Analysis of Efficient Incident Command System - Report Example

Name : xxxxxxxxxxx Institution : xxxxxxxxxxx Course : xxxxxxxxxxx Title : Incident Command Tutor : xxxxxxxxxxx @2010 Incident command Introduction Incident Command System (ICS) is the efficient means for the command, control, and organization of an emergency response. It is very important since it enables the agencies to work together in similar means and operating processes for controlling staff, facilities, tools and communications at the scene of an incident. It also involves a group of workers, policies, methods, facilities and appliances incorporated in a widespread organizational structure designed to enhance emergence response operations of all kinds and complications. An efficient Incident Command System should be founded on a flexible, scalable response organization availing a general structure whereby people can work together efficiently (Bateman 2006). The people within the Incident Command System can come from several agencies that do not characteristically work together. Furthermore, an effective ICS should be designed to offer typical responses and operation processes to lessen the difficulties and probability of encountering miscommunications in emergency incidents (Avillo 2008). An efficient Incident Command System fulfils the requirements of a jurisdiction to cope with incident of any type or complexity which means that it can either expand or contract as required. It should also allow the staff from a wide selection of agencies to join hastily into a common management system with widespread terminology. An efficient Incident Command System should offer logistical and organizational support to the operational staff as this enable the operational staff to carry out their activities efficiently and competently. It is also supposed to be cost effective through avoidance of duplicating the efforts and uninterrupted overhead. This means that the system should have a well laid system whereby each and every personnel is aware of the role she/he is supposed to play. Finally, an efficient Incident Command System should offer a united, centrally authorized valid emergency organization. In assessing the risk, the fire incident and the graveness situation should be evaluated as well as the tasks and the people at risk. The following should have been considered, the operation information that was available, for instance the local risk assessments and the emergency plans that were there, the undertakings that were necessary, the risks likely to be involved perfuming the task in this state, the risks linked in performing the task to both the brigade members and the public as well and finally the resources present, whether the staff is experienced, ambulances and the medics (Bateman 2006). Assessment chart (Avillo 2008). During the risk assessment, it is necessary to chose operational processes. This involves consideration of several choices and then choosing the most suitable for this fire incident. The beginning points should be methodologies agreed during pre-planning and training and also one should make sure that the staff involved in managing this fire incident that they are competent to carry out each and very task assigned to them. The next step should entail assessment of the selected operational procedure. This is meant to find out if the risks are relative to the benefits and incase they are one should go on with the assessment after making sure that, the aims and tasks are being comprehended at all levels, the duties have been clearly assigned and that safety measures and methodologies have been understood. Incase the risks were not relative to the benefits, additional controls should have been introduced. The remaining hazards should be eliminated and reduced to an acceptable level though adding control measures like, usage of specialist equipment when fighting fire, getting backing from other bodies like Fire service and ambulance service and making use of event marshals (Avillo 2008). Finally, the fire fighting system requires re-assessment and this entails re-assessing the operational and additional control measure. This is means to find out if there any risks left behind and if the benefits from the operation are more than the likely results if the risks are realized. Incase the benefits prevail over the risks, the operational process of managing the fire should have proceeded but incase the risks outdo the benefits the operational activity should have been stopped. Nevertheless, other alternatives should have been considered. The structure of an action plan should provide a logical way of communicating the general incident goals for both operational and support activities. These consist of measurable strategic goals to be accomplished in a time frame known as Operational Period. The can either be written or verbal apart from the dangerous material incidents where is should always be in written form and prepared by Planning Division. An action plan lessens freelancing and enabled a coordinated response to take place (Coppola 2007). An action plan should consist of four elements and they include; the aims, what the operations wants to do, who is responsible for doing it, how communication will be carried out with each other and the process incase a person gets injured. The levels of command include an incident commander which entails, a single incident commander, whereby a lone individual commands the incident response and makes the ultimate decision. There is also Unified command which involves a unified command and is mainly used in larger incidents normally when numerous agencies get involved with the operation and the unified command proceeds like a single unit. The next level is command staff which includes; the safety official who supervises the safety state and generates measures for guarantying the safety of all allocated staff, the public information official who serves as the agent for the information to both internal and external stakeholders and this includes the media and other bodies looking for information openly from the incident and there is a liaison official who acts as the key contact for supporting agencies helping at the incident. The