Response Execution Essay

Creating an emergency response plan is very important in any business. There are different plans for medical, fire, police, and school. The following plans are imperative in any environment. There are many things that will happen and Incident Command System (ICS) will help to provide the responders with an effective system that works. But before we go into the structures, an understanding of an incident command system needs to be addressed. According to OSHA, n.d., â€Å"ICS is a standardized on-scene incident management concept designed specifically to allow responders to adopt an integrated organizational structure equal to the complexity and demands of any single incident or multiple incidents without being hindered by jurisdictional boundaries†. ICS is a sub-model of the National Incident Management System (NIMS), as released by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2004.† An incident command system is referenced to an adaptable, scalable response association w hich provides a general agenda where people can work side by side efficiently. These people may come from many different agencies that do not normally work together, and an incident command system is intended to give regular response and operation procedures to decrease the troubles and possibility for miscommunication on such incidents. ICS has been summed up as a â€Å"first-on-scene† structure, where the first responder is in charge until the situation has been cleared up, a more experienced responder reaches your destination on scene and takes over, or the Incident Commander appoints someone else to take command of the situation. ICS includes measures to select and form provisional management chain of command to control funds, personnel, facilities, equipment, and communications. Personnel are allocated according to recognized standards and measures up to that time that were sanctioned by participating powers that be. Incident command system is designed for use or appropriate from the time an incident starts until it is finished or is not needed. The first thing that needs to be done is crate a standard operating procedure. These procedures are â€Å"essential to the effective application of the ICS† (FEMA). They also provide a standard and job descriptions to which everyone should follow. This way everyone will know what their job entails. Also, according to FEMA, 1999, the other first step is to decide who the incident commander is. In most cases of fire, mass casualties, hazardous materials, and other non law enforcement emergency, the fire department is in command. According to FEMA, 1999, if there are multiple jurisdictions that respond, the incident commander is usually the fire department whose jurisdiction the fire is in. Law enforcement is usually responsible for managing all operations related to criminal incidents. Included in this category would be terrorism, bombing, snipers, hostage situations, and other things of this nature. After that, a commander needs to be appointed. This person is usually the one with most experience. The IC’s responsibilities are to access the situati on and/or receive an update from the prior IC. Then the strategy needs to be put into place. This would mean establishing the immediate proprieties. Next a post needs to be formed. Then the IC needs to make sure the panned meetings are being kept to ensure the safety everyone and that everything is going according to plan. Then they approve the use of or elimination of resources. According to FEMA, 1999, the IC is also responsible for the planning for the functions throughout the entire process. The medical field is a very important tool to have at any incident. They are there to provide first aid and any other medical necessities. There are many levels, and levels under these, of resources that are used. According to FEMA, 1999, the first level is stabilization. In this level, the incident commander continues to manage the incident and gives progress reports from the scene. This allows hospitals to know how many beds they are going to need. Demobilization is the next level. In this level, the responders are either sent back to the area they came from, set back in service after they transport a victim, or they are cancelled all together. The last level is termination. In this level, the incident commander decides that no further action is required and everyone is sent back to their units. The next thing we need to look at are the responsibilities of the incident commander. The first one, according to FEMA, 1999, is to rescue all victims. The second is making sure the victims are taken out of the situation and moved to a medical facility. And the third is to make sure the personnel are safe. Next we will look at fire and rescue. The organization of the incident command is almost the same as the medical responders. According to Fire and Rescue, 2008, the following are the organizational areas for fire and rescue: â€Å"Organization on the incident ground, this gives the Incident Commander a recognized system from which to work when organizing and using resources at an Incident, Incident Risk Management, the principal consideration of Incident Commanders is safety of their personnel. Therefore, prior to deciding upon the tactics an assessment of risk must be performed. The Incident Commander must identify the hazards, assess the risks, and implement all reasonable control measures before committing crews into a risk area, and Command Competence, considers the skills knowledge and understanding required by an Incident Commander and the importance of maintaining such competencies.