Incident Command System

Knowledge of ICS is Critical for Public Works Departments

Introduction

New Hampshire has seen many recent emergencies: dam breaks, flooding, and ice storms. A mutual aid program for public works is on the horizon and Incident Command System (ICS) is vital to make it successful. This is an overview of ICS.

ICS is management tool employed to implement a municipality’s emergency plan. It is management by objective, delegation, and empowerment. It provides for a common language a necessity when multiple agencies work together. Although developed to handle emergency situations, agencies can incorporate ICS into normal work routines. Daily use of ICS allows managers, staff, and crews to know and understand its basic structure and terminology.

Whatever the size or the number of agencies involved in an incident, all emergency events demand management to insure prompt response and effective use of resources. ICS creates a formal system for management and organization. It is an integrated approach. Therefore, municipalities can build methods of emergency management techniques such as warning, communications, evacuation, and sheltering.

A public works employee is often the first person on the scene. He or she must clearly understand ICS to manage the emergency and hand over command when appropriate.

Purpose

ICS provides clear structure to enable agencies and team members to function together in an emergency and a common vocabulary to enable clear communication. Clarification furthers efficiency by eliminating the need to "reinvent the wheel" for each emergency.

The basic goals of ICS are safety, and reducing injury and loss of life. The emergency itself will define specific goals, such as minimizing environmental damage.

Organization

A typical managerial organization operates from the top down. The Commander is at the top. The first-arriving supervisor is generally the Incident Commander (IC) and begins to organize the agencies response to the incident. ICS was developed with the knowledge that each person can effectively supervise 3-7 people, depending upon the situation. The IC assigns supervisors as crew sizes become unmanageable, and establishes added supervisory levels when needed

The organizational structure typically includes five functional areas:

• Command—Provides for overall command and management. It might include staff positions such as Safety, Liaison, and Information.
• Operations—Covers all tactical operations.
• Planning—Organizes the response to the incident through collecting, evaluating, and disseminating information about the incident and about the status of resources.
• Logistics—Coordinates facilities, services, and materials for response to the incident.
• Finance/Administration—Records actions, costs, and other financial considerations.

Communication

Common vocabulary is essential in any emergency response, especially when diverse agencies are involved. Agencies often have a slightly different meaning for terms that can lead to confusion or even loss of life or property. The ICS structure and vocabulary eliminates confusion by providing predefined functions and terms.

Responding to emergencies can be hazardous. Incidents that threaten citizens also threaten the people responding. ICS establishes clear lines of communications to inform respondents of changing, and unsafe situations, and changes in goals. Changes must be properly managed, and usually with limited resources.

Freelancing is a safety risk that should be avoided. Freelancers are people who aren’t assigned to a task and decide to work wherever they chose, without supervision. Freelancers act contrary to the activities or those implementing the action plan and put themselves and others at risk.

Practicing ICS Procedures

Emergencies are usually complex and confusing so it is important to have ICS in place and practiced. Practice helps managers and workers make decisions quickly. Practice enables managers to identify needed areas of training, standardization of radio frequencies and establish procedures.

Role of Public Works Personnel

Public Works personnel pay a key role in emergencies. If the incident were purely a public works situation, public works personnel would fill all roles. During an emergency, in smaller towns, one person may have several roles to fill

• Public Works Director. Participate in policy making for an emergency. The policy making group plans for an emergency and looks for types of incidents that may occur in a community. They work to define the role of each agency and make political decisions. The group is responsible for the outcome of the response.
• Public Works Director and Assistant Public Works Director. May work in coordinating the incident. Coordinators perform staff functions; for instance, they may coordinate all PWD functions or act as the logistics officer during the incident.
• Foreman. Supervises crews.
• Crews. Accomplishes fieldwork to correct emergency-related problems, such as road repair, culvert replacement, debris clearance, sandbagging, and search and rescue.

ICS is vital for public works personnel to understand and practice. It is a necessary tool to manage incidents that are small in size, from departmental level, to large, employing multiple agencies. It enables all respondents to work together toward the common goals of safety, and reducing injury and loss of life. ICS is essential for the success of the mutual aid program for public works where multiple public works departments will be working together in emergency situations.

The UNH Tē Center plans to work with the New Hampshire Office of Emergency Management to hold a workshop on ICS. In the meantime, to learn more about ICS, contact the State Office of Emergency Management or the Emergency Manager in your community.

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Return to UNH T2 Center, 33 College Road, Durham NH 03824 603-862-2826 Fax 603-862-2364