An Effective Incident Command Systems for a Large Scale Incidents - Case Study Example

INTRODUCTION In the recent past the world has witnessed major incidents in form of fine explosions terrorists attack earthquakes or even disease outbreak just to name a few of our interest and concern is the explosion of fines that destroyed bounce field oil storage and depot transfer at harnel hemstead , England . Sudden incidents meet people off guard and bring confusion among them the affected and the people who should take responsibility also tend to respond to insist of nature of escape. This brings confusion panic and loss of direction and in the process more disaster may follow To avoid such behaviours proper incident command system must be put in place and emphasis made to stick to what has been communicated To ensure sudden response to such difficult situations proper incident system must be must be in place where plan of action is well defined, the people responsible and the equipments to rescue are in place and in good condition for effective management of crisis and to give direction on how to respond to emergencies. Reasons why an effective incident command systems for a large scale incidents as bouncefield needs to be established. In emergency situation human body reacts by releasing certain hormones in the fight or flight response. An incident like bounce field oil tanker explosion, major accidents could have occurred if proper plans were not in place. These plans helps trained personnel to respond according to area of command and the fight or flight respond makes a lot of confusion and the first insist of human being is look for an exit but everybody take same decision for an exit so with proper command system people may take different direction for safety and congestion is avoided or stepping on one another. With proper plan of action on emergencies many problems of people being displaced due to evacuation can be reduced. Such incidents disturb transport and communication systems making the lives of the residents very difficult. With proper command system this can be minimized and also the motorists are given proper direction to divert otherwise without such action it can be so chaotic for drivers. Normally incidence like fire, come with a lot of destruction to the neighboring place of business and buildings but can be affected and even business comes to a stand still. With suitable command system the build unfit for people can be detected early and people are given proper instruction either to vacate or demolish. These incidents not only affect the physical building best even the water due to the toxin in chemicals used to fight fire. Within the command system people are advised early to take precaution for and action are taken simultaneously to talking that. Without effective command system such like may not have been remembered if somebody is not taking that role. Even the air is also affected Due to funding and protection from the government command system include the policy, and other agencies including the media for quick and faster communication system. What various levels of command are needed to deal effectively with large scale incidents? Every emergency calls for immediate action to be taken, leadership direction and chain of command is needed for effective achievements. Below is quick chart showing how the 4 levels of command operate. Starting from level one up to four, different activities takes place in response rescue management. Level one takes the role of the commander who is the centre of the coordination. Level two takes the managers who distribute information to the supervisors and the level four are the people on the ground fighting. Many times people are faced with situations which are completely unplanned for like greatly occur accidents or terrorists attack or may be oil explosion tanks like the case on study bounce oil tragedy. People find themselves on the scene of the accident and the best approach is to have one person speaking and giving orders for action to be taken otherwise this situation can even worsen if people keeps on crowding and no action is being taken .There must be one center of power, the person in charge of the operation. This will reduce people getting confusing instruction thus improves communication channel and also reduces gate crush informer and also brings networking and proper coordination of the operation effectively These individuals may carry certain titles at least for effective communication and to know who is who, where and what roles they are taking It involves effective communication to all who are responsible to control of the disaster .it involves proper coordination of events what to start and to stop. Like in bounce field at one moment the rescue team was alerted on the possibility of another blast hence more with one objective and target at least to manage the disaster to an end. Resources are well utilized the personnel, equipments and finances .clarity must be communicated for an incident achievement .a well effective incident command level is witnessed when a large incident occurs like bounce field. They responded almost immediately with indifference of 0.5 minutes which was fairly good with their entire machines ready on personnel. However the fire was threatening but it was well managed by qualified and well co-coordinated personnel which took the few compared to the risk of explosion involved. Dynamic risk assessment In risk assessment, it is important to identify allocation of resources, community