A unified command structure, as will be soon needed in our fire scenario, can consist of a key responsible official from each jurisdiction in a multi-jurisdictional situation, or it can consist of several functional departments within a single political jurisdiction such as Law, Health and Fire. In our fire situation, there are two towns and a city involved, as well as several county fire departments, and two law agencies. Under the unified command these are the items of cooperation:
ICS terminology, as given in the basic ICS familiarization course (ICS-I-120 Self Paced) lists a glossary of 70 phrases or terms the ICS responder should study. Some are meaningful chiefly to fire responders, such as Water Tender, Air Tanker and Engine. Communications responders who may become involved with a fire response should study and become familiar with ALL the terms. For other ICS applications, that may not be needed, but there are essential terms ALL communications responders need to know thoroughly. Some of the essential terms have been covered in describing our scenario: Incident Commander, Staging Area, Operations Section Chief, Logistics Section Chief, Incident Command Post, Incident Base, Planning Section Chief, Liaison Officer and Communications Unit Leader. More ICS terms in the next bulletin. To subscribe to bulletins send a blank email to [email protected] or go to www.cesra.org/subscribe/ Submit suggestions, topics or comments on the bulletins to Cary Mangum, State ACS Officer, California. (W6WWW), [email protected] or [email protected] Bulletins archives: ACS Web page: acs.oes.ca.gov, ftp.ucsd.edu/emcomm or ftp.oes.ca.gov/ACS/EMCOMM and a Landline BBS at 916-255-0798 (graphical & standard interface) EOM |