel and equipment respond quickly to an incident, is a poor indicator of a successful operation unless the actions are controlled, organised and coordinated. Incident management is the vehicle that allows us to control, organise and coordinate an incident.
Incident management should be implemented on ALL incidents. From a routine minor incident ie single jurisdiction - single agency – single resource to a major disaster ie multiple jurisdiction – multiple agencies - multiple/international interest groups – multiple and complex resources.
Many people will not see the need for the establishment of an incident management system on a relatively small incident such as a motor vehicle accident and simply go through the motions of extricating the patient, medical treatment and transportation to definitive medical care. In most cases, this would not be a problem and not much should go wrong. The question however is: How will the same team manage a major incident if they are not using the smaller ones to hone their skills and gain a good understanding of the system? What you do on the small incident, you will do on the large incidents.
What is incident management?
The incident management system organises, controls and coordinates the response to meet incident needs. It provides a framework where similar functions are grouped, responsibilities are identified and lines of authority are established.
An incident management system should be designed to be simple and easily understood by all personnel it should also be designed to suit the incident and to reach a successful conclusion thereof.
An incident management system is very much like a large symphony orchestra where there is only one person conducting several musical disciplines, each with a different instrument to play. They are well practised in their instruments and understand where they fit into the performance and when they should play their specific role. They have a particular set of sheet music, which they fully understand and practise regularly. In the end, you achieve a perfect performance that is the sum of each member’s efforts.
Similarly, an incident management system has only one conductor (incident commander) controlling several emergency service disciplines (fire, rescue, emergency medical services, traffic law enforcement etc), all carrying out their unique activities using their specifically learned skills and equipment to achieve a successful and safe conclusion to an incident.
A short history
The incident management (ICS) concept was formed in 1968 at a meeting of fire chiefs in Phoenix, Arizona. Primarily the program was built to take after the management hierarchy of the US Navy and it was mainly for firefighting of wildfires in California and Arizona. During the 1970s, the incident command system was fully developed during massive wildfire fighting operations in California and following a series of catastrophic wildfires in California's urban interface. Property damage ran into the millions and many people died or were injured. Studies determined that response problems often related to communication and management deficiencies rather than lack of resources or failure of tactics.
ICS became a national model for command structures at a fire, crime scenes or major incidents. The ICS system was used in New York at the first terrorist attempt on the twin towers in the 1990s. In 2003, the system went national with the passage of Homeland Security Presidential Directive 5 requiring all federal, state and local agencies to adopt the National Incident Management System to manage emergencies in order to receive federal funding. The National Incident Management System (NIMS) came about as a direct result of the terrorist attack on the twin towers in New York on 11 September 2001.
So how does it work?
The incident management system must be clearly established from the beginning of an incident. The agency with primary jurisdictional authority over the incident designates the individual at the scene responsible for establishing command. This person must then take over the following duties:
Chain of command and unity of command
An orderly line of authority within the ranks of the incident command organisation must be established and every individual involved in the incident must have a designated supervisor to whom he or she reports at the scene of the incident in order to clarify reporting relationships and eliminate the confusion caused by multiple, conflicting directives.
Incident managers at all levels must be enabled to control the actions of all personnel under their supervision. In incidents involving multiple jurisdictions, a single jurisdiction with multiagency involvement, or multiple jurisdictions with multiagency involvement, a unified command system must be implemented.
The unified command system must allow agencies with different legal, geographic and functional authorities and responsibilities to work together effectively without affecting individual agency authority, responsibility or accountability.
By ensuring that each individual on scene has a designated supervisor you are also ensuring that an effective accountability system has been implemented.
Organisational structure
The incident commander is responsible for overall management of the incident. This includes command staff assignments required to support the command function. The incident command organisational structure should develop in a modular fashion that is based on the size and complexity of the incident, as well as the specifics of the hazard environment created by the incident. These people should be located at the incident command post (ICP) to ensure smooth communication and integrated decision making.
Depending on the incident, the command function can be conducted as a single incident command or a unified command structure.
A single incident command (IC) system is implemented when an incident occurs within a single jurisdiction and there is no jurisdictional or functional agency overlap, a single incident commander must be designated with overall incident management responsibility by the appropriate jurisdictional authority. In some cases where incident management crosses jurisdictional and/or functional agency boundaries, a single IC may be designated if agreed upon.
Unified command (UC) is established when an incident occurs within a multi-jurisdictional incident or where there is a jurisdictional or functional agency overlap; a single incident commander must be designated with overall incident management responsibility by the appropriate jurisdictional authority. The unified command system must enable agencies with different legal, geographic and functional responsibilities to coordinate, plan and interact effectively. The unified command system must allow all agencies with jurisdictional authority or functional responsibility for the incident to jointly provide management direction through a common set of incident objectives and strategies and a single incident action plan (IAP).
