First Published 3/5/04
On March 1, 2004 DHS Secretary Tom Ridge issued a memorandum that stated in part: “In Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD)-5, Management of Domestic Incidents, the President directed me to develop, submit for review to the Homeland Security Council, and administer a National Incident Management System (NIMS). This system will provide a consistent nationwide approach for Federal, State, local and tribal governments to work effectively and efficiently together to prepare for, prevent, respond to, and recover from domestic incidents, regardless of cause, size or complexity”.
Ridge also noted that “HSPD-5 requires all Federal departments and agencies to adopt NIMS…”.
Furthermore, “The directive also requires Federal departments and agencies to make adoption of the NIMS by state, tribal and local organizations a condition for Federal preparedness assistance, beginning in FY 2005. Compliance with certain aspects of the NIMS will be possible in the short-term, such as adopting the basic tenets of the Incident Command System identified in this document”.
He closed by saying, “I ask for your continued cooperation and assistance as we further develop and implement the NIMS and the associated National Response Plan (NRP)”.
As the Church Lady would say “now, isn’t that special?” What is it; this NIMS-an acronym that stands for the National Incident Management System? Is it the same as Incident Command System (ICS)? No, it isn’t. ICS is a component of NIMS. Some folks have been talking like NIMS has been around for some time! Granted; some of the key elements have been around, but the NIMS document has a March 1, 2004 publication date on it.
John Buckman, currently president of the IAFC, is another who believes that following NIMS is long overdue. I’ll come back to Buckman’s comments.
NIMS, in simple terms, is “a system…that provides a consistent, nationwide approach for Federal, State, local, and tribal governments; the private-sector, and nongovernmental organizations to work effectively and efficiently together to prepare for, respond to, and recover from domestic incidents, regardless of cause, size, or complexity. To provide for interoperability and compatibility among Federal, State, local and tribal capabilities, the NIMS includes a core set of concepts, principles and terminology. HSPD-5 identifies these as the ICS; multi-agency coordination systems; training; identification and management of resources (including systems for classifying types of resources); qualification and certification; and the collection, tracking, and reporting of incident information and incident resources”.
And don’t forget your NRP- your National Response Plan! That plan “integrates Federal domestic prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery into one all-discipline, all-hazard plan”.
Sounds like the Feds want to help us if we have a major incident, doesn’t it? Or is this their sneaky way of inserting themselves into our business and impacting the outcome; good or bad? Are we re-inventing what we do for them or are they learning the process that we know? If we’re just taking what we have been doing as common practice, as some like Buckman would claim, then let me ask you this: What is EMAC? EOC? FOG? IAP? JIS? LNO? SDO? Is unity of command the same as unified command?
How’d you do? EMAC=Emergency Management Assistance Compact. Use it all of the time, don’t we? I believe that EMAC is a Federal arrangement between states, like a state-to-state mutual aid agreement. EOC=Emergency Operations Center. This is the physical location on-scene to coordinate information and resources to support domestic incident management activities. FOG=Field Operations Guide. I wonder if that’s available in flash cards or pocket size? IAP=Incident Action Plan. Similar to a pre-plan, it is the plan that “contains general objectives and the overall strategies for managing an incident”. JIS=Joint Information System. This process “integrates incident information and public affairs into a ‘cohesive’ organization designed to provide consistent, coordinated, timely information during crisis or incident operations”. Basically, coordinating ALL information into one message to parties on a need-to-know basis. LNO=Liaison Officer. That would be a member of the command staff responsible for coordinating with representatives from cooperating and assisting agencies. SDO=Standards Development Organizations. I looked all over for this one when I was reading about NIMS. An example of an SDO is NIOSH, ANSI, ASTM, NIST, etc. The most obvious SDO in the fire service is NFPA. Oh, now I get it!
And finally; is unity of command the same as unified command? Not even close! Unity of command is a concept where each person in an organization reports to ONE designated person. The purpose of unity of command is to ensure “unity of effort” under one responsible commander for every objective. Unified command is a function within the Incident Command System where there is more than one agency with jurisdiction or where incidents cross political jurisdictional boundaries. Agencies work through their IC to establish a common set of objectives and strategies, but have ONE IAP! A quick example would be an incident where you have a multi-vehicle accident that shuts down a highway and has knocked out electrical power. Potentially, your unified command would consist of fire department, police, ambulance, DOT and the power company. I’m sure that you have been involved in an incident of this type and magnitude and have had multiple, key people at the scene. Because many small departments operate through an informal IC system, they are unaware that unified command is necessary or even exists, for that matter!
I have been reading a lot about the National Incident Management System. I have read the entire document. I have read many articles and commentaries on the subject, because, quite frankly, I have no life! Actually, all of the “what ifs” involved with a large, multi-agency response to an incident fascinates me. As leaders for our departments, we want to believe that we could handle anything! How many of you are near a large airport, nuclear power plant, large shopping mall or other venues where the potential for mass casualties exists? Small communities like mine-800 village residents-in the path of an F3 tornado; has the potential for activating NIMS. As I said; I know about it and could coordinate an incident according to its concepts and principles, but neighboring departments might not have any idea. I was just talking to a chief over the weekend and oddly enough, he asked me if I knew anything about NIMS!
