Washington, D.C. -The United States Fire Administration’s National Fire Academy conducted a special 2-day Incident Command System (ICS) course at their Emmitsburg campus on April 23 and 24. The class was directed to fire and law enforcement personnel in Maryland counties Frederick Carroll, and Washington; Pennsylvania counties Adams and Franklin, and was attended by over 100 people. Also attending were response personnel from Virginia and Delaware.
“When you bring together the response leadership of so many jurisdictions from across 4 states, good things happen,” said USFA Deputy Administrator Charlie Dickinson. “This educational opportunity provides these leaders a chance to explore the challenges of preparing for and responding to any major, large scale threats to the Americans they serve.”
The need for the class grew out of the NETC area’s desire to be better prepared to manage a terrorist and other large scale events in which fire and law enforcement leaders would be working side-by-side to manage an incident across local, county and state jurisdictional boundaries. The course, which is part of the NFA’s regular curriculum of courses, addressed four major areas. They were:
- Incident Command System which provided an overview of the system and some historical information on its origin.
- Incident Command Modes and Incident Action Plans which lay out the various levels of command based on the intensity of the incident as well as the development of the action plan that would be used to manage the incident.
- Incident Scene Decision Making which addressed the decision-making process that would be used at such an incident and the various factors that should be considered when making decisions.
- Emergency Operations Center which addressed the behind-the-scene process where representatives from many agencies are brought together to work collectively on support the on-scene incident commander and bringing the incident to a successfully conclusion.
For future training opportunities, visit www.usfa.fema.gov where you will find the most current course information. Enrollment for the courses starting in October 2003 is currently open. Applications must be received before June 30, 2003.