next level is general staff. This includes the operations sections chief who directs all activities to fulfill the incident goals, the planning section chief who gathers and displays incident information mainly having the position of all resources and general position of the incident, the administration section chief tracks the incident connected expenses, the records of the staff, requisitions and management procurement contracts needed by logistics and Logistic section chief who is responsible for provision of resources, services and any support needed by the incident. The other level is 200-level ICS whereby the role of information and intelligence is included to the standard ICS personnel as a choice. This function is special within ICS since it can be arranged in several means depending on the decision of the Incident Commander and requirements of the incident. Finally, the other level is 400-Level ICS whereby progressed arrangements are trained to be used on outstandingly large or composite incidents. Some of the choices consist of l Dual Operations Section Chiefs and Dual Logistics Section Chiefs ((Coppola 2007). The agency bodies that are necessary include: Police The key areas that police are responsible of during a major incident include rescuing injured people and saving the lives of people within the incident together with other emergency services. The police are also involved in coordinating the emergency services, the local authorities in addition to the other organizations that are involved in the support of delivering services at the area of the incident. The police are also involved in the securing, protection and preserving of the scene and the control of sightseers as well as the traffic by using the cordons. The police are also useful in the investigation of the incident and getting and securing of the evidence regarding the incident together with the other bodies involved with the investigations where applicable and they are helpful in the gathering and distribution of the casualty’s information. Moreover, the police are also of assistance when it comes to the liaison with the casualties’ families and also in short term measures in order to restore the normality in the area of the incident after all the required actions have been carried out (Jensen 2004). Fire Brigade The key areas that a Fire Brigade is of importance during a major incident include; the saving of the lives by using a search and rescue as well. It will also be useful in the fire fighting and fir prevention which means the fire brigade helps reduce the fire and aims at putting off the fire and hence counteracting the effects of the fire and also preventing the fire from spreading further. The fire brigade is also involved and of help with the detecting, identifying, monitoring and managing of the dangerous material and the protection of the environment. The protection of the environment is in the sense that if the fire is put off earlier and this averts the further damage, it prevents the fire from destroying environment more. Fire brigade is also important in salvaging and controlling of further damage by fire as well as providing of the professional advice in accordance to the nature and the type of the incident through the scientific advisor. Moreover, the fire brigade is important in the safety management in the inner cordon as well as maintenance of emergence service cover within the area that the incident has occurred and to restore the state of regularity at the earliest time possible in the area (Jensen 2004). Ambulance Service The key areas that the ambulance services cover incase of a major incident include, the saving of lives together jointly with the other emergency services and also in the provision of treatment services, stabilization and care to the people who have been injured in the incident scene. Again, ambulance services are also involved in offering of the suitable transport of the injured people to the hospitals and also transportation of the medical workers, equipments and resources to the incident scene. The ambulance service is also important in establishing an efficient triage sift and triage filtering system to establish the priority evacuation necessities of the injured people and to determine the location that is safe to clear the casualties, for instance triage sort area. Moreover, the ambulance service also offers communication services at the incident scene by using direct radio connections to the hospitals, control services and any other agencies that may be necessary to counteract the negative impacts of the incident. It is also involved with the nomination and alerting of the hospitals that receive the injured casualties from the certified list of the hospitals to receive those who get injured due to an incident and notify the other agencies. Ambulance service is also responsible of offering transport to the scene of the incident for the medical incident officer, transport for mobile medics and the surgeons together with their required equipments to offer first aid and treatment to the injured. The ambulance service also arranges the most suitable ways of transporting the injured people to the receiving and high-quality hospitals and also maintaining emergency cover within the area that the incident occurred and also restoration to a state of ordinariness in the area at the earliest time possible. Finally, the ambulance service acts as a gateway into the wider health services and this is inclusive of the Health Protection Agency Regional health Emergency Planning Advisors which will be in a position to offer advice and lead in the matters of health (Sember 2008). Health Advisory Team This is a strategic group which consists of representatives from several organizations and specialists who are in a position to offer synchronized authoritative advice regarding the health features of an incident to the police Commander and other agencies as well. Health Advisory Team is activated through the LAS control (Sember 2008). National Health Service According to the NHS, a major incident is the one where a number or kind of casualties overpowers or threatens to overpower usual services, special arrangements are required to