Do you think that resources should be directed towards NIMS awareness at the moment? I don’t! Why? Because many departments still lack basic firefighting knowledge and skills. Does it make sense to train for a specialized response team, when you can’t effectively operate the pump on your engine? Vent a roof? Tie a bowline? Or select the proper stream of your nozzle? We need to do “first things first”!
Let’s be honest; how many of your departments and neighboring departments have agreements similar to MABAS (Mutual Aid Box Alarm System)? How many of you have the same frequencies programmed into your radios? How many of you actually train with your mutual aid departments and know their capabilities in both preparedness and equipment? If you had to, could you fit seamlessly with a mutual aid department if they asked you to operate their equipment? What about accountability systems? How many of you have them and are they the same/different as your mutual aid departments? Are all of you training to the same standards? Do you have the pre-plans of your neighbor’s business district? Have you participated in an incident that used unified command principles?
If you answered, “yes” to all of the aforementioned questions, then you are ready for NIMS. But I doubt that you did. And it’s for that reason that I say that John Buckman and others like him are out of touch with reality when they say that the fire service-especially small, rural fire departments-is ready for NIMS.
Fire Chief magazine interviewed Buckman on the subject of NIMS and here’s what he had to say about it. According to Buckman, “incident management is to be the same”. I assume that he means that, whether you’re career or volunteer; rural or urban, we should approach any incident with the same resources and expertise. Apparently, I don’t understand the math, because I wonder how a small, rural fire department with a total income of less than $20,000 could be equipped and trained at the same level as his German Township Fire Department. And if the Federal government truly believes this as well, then why won’t they award us grants, regardless of call volume? Buckman talks about receiving Federal tax dollars as if it’s someone else’s money! When you put a stipulation in the rules that you must adopt NIMS as a pre-condition, then how can he possibly understand that it is our tax money? To me, NIMS falls just short of being an unfunded mandate. To get around this, the government won’t tell us that we MUST do it; thereby providing for a funding mechanism, but instead, just make it a lot tougher to get money for existing programs! I believe that it is a veiled attempt to insert more Federal control at the local level.
Rural departments; think about all of those times that we have been told that “this or that” won’t happen in rural America. Therefore, no funding. No funding for search and rescue, HazMat, Bio-terrorism or any of those incidents that our government believes will only happen in the more populated, urban settings. Terrorists steal the ammonium nitrate and diesel fuel from rural America and then use it to blow up a large, Federal building in a highly populated area (Oklahoma City). But yet, we are not targeted by terrorists? It doesn’t make good sense to ignore it just because they are not Middle Eastern.
Buckman asserts that all departments already use some form of incident command. On that point, we agree. But it seems to me that small, rural departments do not use a nationally recognized command system. It is informal at best. Buckman speaks as if the national fire service is on the same page, when that couldn’t be farther from the truth. He forgot about the little guy a long time ago, dating back to his days as president of the NVFC. He has spent so much time looking for the national limelight, touring the country in many capacities for whichever organization will have him and espousing the painfully obvious. Along the way, he has gotten out of touch with the “local” issues that matter to US. Buckman has become a shill for a top-heavy bureaucratic approach to the fire service. He believes that if he says it is so, then it must be so. His hand has not been on the pulse of the fire service for over a decade. He simply re-cycles and re-packages the same, tired analogies for problems that most of us have known for years!
I will close with a message to the “John Buckmans” in the fire service: if you want fire departments to embrace conceptual/theoretical management tools, then work to get buy in at the BEGINNING of the process and not after funding is being slashed for core essentials.
Funding a NIMS Integration Center is shameful when fire stations across the nation are closing, due to a lack of funding. Let me be clear; I AM NOT OPPOSED to a National Incident Management System. I am opposed to re-prioritizing issues that have been on the table for several years and are no closer to resolution than when they were first proposed.
Make no mistake; we have no choice but to embrace NIMS. No less than the President of the United States has said so!
I spoke with my good friend at our state fire service institute and he assures me that Illinois will adopt NIMS and soon. Currently, staff is teaching unified command concepts. And from what I gather, NIMS will be next. I only hope that it is at no charge and will not require local funding for specialized equipment.
I take solace in knowing that the cops are going to have a tough time with NIMS. At least, the fire service has been practicing shared command/unified command in the aftermath of 9/11. And just so you understand; ALL public safety agencies MUST adopt NIMS!
As you have seen, I have some strong opinions. Unfortunately, it really doesn’t matter in this case. We can’t contact our elected officials and tell them to vote “no”. We can’t appeal this directive. We have to comply.
And if my trusted friend at the state institute says that we have the resources in our state to do it, then that’s good enough for me.
I feel better knowing that we could have this talk. Thanks for listening.
And stay safe above all else!
The article as submitted is published under The Adventures of Jake and Vinnie© umbrella and is the intellectual property of Art Goodrich a.k.a. xchief22 and ChiefReason. It is protected by federal copyright laws and cannot be re-printed in any form without expressed permission from the author.
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