Each participating agency must maintain its authority, responsibility and accountability.
Command and general staff
The incident command structure consists of two types of staff: command staff and general staff.
The command staff may include a public information officer, a safety officer and a liaison officer, who report directly to the IC/UC and may have assistants as necessary depending on the nature, scope, complexity and location(s) of the incident(s).
The public information officer is responsible for interfacing with the public and media and/or with other agencies with incident-related information requirements.
The safety officer monitors incident operations and advises the IC/UC on all matters relating to operational safety, including the health and safety of emergency responder personnel and is responsible to the IC/UC for the systems and procedures necessary to ensure on-going assessment of hazardous environments, including the incident safety plan, coordination of multiagency safety efforts and implementation of measures to promote emergency responder safety as well as the general safety of incident operations. The safety officer has immediate authority to stop and/or prevent unsafe acts during incident operations.
The liaison officer is incident command’s point of contact for representatives of other governmental agencies, NGOs, and the private sector (with no jurisdiction or legal authority) to provide input on their agency’s policies, resource availability and other incident-related matters.
Additional command staff positions may also be necessary, depending on the nature and location(s) of the incident or specific requirements established by incident command. For example, a legal counsel might be assigned to the planning section as a technical specialist or directly to the command staff to advise incident command on legal matters, such as disaster declarations, the legality of evacuation and quarantine orders, or legal rights and restrictions pertaining to media access.
This week’s featured Fire and Rescue International magazine article is: Towards a national incident management (IMS) system by Colin Deiner (FRI Vol 2 no 5). We will be sharing more technical/research/tactical articles from Fire and Rescue International magazine on a weekly basis with our readers to assist in technology transfer. This will hopefully create an increased awareness, providing you with hands-on advice and guidance. All our magazines are available free of charge in PDF format on our website and online at ISSUU. We also provide all technical articles as a free download in our article archive on our website.
Towards a national incident management (IMS) system
By Colin Deiner, chief director, Disaster management and Fire Brigade Services, Western Cape Government
The fact that large numbers of personnel and equipment respond quickly to an incident, is a poor indicator of a successful operation unless the actions are controlled, organised and coordinated. Incident management is the vehicle that allows us to control, organise and coordinate an incident.
Incident management should be implemented on ALL incidents. From a routine minor incident ie single jurisdiction - single agency – single resource to a major disaster ie multiple jurisdiction – multiple agencies - multiple/international interest groups – multiple and complex resources.
Many people will not see the need for the establishment of an incident management system on a relatively small incident such as a motor vehicle accident and simply go through the motions of extricating the patient, medical treatment and transportation to definitive medical care. In most cases, this would not be a problem and not much should go wrong. The question however is: How will the same team manage a major incident if they are not using the smaller ones to hone their skills and gain a good understanding of the system? What you do on the small incident, you will do on the large incidents.
What is incident management?
The incident management system organises, controls and coordinates the response to meet incident needs. It provides a framework where similar functions are grouped, responsibilities are identified and lines of authority are established.
An incident management system should be designed to be simple and easily understood by all personnel it should also be designed to suit the incident and to reach a successful conclusion thereof.
An incident management system is very much like a large symphony orchestra where there is only one person conducting several musical disciplines, each with a different instrument to play. They are well practised in their instruments and understand where they fit into the performance and when they should play their specific role. They have a particular set of sheet music, which they fully understand and practise regularly. In the end, you achieve a perfect performance that is the sum of each member’s efforts.
Similarly, an incident management system has only one conductor (incident commander) controlling several emergency service disciplines (fire, rescue, emergency medical services, traffic law enforcement etc), all carrying out their unique activities using their specifically learned skills and equipment to achieve a successful and safe conclusion to an incident.
A short history
The incident management (ICS) concept was formed in 1968 at a meeting of fire chiefs in Phoenix, Arizona. Primarily the program was built to take after the management hierarchy of the US Navy and it was mainly for firefighting of wildfires in California and Arizona. During the 1970s, the incident command system was fully developed during massive wildfire fighting operations in California and following a series of catastrophic wildfires in California's urban interface. Property damage ran into the millions and many people died or were injured. Studies determined that response problems often related to communication and management deficiencies rather than lack of resources or failure of tactics.
ICS became a national model for command structures at a fire, crime scenes or major incidents. The ICS system was used in New York at the first terrorist attempt on the twin towers in the 1990s. In 2003, the system went national with the passage of Homeland Security Presidential Directive 5 requiring all federal, state and local agencies to adopt the National Incident Management System to manage emergencies in order to receive federal funding. The National Incident Management System (NIMS) came about as a direct result of the terrorist attack on the twin towers in New York on 11 September 2001.