† â€Å"As the incident develops, changing circumstances may make the original course of action inappropriate, for example: fire fighting tactics may change from defensive to offensive or vice versa, new hazards and their associated risks may arise, existing hazards may present different risks, and personnel may become fatigued. Incident commanders, therefore, need to manage safety by constantly monitoring the situation and reviewing the effectiveness of the existing control measures† (Fire Service Operations p. 68). There are six steps in the initial assessment of risk: 1. evaluate the situation at the earliest opportunity, 2. Introduce and declare Tactical mode the simple expression of whether it is appropriate to proceed to work in a hazard area or not. This is a device to enable commanders of dynamic emergency incidents to demonstrate their compliance with the principles of risk assessment and be seen to have done so. 3. Select safe systems of work. The starting point for contemplation must be procedures that have been agreed in pre-planning and training and those personnel available at the incident have sufficient competence to carry out the tasks safely. 4. Assess the chosen system of work, 5. Introduce additional control measures, and 6. Re-assess systems of work and additional control measures. The police are no different. They have a system to follow just like everyone else. According to the free library.com, Incident Command System makes things easier for the administration of critical incidents by arranging the reaction into sections. Any person in the organization can put into operation the Incident Command System into its full arrangement. The person who makes the first move to coordinate the Incident Command System response more often than not takes control on the scene, at the emergency command center, or at the field command post and is converted into the incident commander. Unless officially relieved, the incident commander remains in charge is the single person who is in charge and makes the decisions. Everything goes through them. The incident commander watches over the complete operation through sectors, or branches, which provide a manageable span of control. Sectors can be deleted, added, made bigger or smaller, or anything else that is needed during an incide nt. There are some that might not be needed at all during a specific incident. For instance, sectors often are elected logistics, operations, personnel, and intelligence. Incident Command System deployment during a major vehicle crash would not have need of the services of the intelligence sector. The staff would organize the needs of the equipment. This would include the vehicles necessary to aid in the incident. Leaders of each individual sector would let the incident commander know of thing or services they might need, permitting the incident commander without difficulty to match resources to existing circumstances or predict future demands. Checklists make certain that sector leaders complete necessary tasks during the emergency. Given the demands placed on personnel at the scene, sector leaders easily could fail to notice a possible resource or legal or departmental obligation. While not crucial in all deployments, the emergency command center (ECC(1) (Error-Correcting Code) A type of memory that corrects errors on the fly. See ECC memory. (2) (Elliptic Curve Cryptography) A public key cryptography method that provides fast decryption and digital signature processing. †¦.. Click the link for more information.) generally works in conjunction with Incident Command System. It also may be a separate function under the ICS umbrella. Characteristically, the ECC is stationed in one department’s command center or another central location, but it can be located anywhere sensible. Commanding officers from every agency involved in the incident should staff the ECC. They also have different response levels. They are: â€Å"Level I incidents require that one or two officers resolve minor traffic accidents, make arrests, or conduct light crowd control, level II incidents require the assistance of three or more officers. They usually involve several agencies and may cross jurisdictional boundaries. Examples include collisions that results in road closures or evacuations, and level III incidents involve three or more officers from multiple shifts, require support from other bureaus, districts, or agencies, and demand a significant response to contain, control, and recover from the emergency. Bombings and riots represent two types of Level III incidents† (â€Å"Incident Command Systems for Law Enforcement,† 2013). The Incident Command System is a straightforward yet exceedingly efficient technique of getting ready for critical incidents. It endorses a synchronized reaction to emergencies. It is an suitable resource because it provides a middle point for communication, authority, and control. Training is important because it trains the responders on what to expect. Careful Thorough record keeping keeps investigations on the right path and makes available an easy way to assess agencies’ response. At any given time, police somewhere in the world are organizing the on-scene actions of an emergency. Labor, facilities, equipment, and communication are among the countless issues they must consider to alleviate and control such incidents. When seconds count, Incident Command Systems let agencies handle emergencies promptly and assertively. References FEMA, 1999, Incident Command System for Emergency Medical Services, Student Manual. United States Fire Administration National Fire Academy. Fire Service Operations. (2008). Fire and Rescue Manual, 2(), . https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/7643/incidentcommand.pdf. Incident Command Systems for Law Enforcement. (2013). In Free dictionary. Retrieved from http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Incident+Command+Systems+for+Law+Enforcement.-a054061498 OSHA. (n.d.). Incident Command System. Retrieved from http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/ics/what_is_ics.html