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Operations Command

An action framework of incident command system for Bangladesh armed forces in emergency response(part-2)

   CHAPTER 2

EVOLUTION OF INCIDENT  COMMAND SYSTEM (ICS)

2.1 Incident Command System (ICS)

ICS is a standardized on-scene incident management concept designed specifically to allow responders to adopt an integrated organizational structure equal to the complexity and demands of any single incident or multiple incidents without being hindered by jurisdictional boundaries. In the early 1970s, ICS was developed to manage rapidly moving wildfires and to address the following problems:

 

• Too many people reporting to one supervisor;
• Different emergency response organizational structures;
• Lack of reliable incident information;
• Inadequate and incompatible communications;
• Lack of structure for coordinated planning among agencies;
• Unclear lines of authority;
• Terminology differences among agencies; and
• Unclear or unspecified incident objectives.

 

An ICS enables integrated communication and planning by establishing a manageable span of control. An ICS divides an emergency response into five manageable functions essential for emergency response operations: Command, Operations, Planning, Logistics, and Finance and Administration. Figure 1 below shows a typical ICS structure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 2.1: Incident Command System Structure (Source: National Incident Management System of USA, December 2008) 9

2.2 History of the Incident Command System (ICS)

 

Historically the origins of the Incident Command System are from the Military Reorganization Act of 1920. After returning from World War I, General's Pershing and March completely revamped how the entire United States military effort was organized. During World War I there were approximately 20 separate bureaucracies that had to be dealt with during any part of the conflict. This cumbersome organizational structure was a severe impediment for the conduct of the war and they sought an organizational structure to streamline the process of military management. This extensive reorganization and streamlining led to the creation of the military G-1, G-2, G-3 and G-4 system that went into effect in all branches of the military service.

 

It was used to organize and march armies across Europe and the Pacific Ocean during World War II and it is still in use today. In the early 1970's, a national project known as FIRESCOPE was convened to try and come up with an organizational system for fighting multi-state forest fires. When this group began to look around for a system that would manage large-scale critical incidents they began to examine the United States military. The military, by its very definition, is always in the emergency management business. So where better to look then at a system that was very effective in crisis management for well over 50 years? The FIRESCOPE group realized that the G 1-4 organizational structure was a proven tool with a solid track record in the management of the large, quick moving and sometime chaotic events of warfare; and it was adopted by the FIRESCOPE project and named the Incident Command System (ICS). ICS then quickly became the nationally recommended standard for all fire departments as an organizational system to use for management of large-scale critical incident events. Now many countries in the world they adopted this system in their disaster management plan. The Government of Bangladesh has recently incorporated the Incident Command System in the revised "Standing Order on Disaster (SOD) 2010". Therefore this system now become mandatory for all governmental organizations including military administration for formulating respective action framework basing on the ICS context.

 

2.3 Some key points on ICS

The ICS has contained many key personal and they have their own role and responsibilities which are mentioned below:

• The Incident Commander is faced with many responsibilities when he/she arrives on scene. Unless specifically assigned to another member of the 10

Command or General Staffs, these responsibilities remain with the IC. Some of the more complex responsibilities include:

 

About the Author

The Author is a military professional (Major) and presently serving under Bangladesh Army, he is experienced on emergency response operations during natural disaster .He is also expert on crisis management.  He served under UN peacekeeping mission in CONGO (DRC). He has completed Masters Degree on Disaster Management from BRAC University a renowned NGO based University in Bangladesh.

Are Haiti earthquake relief operations coordinated under UN command, US command, or seperate?

I've heard that the coordination for supplies and getting them where they need to go has not been done to the best of its ability, so I'd like to know who to blame.

-I've seen articles which claim that all operations are under UN command, so why these headlines about Haitian anger at the US for not getting things where they need to be when that is actually overseen by the UN?

The UN, as usual is bumbling, people are starving and thirsting. The Navy had to drop supplies into the people any way they could and that was by chopper from the USS Vinson. What about all the doctors heading out at night and leaving their patients in limbo. Some are ready for surgery, others recovering from surgery and they just up and leave and this was coordinated by the UN, they couldn't even provide them security. The UN, what a waste

MARSOC-Special Operations Command