Every year, various emergencies cause damage, whether on government, company, or private property. In some instances, people also lose their lives. Such losses, therefore, tend to have serious outcomes for the communities and organizations. It is important to understand that these cases are not entirely helpless ( Jensen and Waugh, 2014 ). The government and communities can mitigate the impact of emergencies and restore normalcy to day-to-day operations after a given amount of time, depending on the seriousness of the emergency. Developing an elaborate emergency response plan that offers the required framework for managing severe events is arguably the most effective way of limiting the effects of disasters and creating an environment in which operations can go back to normal. In the event of a fire emergency, while the main role of firefighters would be to prevent death and reduce the damage to property, a well-designed emergency plan helps to limit the probability of liability for an organization. This paper describes the Incident Command System mostly in the context of the firefighting profession.
During a crisis situation, there is a need for any organization to have an effective communication and management strategy. At least one individual has to be recognized as being responsible, and priorities have to be set. Also, there is a need for control and direction in order to avoid disputes during an ongoing emergency situation ( Jensen and Waugh, 2014 ). Today, there is a recognized structure with a pre-established chain-of-command which is to be followed during an emergency. Unlike most of the previous emergency response systems, this system uses common terms that are both decisive and descriptive, while at the same time quite easy to understand. This attribute of the terminology used in ICS helps to control communications, resources, and personnel at the location of the emergency.
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An Incident Command can be described as a management system that is particularly designed to provide response in case of a natural disaster, calamity, or emergency. An Incident Command is relevant in any geographical location including cities, states, factories, or even areas where there is scares human settlement such as forests. The main objective of an Incident Command is to create liaise between various emergency departments ( Jensen and Waugh, 2014 ). In most instances, the main purpose of ICS is to offer the place where the emergency has occurred with support staff, commonly referred to as emergency respondents. In the case of fires, the respondents include firefighting, medical and law enforcement agencies as well as other relevant state or national emergency respondents. Professional firefighters undergo training to handle fire emergencies, appropriate methods of operations, strategic planning that even needs to be carried out as effectively as planned, finance, logistics, and administration. It is important to note, however, that the occurrence of emergency does not necessarily require all these elements to be used. In some cases, only some of them are required to respond to an emergency.
The ICS was introduced in the early 1970s after several major forest fires Southern California raised a series of problems for emergency respondents. Some of the problems included the lack of capacity to expand, and contract are need by the circumstances of the emergency, unmanageable span of control, nonintegrated and nonstandard communications, and nonstandard technology ( Buck et al., 2006 ). It follows that ICS was initially a fire service control system even though it has been borrowed by a variety of local, state and national law enforcement and emergency management agencies because of the success it has had over the past four decades. Currently, it is applied as the model emergency system. Additionally, ICS procedures have been found to be effective in managing emergencies in such contexts as industry, business, and government. As a recognition of the efficiency of this system, it has been recommended by the American Public Works Association and the International Chiefs of Police.
The ICS is a component of the National Incident Management System (NIMS), which is applied at every jurisdictional level and all functional disciplines ( Buck et al., 2006 ). NIMS is supposed to offer a shared standard for general incident management, enhance partnership and coordination between private and public entities in incident management activities, and be adaptable in all hazards and incidents regardless of complexity or geographical location.
Importance of ICS to Professional Firefighters
The success of a firefighting squad, like any other organization, does not happen by chance or blind luck. Every firefighter in the team must be dedicated and understand most aspects of the Incident Command System. Otherwise, it is likely that the team will experience failures even in relatively less serious emergency cases ( Jensen and Waugh, 2014 ). A professional firefighter needs to understand that good management is the key to success in cases of management, and this is the main reason why ICS exists.
An Incident Command is particularly important to professional firefighters because it is specially formulated to respond to fire emergency cases. In the event that there is a major fire, which is one that would require the presence of firefighters, the main aim of the Incident Command is to bring about coordination between the various emergency agencies ( Jensen and Waugh, 2014 ). A professional firefighter needs to understand the ICS because given their role in such an emergency, they are the center of the partnership between these agencies. The ICS would provide the professional firefighter with the guidelines which enable them to mitigate the damage and loss caused by the event.
Any state or location needs to have an effective and well-designed Incident Command System in order for emergency respondents to take proper and corrective measures in a prompt manner without letting the damage get worse. The government has standardized the ICS, which calls for professional firefighters to follow the proper steps for damage control as indicated. To accomplish this, this group needs a lot of training.
References
Buck, D. A., Trainor, J. E., & Aguirre, B. E. (2006). A critical evaluation of the incident command system and NIMS. Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management , 3 (3).
Jensen, J., & Waugh, W. L. (2014). The United States' Experience with the Incident Command System: What We Think We Know and What We Need to Know More About. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management , 22 (1), 5-17.