So how does it work?
The incident management system must be clearly established from the beginning of an incident. The agency with primary jurisdictional authority over the incident designates the individual at the scene responsible for establishing command. This person must then take over the following duties:
- Assume and announce command and establish an effective operating position (incident command post)
- Rapidly evaluate the situation (size-up); identify priorities and set objectives
- Establish, maintain and control the communications process
- Identify the overall strategy and develop an incident action plan
- Assign resources consistent with plans and standard operating procedures (SOPs)
- Develop an effective IMS organisation
- Implement measures to identify and track on-scene resources
- Review, evaluate and revise (as needed) the incident action plan
- Provide for the continuity, transfer and termination of command
Chain of command and unity of command
An orderly line of authority within the ranks of the incident command organisation must be established and every individual involved in the incident must have a designated supervisor to whom he or she reports at the scene of the incident in order to clarify reporting relationships and eliminate the confusion caused by multiple, conflicting directives.
Incident managers at all levels must be enabled to control the actions of all personnel under their supervision. In incidents involving multiple jurisdictions, a single jurisdiction with multiagency involvement, or multiple jurisdictions with multiagency involvement, a unified command system must be implemented.
The unified command system must allow agencies with different legal, geographic and functional authorities and responsibilities to work together effectively without affecting individual agency authority, responsibility or accountability.
By ensuring that each individual on scene has a designated supervisor you are also ensuring that an effective accountability system has been implemented.
Organisational structure
The incident commander is responsible for overall management of the incident. This includes command staff assignments required to support the command function. The incident command organisational structure should develop in a modular fashion that is based on the size and complexity of the incident, as well as the specifics of the hazard environment created by the incident. These people should be located at the incident command post (ICP) to ensure smooth communication and integrated decision making.
Depending on the incident, the command function can be conducted as a single incident command or a unified command structure.
A single incident command (IC) system is implemented when an incident occurs within a single jurisdiction and there is no jurisdictional or functional agency overlap, a single incident commander must be designated with overall incident management responsibility by the appropriate jurisdictional authority. In some cases where incident management crosses jurisdictional and/or functional agency boundaries, a single IC may be designated if agreed upon.
Unified command (UC) is established when an incident occurs within a multi-jurisdictional incident or where there is a jurisdictional or functional agency overlap; a single incident commander must be designated with overall incident management responsibility by the appropriate jurisdictional authority. The unified command system must enable agencies with different legal, geographic and functional responsibilities to coordinate, plan and interact effectively. The unified command system must allow all agencies with jurisdictional authority or functional responsibility for the incident to jointly provide management direction through a common set of incident objectives and strategies and a single incident action plan (IAP).
Each participating agency must maintain its authority, responsibility and accountability.
Command and general staff
The incident command structure consists of two types of staff: command staff and general staff.
The command staff may include a public information officer, a safety officer and a liaison officer, who report directly to the IC/UC and may have assistants as necessary depending on the nature, scope, complexity and location(s) of the incident(s).
The public information officer is responsible for interfacing with the public and media and/or with other agencies with incident-related information requirements.
The safety officer monitors incident operations and advises the IC/UC on all matters relating to operational safety, including the health and safety of emergency responder personnel and is responsible to the IC/UC for the systems and procedures necessary to ensure on-going assessment of hazardous environments, including the incident safety plan, coordination of multiagency safety efforts and implementation of measures to promote emergency responder safety as well as the general safety of incident operations. The safety officer has immediate authority to stop and/or prevent unsafe acts during incident operations.
The liaison officer is incident command’s point of contact for representatives of other governmental agencies, NGOs, and the private sector (with no jurisdiction or legal authority) to provide input on their agency’s policies, resource availability and other incident-related matters.
Additional command staff positions may also be necessary, depending on the nature and location(s) of the incident or specific requirements established by incident command. For example, a legal counsel might be assigned to the planning section as a technical specialist or directly to the command staff to advise incident command on legal matters, such as disaster declarations, the legality of evacuation and quarantine orders, or legal rights and restrictions pertaining to media access.
The general staff is responsible for the functional aspects of the incident command structure and may consist of the operations, planning, logistics and finance/administration section chiefs.
Operations section
The operations section is responsible for all tactical activities focused on reducing the immediate hazard, saving lives and property, establishing situational control and restoring normal operations.
Operations section
The operations section is responsible for all tactical activities focused on reducing the immediate hazard, saving lives and property, establishing situational control and restoring normal operations.
The major elements of the operations section will have the following functions:
The planning section collects, evaluates, and disseminates incident situation information and intelligence to the IC/UC and incident management personnel. This section then prepares status reports, displays situation information, maintains the status of resources assigned to the incident and prepares and documents the IAP, based on operations section input and guidance from the IC/UC.