engagement and prioritization in periods of fires that are severe so as to protect people and assets. It is also important to check whether the areas that are protected have a special consideration during planning for actions to suppress fire and that the personnel involved in fire fighting have tactics that are special and techniques to suppress the fire, wolf, (2001) In addition, it may be damaging to the environment and the values that are special to an area can be disturbed and so in areas that are sensitive, using mechanized equipment that is heavy can be worse off than the fire effects. During risk assessment, it is advisable to investigate the level of awareness to the community including school going children and other civilians in the programmed of fire management. It is also in order to assess the programmers in place for fire prevention. These programmers should be accepted by the community and promoted so as to minimize costs and damage to the resources. There should be a great understanding of the dangers the fire can cause to the ecosystem though there are ecosystems that are fire dependent and the risk assessment here should be the enforcement of regulations to prevent damage so that fires can burn only in beneficial parameters. There should be assessment for systems for danger rating so as to provide a warning early enough as they use data from a day to day weather to estimate the potential of wildfire. The system should be able to provide a fire event occurrence early enough in advance. Risk assessment should also be done on fire preparedness which encompasses detection and fire incidence response. The assessment should be on training, having fire fighting equipment and enough staff before on set of fire. More so, there is need to assess the role of collaborators and contractors among other groups in support of the programmed of managing fire incidents. All in all, there should be a safety programmed which includes accident reports and analysis of near-miss accidents to minimize risk to staff and civilians. Agencies involved in incidents: These include among others Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG). There are fire departments in various organizations and at national levels that historically are known to be first to respond to incidents and major emergencies at municipal levels. Public works agencies were also integrated in disaster response so as to improve the management of emergencies. The fire departments also deal with problems brought about by changing technology and so they introduce new skills through training and purchase modern equipment for effective handling of disasters (Timothy R.S. 2001) The fire department provides a basis where on scene command system can be put. Emergency medical services also get involved in provision of medical care routinely in some activities like blood screening and donations, blood pressure screening and education on healthy living. The work of the environmental protection agency is to assess the environmental impact of the incidence and the underlying hazard to the ecosystem and to give a professional guideline on the way forward especially to the surrounding community. They also come handy in times of restoration and rehabilitation. National wildfire coordinating group check on the daily weather and land cover so as to advice on various issues relating to fire outbreaks and advice on preparedness. The national incidence management system gives guidance to federal, private, local government and state among others to effectively get well versed with prevention and response to incidents. It represents concepts, terminologies and principles for collaborative incident management in various levels. There are other organizations that are set up only to handle emergencies and incidents and these are usually complete in terms of equipment, trained staff, funding and always prepared for the emergencies. Mainly they are non governmental organizations that rely on donor funds to do the charity work and other private institutions specifically set to meet such objectives. An effective action plan should involve: Resource management planning in relation to fire, basing on institutional policy and legal frame work that give a basis and structure for tactical strategic planning and also actions to be taken during implementation. Such actions should be based on a comprehensive but clear policy, institutional and legal framework and plans should be done at the correct level of detail in all aspects of managing fire such as prevention, restoration and suppression of large fires. Education and awareness: audiences and communities should be targeted here and the programme should be specially developed to accommodate social cultural aspects of the community and the teaching materials should reflect literacy levels of local people so as to effectively communicate and it should also be gender sensitive. Prevention of fire: is vital so as to minimize the number of fires and the spread. It can also be done through use of early warning systems and fire danger rating where the organization can establish a danger rating system basing on weather, vegetation and land cover. Also, there is need for technical training for fire preparedness where all actions to be undertaken before the start of fire should be covered. They include safety consideration for staff and public. Detection of fire, communication and dispatching: actions should use a combination of aerial routes, community networks, remote sensing and established land and water based locations. The initial attack action can determine the success or failure of a fire management programme. Large fire suppression and management procedures should be based on complexity, length of time and expected size. Restoration and rehabilitation of the burnt area: The action plans here should include activities that facilitate healthy, restored and sustainable cultural area or ecosystem. It should take into consideration the immediate need for corrective action. Monitoring and assessment plan should assess all aspects of fire programme management. Data and information from prevention programme can be used to develop an effective system of monitoring efforts of fire prevention. 