deal with them. A major incident is also the one that poses a danger to the health of the community and consequently the health service may end up suffering from grave internal disruption. Definitely, a major incident involves the combined work of the emergency service within the capital will inescapably attract noteworthy and constant interests from national media. It is very vital when dealing with the media and their demands; press officials from the emergency services liaise and discuss together effectively regarding the incident while respecting varying roles of their personal services. The media can be valuable way of communicating important advice to the public regarding how an incident could affect them and the necessary actions they are required to take (Sember 2008). Once the incident occurred it should have been declared a major incident to have each and every, emergency service involved avail an instant statement. At the earliest chance, a holding statement should have been agreed on and then released by the police press official. The police press personnel should then have contacted their counterparts within the other emergency service’s press offices to notify them regarding the statement and then be notified concerning the information the press officials are releasing to the media. However, care should have been taken to ensure that these statements did not contradict and did not intrude upon or undermine the actions of the other services (United States & Coast Guard 2006). In regard to the liaison to the scene, press officials at the incident scene should have sought out their counterparts at the earliest chance and ensured that there was an establishment of a regular liaison to ensure that litigious or conflicting information was clarified before it was released to the media. After this, this information ought to have been passed to their personal l press offices. Concerning the other agencies, for instance the local authority, the press officials from local authority were supposed to liaise through the telephone to have them informed of the media statements which had direct bearing on their body. In the same way, the police officials should have consulted with their counterparts at the other agencies regarding the incident. If at all possible, police press officer should have attended the Gold and Silver coordinating group meeting as well as the senior public affairs or media staff from emergency services. Ambulance service and fire brigade press officers should also have attended silver coordinating group meetings. The police press officer should have taken the lead on the content of ensuing media statements on the entire incident. Nevertheless, it would have been appropriate if all emergency services had the chance of ensuring that the media were aware of the front line personnel’s activities (Coppola 2007). Confirmed casualty figures should have been released solely after consulting with Police Gold through the press official or the press bureau. The casualty figures should have been released a single set at a time. Incase the sum of casualties in the incidents rose within the time, all the services’ press should have abstained from availing the figures that were updated before they were cleared by the Police gold. LAS press officials should have confirmed the general nature of kinds of injuries on the injured people and the hospitals they were taken to. However, the sum of the people who were critically injured is supposed to have been cleared by the Police Gold. A joint press office ought to have been set since the incident was adequately serious in nature and it involved relatively large number of casualties and the rescue operations were in operation for more than 12 hours. There should also have been press briefings for the parties involved to be able to settle on the appropriate way and categorize any contentious matters and how they can be tackled (United States & Coast Guard 2006). In this incident, the area that required briefing include the overall reaction to the incident; the total sum of the casualties, how the emergency services coped at the time; the casualty bureau phone number; the criminal investigations; local interruptions that emerged as a result of the incident and congratulations for the local individuals who helped in rescues operations as well as the heroic actions by the police officers, health officers handling the casualties and the fire fighters as well. The news regarding the rescue operation should have been communicated. This includes the number of people who had been trapped, the level in regard to appliances and staff, the equipment required to rescue people and the specific information connected with fires as well as the heroic actions by the fire officers. Finally, the level and graveness of the injuries should also have been communicated, the hospitals and places where the casualties were taken, the number of ambulances and medical personnel that was involved including the heroic actions by the ambulance staff. Since this was a major incident, it required debriefing and thus representatives from several offices should have considered producing a briefing note for their colleagues, assessing media coverage and identification of the best practice and the lessons that were learnt as this could help the press officials in addressing comparable incidents in future (United States & Coast Guard 2006). Bibliography Avillo, A., 2008, Fire ground Strategies, 2nd Edition, Fire Engineering Books, Sydney. Coppola, P., 2007, Introduction to Emergency Management, Butterworth-Heinemann, California. Bateman, M., 2006, Tolley's practical risk assessment handbook, Butterworth-Heinemann, London. Jensen, A., 2004, Mass fatality and casualty incidents: a field guide, CRC Press, New York. Sember, B., 2008, Project management that works: real-world advice on communicating, problem solving, and everything else you need to know to get the job done, AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn, Toronto. United States. Coast Guard, 2006, U.S. Coast Guard incident management handbook: incident command system (ICS), U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Coast Guard, New York. Read More