The logistics section is responsible for all service support requirements needed to facilitate effective and efficient incident management, including ordering resources from off-incident locations.
A finance/administration section is established when the incident management activities require on-scene or incident-specific finance and other administrative support services. Some of the functions that fall within the scope of this section are recording personnel time, maintaining vendor contracts, administering compensation and claims, and conducting an overall cost analysis for the incident.
Public information
Where in the past incident commanders had to deal with media on a fairly irregular basis, they know have to deal with a much more intense public interest focus on their activities. The advent of the internet has necessitated media houses to continuously update their news web pages, which mean that they are continuously calling for new information on a particular incident. The fact that South Africa also now has three 24-hour television news channels has increased that pressure even more. You no longer have to just find the time to do one interview for the news at eight. It now becomes an almost hourly activity and IC/UC must be prepared for this. For this reason the incident management system must implement processes, procedures, and systems to communicate timely, accurate and accessible information on the incident’s cause, size and current situation to the media, public, responders and additional stakeholders, both directly affected and indirectly affected.
The appointment of a public information officer (PIO) is essential. The public information officer must support the incident command structure as a member of the command staff and must also handle inquiries from the media, the public and elected officials on:
Conclusion
I finally wish to congratulate the National Disaster Management Centre and in particular the Head of Centre, Ken Terry, for his farsightedness in establishing a National Incident Management System. This has been a long time coming and once made mandatory for all role players, will have us all singing from the same page.
- Operations section chief: The operations section chief is responsible to incident command for the direct management of all incident-related tactical activities. The operations section chief will establish tactics for the assigned operational period. An operations section chief should be designated for each operational period and responsibilities include direct involvement in development of the IAP.
- Branches: Branches may be functional, geographic, or both, depending on the circumstances of the incident. In general, branches are established when the number of divisions or groups exceeds the recommended span of control.
- Divisions and groups: Divisions and/or groups are established when the number of resources exceeds the manageable span of control of incident command and the operations section chief. Divisions are established to divide an incident into physical or geographical areas of operation. Groups are established to divide the incident into functional areas of operation. For certain types of incidents, for example, incident command may assign evacuation or mass-care responsibilities to a functional group in the operations section. Additional levels of supervision may also exist below the division or group level.
- Resources: Resources may be organised and managed in three different ways, depending on the requirements of the incident.
- Single resources: Individual personnel or equipment and any associated operators.
- Task forces: Any combination of resources assembled in support of a specific mission or operational need. All resource elements within a task force must have common communications and a designated leader.
- Strike teams: A set number of resources of the same kind and type that have an established minimum number of personnel. All resource elements within a strike team must have common communications and a designated leader.
The planning section collects, evaluates, and disseminates incident situation information and intelligence to the IC/UC and incident management personnel. This section then prepares status reports, displays situation information, maintains the status of resources assigned to the incident and prepares and documents the IAP, based on operations section input and guidance from the IC/UC.
The logistics section is responsible for all service support requirements needed to facilitate effective and efficient incident management, including ordering resources from off-incident locations.
A finance/administration section is established when the incident management activities require on-scene or incident-specific finance and other administrative support services. Some of the functions that fall within the scope of this section are recording personnel time, maintaining vendor contracts, administering compensation and claims, and conducting an overall cost analysis for the incident.
Public information
Where in the past incident commanders had to deal with media on a fairly irregular basis, they know have to deal with a much more intense public interest focus on their activities. The advent of the internet has necessitated media houses to continuously update their news web pages, which mean that they are continuously calling for new information on a particular incident. The fact that South Africa also now has three 24-hour television news channels has increased that pressure even more. You no longer have to just find the time to do one interview for the news at eight. It now becomes an almost hourly activity and IC/UC must be prepared for this. For this reason the incident management system must implement processes, procedures, and systems to communicate timely, accurate and accessible information on the incident’s cause, size and current situation to the media, public, responders and additional stakeholders, both directly affected and indirectly affected.
The appointment of a public information officer (PIO) is essential. The public information officer must support the incident command structure as a member of the command staff and must also handle inquiries from the media, the public and elected officials on:
- emergency public information and warnings;
- rumour monitoring and response;
- media relations;
- other functions required to gather, verify, coordinate and disseminate accurate, accessible, and timely information related to the incident; and
- Information on public health, safety and protection is of particular importance.
Conclusion
I finally wish to congratulate the National Disaster Management Centre and in particular the Head of Centre, Ken Terry, for his farsightedness in establishing a National Incident Management System. This has been a long time coming and once made mandatory for all role players, will have us all singing from the same page.