Incident Action Plan - Research Paper Example

 Incident Action Plan Incident name: Loaded truck accident Date prepared: 5/11/2014 Time prepared: 10: 45 AM Operational period: 7 days Incident action plan In order to build an efficient incident action plan, specific steps have to be followed. First, the incident situation has to be assessed. Consequently, the exact current status of the incident is reported. Secondly, strategic objectives are established. To ensure success of the plan, the necessary resources have to be availed to complete the relevant tasks. Lastly, the operational period is determined. This incident action plan is developed for a plastic manufacturing company. The paper will analyze and evaluate the fire occurrence at the company’s dock. As such, the incident action plan will be aimed at reducing or containing the emission of toxic smoke in addition to containing the fire at the dock. An incident action plan is basically a document which is used to clearly record incidence goals, strategy, objectives, tactical actions and additional supporting data or information. In many occasions, the plan/ form is mostly written. An Incident action plan can be traced back to the 1960s when it was developed as a response to fires occurring in southern California. Subsequently, it has now been adopted as a standard for tackling incidents worldwide. Overall, in any incident, the primary incident priorities include incident stabilization, life safety, equipment and property preservation hence enabling the organization to return back to business. Regardless of the situation’s complexity or size, priorities tend to remain constant. Life safety encompasses the public and responders. It normally includes treating injured individuals, rescuing civilians who are at risk; and providing for accountability, welfare and safety of the response personnel. Currently, life safety is a continuous priority over the incident period (Wenger, Quarantelli & Dynes, 1990). Incident stabilization aims to manage the incident from getting out of bounds or escalating. Also, it seeks to reduce its effects and hence control it. Environmental /property conservation seeks to maintain infrastructure, property, the economy, environment and the evidence (Perry, 2003). Additionally, it provides for recovery. It might take some operational periods to solve or address all of issues listed. Therefore, some of the incident problems might not be addressed at the incident’s initial period. Current situation To comprehend an incident’s current situation, the planner has to understand and be aware of some essential aspects of information. However, these often tend to vary from one incident to another. This variation makes each and every incident to possess its own different characteristics. In general, the basic tenets of information can be analyzed by understanding and having knowledge of the following: what has occurred, the progress made, what is the potential for the incident escalating, and what is the incident resource and organization capability. These basic steps pertain to all sizes and kinds of incident. For effective planning, information related to the above stated steps is necessary and essential. Taking into consideration of the above factors, the incident at the company’s dock involved a large truck loaded with pellets used by the organization in its manufacturing process. The truck has been engulfed in flames at the organization’s loading dock. The weather conditions are dreary. Due to the bad weather and ice, the truck skidded and crashed into empty trailers at the parking lot and subsequently burst into flames. An emergency call made to the relevant emergency services illustrated that they will not be available to contain the fire. They attributed their unavailability to impassable roads. A look at the MSDS (material safety data sheet) indicated that the burning pellets emit poisonous smoke into the air. This smoke has adverse effects on people when inhaled and the environment in general. Incident Goals 1. To extinguish the fire consuming the lorry. At the end of the exercise, the response team should be able to put out the fire. This is the major incidence goal or objective. Incident goals normally imply what the response team should achieve by the end of the exercise. 2. To contain the emission of toxic smoke, the response team at the end of the exercise should stop and contain the emission of toxic materials from the burning lorry. Objectives for the operational period A statement of objectives is a vital element of an incident action plan. These are vast statement or descriptions of the expected positive outcomes. Also, they refer to the actions required to achieve the positive outcomes in a manner which is in line with the stated priorities. According to Perry (2003), coming up with the incident action plan objectives is both a science and an art; the more you write/ practice, the better you get. The commander’s aim might be lost if the objective is outlined in a broad manner. A broad objective lacks a sense of direction. On the other hand, the objective might become a tactic if it is too detailed. To efficiently describe what is to be accomplished or done, not a single but multiple objectives have to be formulated. Usually, it takes approximately 4 to 6 objectives for the intent to be conveyed succinctly. Buck, Trainor & Aguirre, (2006) argued that for objectives to be reliable, they have to be SMART. This term stands for specific, measurable, action oriented, realistic, and time sensitive. First, specific implies that the description of what is to be achieved has to be precise and unambiguous while measurable states that the achievement and progress towards the objective have to be determinable. Next, action oriented illustrates that action verbs have to be employed when the expected aim is being described. Fourth, the stated objectives have to be realistic and achievable taking into consideration the amount of available resources. Lastly, time sensitive argues that the time period of the plan has to be specified. Incident objective 1. Provide for the safety, security welfare and health for responders 2. Provide security, safety, welfare and health of the public by managing fatalities, treating the injured and providing orderly evacuation of the affected. 3. Provide civil order by maintaining security 4. Provide rescue of trapped; control, contain and mitigate hazardous substances and all fires 5. Control, maintain access and restore vital utilities and infrastructure; stabilize, isolate all structures and facilities that are a threat to the public, community and responders, 6. Ensure compliance with stakeholder priorities and agency administrator. Operational objectives 1. Safety and security Establish a security perimeter 2. Staff responsibilities and roles Development of a staffing plan 3. Utility management Damage assessment ongoing 4. Command center Open media area Strategies to Achieve Objectives Strategies are defined as the actions via which the highlighted objectives are achiever/ met. The incident commander must come up with the right strategies once he/she has settled on the right priorities and also identified the objectives. Strategy identification can be a frustrating activity fir a new incident commander. The ICS 420-1 field operations guide 3 implies that the incident commander has to develop the relevant strategies. Nevertheless, the incident commander may delegate the duty to the operations section chief. Also, thy may decide to collaboratively develop the operational part of incident organization and the strategies. Perry (2003)’s guide defines the term strategy as the direction or general plan which is chosen to achieve incident objectives. This basic and pure definition of the term strategy is mostly of little aid; simply put, strategy is aimed at answering the question, ‘what is to be done to achieve the incident objectives?’ each objective may churn out several strategies. For a strategy to be simple and effective Perry (2003) suggests that it has to be written using a solitary or two words. For example, structural firefighters use simple acronyms in order to remember the different strategies employed to combat fires. Mostly, they use RECEO VS acronym to remember rescue, exposures, confine, extinguish, overhaul, ventilation and salvage strategies. Even veteran incident commanders who have been involved in various hazard environments carry a written list containing a broad range of incident objectives and strategies that are designed to cover nearly each and every contingency, specifically for low frequency high risk situations (Bigley & Roberts, 2001). The operational priority in this instance is incident stabilization. In light of this, the relevant strategies to achieve the objectives are: 1. Provide for the safety, security welfare and health of responders Rapid intervention team protective equipment, environmental mitigation, work/rest rotation medical unit for responders in case they are injured assistant safety officers security: gas masks, law enforcement escorts incident stress debriefings 2. Provide security, safety, welfare and health of the public by managing fatalities, treating the injured and providing orderly evacuation of the affected. EMS: triage, treatment, transportation Occupant support: help business to get back to its usual position Evacuation: notify evacuees via reverse 911 or social networks. 3. Provide civil order by maintaining security Outer perimeter Explosives: mitigation/detection Intelligence: detection/deterrence Investigation: determine cause 4. Provide rescue of trapped ; control, contain and mitigate hazardous substances and all fires Light search and rescue Fire containment (hold the lorry fire to the south of the dock) 5. Control, maintain access and restore vital utilities and infrastructure; stabilize, isolate all structures and facilities that are a threat to the public, community and responders, Dock restoration: debris and ice removal Utilities: firefighting equipment Engineer services: to evaluate the dock area 6. Ensure compliance with stakeholder priorities and agency administrator. Disaster declaration, damage assessment Cost recovery/containment Rehabilitation/recovery Economic impact Tactics Tactics are the specific activities undertaken to accomplish identified strategies. Most people or incident commanders find it difficult to come up with good tactics. All incident issues, limitations and problems mostly fall into taking care of civilians and the public; taking care of incident responders; providing civil order; search/ recue and hazard elimination; utilities and infrastructure (public works); and stakeholders/ agency. The tactics to be employed will include secondary egress means, a water supply, a full search of the lorry and nearby dock facilities to ensure its clear, fire extension and utilities. Health and safety plan Responder health and safety ensures that resources, equipped and well trained personnel are available when an emergency occurs in order to protect and ensure responders are safe and free from injury or harm. This is achieved via the creation of an efficient health and safety program (Paschall, 1992). The program includes various provisions which enable responder injury (Brady, 2003, December). They are exposure monitoring, training, medical care, infection control, decontamination procedures, enough work schedule relief, personal protective equipment and risk management practice. This program analyses the equipment, critical personnel, training, and other necessary resources which are needed to enhance and ensure all responders are correctly protected from incident hazards, which in this case are fire, toxic emissions, and debris, chemical and explosive materials. Communication plan Effective and efficient communication is vital during emergency situations/incidents (Kapella, 2003). In order to ensure effective communication between the involved parties (incident commander, working units and first responders) should avoid the use of radios for non-urgent/critical communication. The other types and forms of communication to be introduced include loud speaker system, telephone and face to face communication. Organizational list Primary role Tasks owners Command role Incident commander Wilford woodruff Planning role Safety officer Spencer Kimball Logistics role Communication leader Boyd packer Incident map Incident map retrieved from http://nees.umn.edu/facilities/images/lab/map_sim.gif The incidence is at the loading dock area of the facility. The docking area is adjacent to the staging area with a rear door on the east side of the facility. As such, responders are advised to take a look at the map and therefore be familiar with the layout of the facility. Non responders should move to the visitor viewing areas so as to be safe from the toxic fumes and heat emanating from the burning lorry and then exit the facility in an orderly manner by using the exit on the west side. Conclusion The incident action plan was aimed at controlling the fire at the dock in addition to mitigating the emission of hazardous smoke. Undoubtedly, an incident action plan is a significant tool. . in any situation, the incident priorities revolve around incident stabilization, life safety, equipment and property preservation. These priorities have to be taken into consideration before objectives, strategies and tactics for the plan are formulated. References Bigley, G. A., & Roberts, K. H. (2001). The incident command system: High-reliability organizing for complex and volatile task environments. Academy of Management Journal, 44(6), 1281-1299. Brady, T. F. (2003, December). Public health: emergency management: capability analysis of critical incident response. In Proceedings of the 35th conference on Winter simulation: driving innovation (pp. 1863-1867). Winter Simulation Conference. Buck, D. A., Trainor, J. E., & Aguirre, B. E. (2006). A critical evaluation of the incident command system and NIMS. Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, 3(3). Kapella, V. (2003). A framework for incident and problem management. International Network Services whitepaper. Paschall, R. (1992). Critical incident management. Office of International Criminal Justice, University of Illinois at Chicago. Perry, R. W. (2003). Incident management systems in disaster management. Disaster Prevention and Management, 12(5), 405-412. Wenger, D., Quarantelli, E. L., & Dynes, R. R. (1990). Is the Incident Command System a Plan for all Seasons and Emergency Situations?. Hazard Monthly, 10(12), 8-9. Read More