In our last bulletin the fire chief (as Incident Commander - responsible for all incident operations) appointed several positions in response to the need for a rapidly expanded operation. Why did he do that during the escalating fire?
He acted timely to get the organization in place to respond to the emerging disaster. He acted with forethought; that is, he began use of ICS in a way that can handle the situation.
The Operations Section Chief designates a STAGING AREA (in the county fair grounds) and a Staging Area Manager to check in all incoming resources and dispatch them at the request of the Operations Chief. Incoming personnel will go to the STAGING AREA (a temporary location where incident personnel and equipment are assigned on a three (3) minute available status.)
The Liaison Officer sets up a receiving position on the tailgate of a truck as the single point of contact for the arriving representatives from OTHER agencies (i.e., State agencies, National Guard, State Military, etc.) This is their initial point of contact at the INCIDENT COMMAND POST (the location where primary command functions are executed; usually colocated with INCIDENT BASE, which is where primary logistics functions are coordinated and administered. There is only one Base per incident.)
The Planning Section Chief has prepared an Incident Action Plan; i.e., how to attack the raging storm - overall incident strategy and specific control actions for the next operational period. In other words, he's planned how to contain the fire.
Next bulletin: a look at communications.
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