The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)'s National Incident Management System (NIMS) is an organized and dynamic method used to effectively direct departments and agencies in the various governmental and non-governmental institutions as well as the private sector to cooperating in dealing with incidents relating to threats and dangers regardless of their source, location, magnitude, or complexity (Deal, 2010). There will be less death, property loss, and environmental harm as a consequence. The following essay will concentrate on the relationship between the National Incident Management System's Incident Command System (ICS), concept of operations, and line of command. The Incident Command System (ICS) is a principled on-watch occurrence management concept tailored purposely to authorize responders to embrace an integrated institutional structure equivalent to the complexity and requirements of any individual or multiple occurrences without being obstructed by jurisdictional boundaries (Haddow, 2014). The main reason for the establishment of the ICS was to deal with the rapidly escalating wildfires in conjunction to focusing on the following issues; conflicting emergency response institutional structures, absence of dependable incident information, undefined authority lines, insufficient and inconsistent communications, many individuals being answerable to one supervisor, absence of design for organized planning among agencies and terminology variations among agencies; as well as disputable or unidentified incident objectives (Deal, 2010).
Under the ICS, there is a well-defined chain of command that is similar across responding institutions. Beneath the ICS, there are five significant functional areas, with each functional area termed as a section governed by a section chief (Manwaring, 2015). These areas are; command which designs incident objectives in conjunction to authorizing resource orders, operations which establishes, allocates and supervises resources required to achieve the incident objectives, planning which involves trailing resources, logistics that is responsible for requesting resources and finance administration that is charged with procurement as well as providing finance for these resources (Manwaring, 2015).
These five functional areas are additionally divided into 15 Emergency Support Functions (ESFs) with each allocated an individual emergency response activity. An incident Commander is tasked with the responsibility of formulating the Incident Action Plan (IAP) with the assistance of section chiefs (Manwaring, 2015). The IAP elaborates on the usage of resources in response to an individual incident. In resource management, necessities for an incident’s response include personnel, equipment, supplies and facilities with these resources categorized and distinguished by their type and kind.
Components of operations
The National Incident Management System comprises five key components which include; command and management, preparedness, resource management, communication/information management, ongoing management/maintenance and supporting technologies. The command and management constituents of NIMS are designed to allow efficient and effective occurrence management and organization by giving a flexible, standardized occurrence management composition. The composition is rooted on three main organizational components which include; the Multiagency Coordination Systems, Incident Command System and Public Information (Haddow, 2014).
Incident Command System (ICS) is a standardized on-watch emergency management vessel that in co-operating equipment, manpower, facilities and communications in a general institutional structure (Walsh, 2012). The Multiagency coordination system (MACS) is a general systematic support system for occurrence prioritization, vital resource distribution, synthesizes communication networks in conjunction to information coordination. Public Information System (PIS) which aims to effectively oversee public information at the occurrence, irrespective of its magnitude and sophistication of the incident or the number of individuals required in the response (Walsh, 2012).
Preparedness is also paramount incredible emergency management and occurrence response. Preparedness requires a cohesive mixture of examination, planning, methods, and protocols, licensing, coaching and exercises, certification, equipment certification and examination and revision (Deal, 2010). Resource management involves supervision of resources required to reinforce critical incident goals. The stream of resources has to be fluid and adjustable to the needs of the incident.
In communications and information management effective, secure and convenient emergency reaction in conjunction to preparedness, mitigation and recuperation demand efficient communication and information handling (Haddow, 2014). This constituent relies on the concept of reliability, portability, and scalability in conjunction to flexibility in communication and information systems.
Ongoing management and maintenance have two components which are the National Integration Centre which offers a planned course, supervision and coordination of NIMS as well as reinforce scheduled maintenance and ongoing refinements of NIMS. It supports technological heads and coordinates the current evolvement of incident management-related technology (Ward, 2017).
