ICS, FEMA, and NIMS (Oh My!)….

CAMP AS SALIYAH, QATAR

12.09.2013

Courtesy Story

Area Support Group - Qatar

By John Britt

CAMP AS SAYLIYAH, Qatar - Those of us who have worked in emergency response, disaster preparedness and emergency management are very familiar with the National Incident Management System’s Incident Command System, but a few Camp As Sayliyah patrons have asked, “Just what is this stuff that you’re teaching, and who should be taking these classes?”

I’ll answer the second question first, almost everyone on CAS could benefit from the information in these classes. The U.S. military utilizes the Incident Command System during any response, (per Presidential Directive 5, and Homeland Security Presidential Directive 8) and any soldier or civilian here could be called upon to act. If people understand the system that they will be a part of, then incidents will run smoother and the loss of life and damage will be minimized.

The first question takes a little bit of explaining. Let’s start with some history. The Federal Emergency Management Agency states, “ICS was developed in the 1970s following a series of catastrophic fires in California's urban interface. Property damage ran into the millions, and many people died or were injured. The personnel assigned to determine the causes of these outcomes studied the case histories and discovered that response problems could rarely be attributed to lack of resources or failure of tactics. Surprisingly, studies found that response problems were far more likely to result from inadequate management than from any other single reason.”

In short, people died not because of a shortage of fire fighters or fire trucks, but because there was not adequate management of them. ICS was developed in response to these failures, and the modern version is a standardized modular, “all hazards” approach to incident and event management.

The concepts of ICS center on resource and personnel management. The “tools” within the system allow for consistent, coordinated, and effective response, mitigation and recovery of incidents and events.

ICS is a “tool” and a “tool box” at the same time, and is used to manage five functional areas: command, operations,planning, logistics and finance. ICS principles can be (and are) used every day to manage everything from a “fender bender” to disaster responses and for events such as football games. I even know of at least once instance where the Incident Command System was utilized for a planned event common in many of our lives – a wedding.

The bottom line is: if you are a soldier or civilian working on a military installation, then I recommend you take the course. It is a presidential directive and let’s face it. It’s better to be prepared. It can save lives.

• Date Taken: 12.09.2013
• Date Posted: 12.23.2013 00:33
• Story ID: 118582
• Location: CAMP AS SALIYAH, QA