Author: David W. Litton

Publisher:

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 56

ISBN-13:

The use of one of the model incident command systems has become commonplace in the American fire service. The common thread in all of these systems is that they are modular, with the organizational command staff growing as the incident grows. In large-scale incidents an Incident Management Team (IMT) is used to staff the four major areas of concern for the incident commander: operations, logistics, planning and finance. The problem was that, although the Village of University Park has an extensive emergency operations plan, there is a lack of available trained personnel to fill all of the positions of an Incident Management Team during a large-scale incident. The purpose of this research project was to determine how to staff an Incident Management Team during a large-scale emergency incident that may affect the Village of University Park. The reason that this research was important to University Park was the fact that University Park has the potential to face a large-scale incident due to natural causes (tornadoes), hazardous materials emergencies, and potential acts of terrorism in the future. The lack of an IMT, and the potential consequences, were realized by the researcher at the conclusion of the Executive Analysis of Fire Service Operations in Emergency Management, which the researcher attended at the National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg, Maryland. The research used the evaluative methodology to answer the following questions: 1. How have other fire departments staffed an incident management team during large-scale incidents? 2. Should the Village of University Park work cooperatively with surrounding fire departments, civic organizations, private industries, and volunteer organizations to staff an incident management team? 3. What should the qualifications and training be for the staff positions on the incident management team? A literature review was conducted to evaluate what had been previously published regarding incident management teams. In addition, a feedback instrument was used to gather additional information from other fire departments in the surrounding communities. This feedback instrument was instrumental in formulating several of the recommendations included in this report. The results of the research showed that other fire departments have been successful in implementing the use of IMT's on a local basis. The literature review and the feedback instrument were valuable in ascertaining the qualifications and training for team members. Five recommendations resulted from the research. In summary, they were to conduct additional research of the local fire departments with operational incident management teams, provide a copy of the research to local officials, recruit team members from within University Park and from outside sources, work cooperatively with surounding communities to develop a local area IMT, and approach the Executive Board of the Mutual Aid Box Alarm system (MABAS) about instituting a task force card in the statewide plan for the State of Illinois specifically for Incident Management Teams. [STAR#: 132607].