5. Integrated communication Using communication plans that are common is very necessary so as to ensure that those responding are able to communicate with each other during the crisis period and also the equipment used for communication systems and procedures should operate across jurisdictions. Development of integrated voice, protocols, data communication system equipment should be done before an occurrence of an incident. There are three elements in integrated communication system which include; modes which are hardware systems for information transfer. Another element is planning for use of available resources that are involved in communication. There are also the networks and these describe processes and procedures for information transfer both to external and internal persons. Media and other agencies are involved in all these elements as they work hand in hand to pass the intended information. In such an incident, there should be an information officer whose role is to gather and disseminate information involving the incident to the media, agencies, incident personnel and organizations. For media to be effective in disseminating information there should be a communication system that is public so that private citizens and personnel can report and alert other people. It is necessary to have a dispatch and system of communication in place so that the response can be appropriate and also mobilization towards support and back up resources for fire suppression can be made easier. During this incident, the communication plan developed should have been translated into local languages so that the public could have been informed of threats and severe impacts and also given messages on prevention. Such a plan should involve the media and other agencies so that information can be easily communicated. An effective communication mechanism would involve use of remote sensing, aerial routes, and community networks with both private and rural citizens and this would be done well through media and other agencies including volunteers, land owners and other respondents The prudent decisions are taken immediately especially to evacuate the people who could have been affected by the incident especially Buncefied fire tragedy families were relocated elsewhere. Some section of the roads were closed hence the press had to announce to the public to avoid confusion with motorist. Others could be redirected to which petrol station had the oil since there was panic by the public that shortage of petrol was almost facing the town since Buncefile was the major depot. Such like information is needed to be reported by the press immediately to avoid more confusion and further damages. CONCLUSION Major incidents, calamities, fire explosions and other major hazards generally requires a well coordinated fast and well trained personnel to deal with emergencies which normally occurs when they are list expected .Due to the nature and magnitude of the incidents people normally response to such issues in a state of panic and even the respondent face the incidents with confusion .To avoid such chaotic panic and confusion drastic measures must be taken. The incidents command systems offers such a solution and gives the direction and steps in which such like incidents should be done. They give a professional resume methods and steps to be followed from the first sight of the incident to the final restoration of the episode. It is recommended all institution should maintain such kind of systems within the areas of their operations. References Timothy R.S. Campbell,(2001) an emergency services and public safety consultant. Alvarado, Ernesto; Sandberg, David V; Pickford, Stewart G. Modeling Large Forest Fires as Extreme Events [PDF]. Northwest Science. Special Issue 1998 [cited 2009-02-06];72:66–75. Bushfire CRC. Are Big Fires Inevitable? A Report on the National Bushfire Forum [PDF]; 2007-02-27 [cited 2009-01-09]. Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Inquiry on Bushfire Mitigation and Management. Automatic remote surveillance system for the prevention of forest fires [PDF] [cited 2009-07-10]. Billing, P. Victoria Department of Sustainability and Environment. Otways Fire No. 22 - 1982/83 Aspects of fire behaviour. Research Report No.20 [PDF]; June 1983 [cited 2009-06-26]. de Souza Costa, Fernando; Sandberg, David. Mathematical model of a smoldering log [PDF]. Combustion and Flame. 2004 [cited 2009-02-06];(139):227–238. Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada (FERIC). Evaluation of three wildfire smoke detection systems [PDF]; June 2004 [cited 2009-01-13]. National Interagency Fire Center. Federal Fire and Aviation Operations Action Plan [PDF]; 2005-04-18 [cited 2009-06-26]. Finney, Mark A. US Forest Service. FARSITE: Fire Area Simulator—Model Development and Evaluation Read More