Chain of command
In the NIMS, there is also a well-defined chain of command under the Incident command system. Some of the key elements the chain of command focuses on include; plans and formulated methods for overseeing and coordinating of resources, application of common terminology in describing organizational responsibilities, resource illustrations, occurrence facilities and position titles, information and intelligence administration systems and procedures, putting up pre-designated emergency management positions to include the Emergency Operation Centre, the application of a unified command (UC) for occurrences pertaining several emergency response agencies (Deal, 2010).
In the chain of command, various roles are highlighted and give an in-depth institutional structure and relationship of the entities. First in command is the;
Incident Commander (IC) whose purpose is to identify the additional command and overall staff required in response to an emergency and governs their activities, may work in duties of command and general staff with regard to the sophistication of the incident, structure the command post, and activate alert systems to warn students and workers of an emergency (Haddow, 2014).
Command staff tasked with the duty of highlighting and addressing emergency response individuals hence making sure safety precautions is intact to protect emergency respondents, the Public Information Officer (PIO) tasked with the duty of communicating information on the emergency to the general media, safety officer tasked with communicating dangers of emergency response to individuals, the liaison officer responsible for carrying out response alongside outside agencies in reacting to the emergency (Ward, 2017).
General staff who include people tasked with operations, logistics, planning, funding and managing sections reacting to an emergency, each department is chaired by a section chief that communicates first-hand with the incident commander, section chiefs are tasked with the duty of overseeing all incident specific operations in their respective departments (Haddow, 2014).
How these concepts relate
In the National Incident Management System, the various management bodies are interrelated so as to work together in ensuring the smooth running of emergency response systems. In the Incident Command System, there is a clear division with the major concepts of operations which are preparedness, communication and information management and ongoing management and maintenance clearly highlighted (Ward, 2017). The Incident Command System is headed by the Incident Commander who is first on hand to oversee all activities pertaining preparations and resource management in emergency situations. To add on this, they are tasked with the responsibility of designing the command post. These commanders are also responsible for ongoing management and maintenance of emergency incidences of NIMS in conjunction to reinforcing already programmed maintenance and progressing refinements of NIMS (Deal, 2010).
Under the Incident Commander is the command staff whose main responsibilities are centered on communication and information disbursement during emergency incidents. Command staff includes; the public information officer (PIO) who communicates emergency news to the public media (Walsh, 2012). PIOs should be highly portable, reliable and flexible since they deliver the vital emergency news. Safety officers also fall here with their main duty being to relay information pertaining risks of emergency response to the affected individuals. Liaison officers aid in communication during emergency since they spread the information and conduct response with the help of outside parties thus reacting promptly to an emergency (Ward, 2017).
The general staff is the last in the hierarchy in the Incident Command System. Under the general staff, there is a head in each section responsible for overseeing all incident individual operations and is answerable directly to the Incident Commander. The general staff is also involved first-hand with the progressive management, maintenance, and coordination of emergency incidences since they are involved in the planning logistics and funding in case of these occurrences (Walsh, 2012).
In conclusion, it is vivid that for the National Incident Management System to be properly functional the various Incident Command System components must be well established and a proper chain of command observed. It is also clear that the division of responsibilities among various sections in the NIMS facilitates prompt and organized emergency response for victims since all the departments responsible have clearly defined roles (Deal, 2010). In addition to this, NIMS has also managed to gain favor even in non-governmental organizations, private agencies, and institutions due to the fact that it is properly coordinated with prompt and steady emergency response for victims soon as the incident occurs thus reducing damages and causalities.
References
Deal, T. (2010). Beyond initial response: Using the National Incident Management System's Incident Command System. Bloomington, In AuthorHouse.
Haddow, G. D., Bullock, J. A., & Coppola, D. P. (2014). Introduction to emergency management. Waltham, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann, an imprint of Elsevier, 2014.
Manwaring, T. (2015). Incident Command for First Responders. Schaumburg: LawTech Publishing Group, 2015.
Ward, M., & Informed. (2017). NIMS: Incident command system field guide. Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning.
Walsh, D. W. (2012). National incident management system: Principles and practice. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
