1. ICS
I-300
NSF Logo
Introduction to audience.

2. NJ/NIIMS Incident Command System Basic Training Program
LEVEL #1
ICS
Orientation
I-100
Basic #2
Principles
& Features #3
Organization
Overview #4
Facilities
#5 Resource
Status
Keeping #6
Common
Responsibilities
I-200
Intermediate #7
Organization
& Staffing #8
Organizing
for Incidents #9
Resource
Management
#10
Air
Operations
#11 Incident
& Event
Planning
I-300
Advanced
#12 General
& Command
Staff
#13
Unified
Command
#14 Major
Incident
Management
#15
Area
I-400
#16
Multiagency
Coordination
I-401
#17
ICS for
Executives
I-402

3. ICS EVOLUTION Training Curriculum Instructor Criteria Forms Catalog
I-300 LESSON: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
ICS EVOLUTION
FIRESCOPE Task Force ICS
NIIMS ICS
Training Curriculum
Instructor Criteria
Forms Catalog
Q: How did the Incident Command System develop?
A: ICS resulted from the need for a new approach to the problems involved in managing rapidly moving wildfires in the early 1970s. ICS was developed by an interagency task force working in a cooperative local, state, & federal interagency effort called FIRESCOPE (Firefighting Resources of California Organized for Potential Emergencies). In 1980, the ICS that was originally developed in California under the FIRESCOPE program made the transition into a national program called NIIMS (National Interagency Incident Management System). NIIMS has become the predominant public domain response management system in use nationwide for a variety of emergency incidents. NIIMS ICS has several components, including a training curriculum, instructor criteria, a qualification system, etc.
The Standard Oil Spill Response Management System (STORMS) Task Force comprised of reps from USCG, CA Dept of Fish & Game/Office of Oil Spill Prevention & Response, petroleum industry, oil spill response industry, and local governmental agencies produced the Oil Spill Field Operations Guide (FOG), a reference tool to guide responders in forming a response management system for oil spills based on NIIMS ICS. It should be stressed here that the FOG is just that - a “Field Guide” - a tool to supplement the NIIMS ICS package, not a stand alone NIIMS ICS reference document. Specific training in NIIMS ICS is required for effective implementation.

4. ICS ENDORSEMENT FEMA NFPA NWCG USCG DOD OSHA NFA CDF NJDFS NJSP
Q: Which agencies have endorsed/adopted the use of ICS?
A: ICS applications and users have steadily increased since the system’s original development. The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA’s) National Fire Academy (NFA) has adopted ICS as a model system for fire services. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) calls for the use of ICS in their Standards (NFPA Standards 1405 & 1500). The Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) mandates the use of ICS in HAZMAT incidents, while the EPA, DOD and the NRT (National Response Team) also endorse ICS (and Unified Command) for responding to oil & HAZMAT pollution incidents under the NCP. The 15 other agencies of the NRT have endorsed a NIIMS-based ICS in the NRT ICS/UC Technical Assistance Document. The National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) has formally adopted ICS for use by all federal and state wildfire management organizations, including the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF). Finally, the USCG Marine Safety Field has officially adopted NIIMS ICS for response to oil and hazardous substance incidents in accordance with COMDTINST dtd 9 FEB 96.
USCG “M” units for ICS assistance and expertise include:
G-MOR: P.O.C. = LCDR Mark
NSF: P.O.C. = LT Tina

5. MODULE 7 ICS ORGANIZATION AND STAFFING
NOTE TO INSTRUCTOR: ENSURE THAT YOU HAVE READ AND FULLY UNDERSTAND ALL THE POINTS IN THE MODULE 7 INSTRUCTORS GUIDE. THE STUDENTS MAY HAVE ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS THAT ARE NOT SPECIFICALLY ADDRESSED IN THIS PRESENTATION.
This Module is designed as a self-paced, comprehensive description of the responsibilities of the elements within each section of the ICS organization.
You should have already reviewed this Module as part of the pre-work for this class.
In order to ensure that the entire class is at the same level we will conduct or short review of the Module Objectives followed by some Q&A on the major points in the module.
Any questions before I begin?

6. MODULE 7 OBJECTIVES
Match responsibilities to ICS organizational elements
Tell when and how to use deputies & assistants
Describe the use of technical specialists and agency reps
+ At the conclusion of this module the student should be able to:
1. Evaluate a task and determine which ICS organizational element would be responsible to carry out that tasking. Simply put the student should be able to match the job with the ICS element that is supposed to carry it out.
2. Determine which positions can have deputies assigned and which positions would have assistants. Convey the difference between a deputy and an assistant and know what restrictions, if any, there are for the two positions.
3. Explain the use of technical specialists in an ICS organization and list some of the common tech specialists you might find on a response.

7. MODULE 7 OBJECTIVES Cont.
Describe reporting relationships and information flow in an ICS organization
Describe the process for setting objectives in an ICS organization
CONT.
At the conclusion of this module the student should be able to:
4. Emphasize the organizational relationships between the various elements in an ICS organization and how information flows between those elements.
5. Explain how objectives are set within an ICS organization.

8. ICS JEOPARDY
To begin our review we are going to play a quick Jeopardy style game to get everyone thinking about some of the important concepts in this module.
Lets break the class down into four groups and then we’ll go over the rules of the game.
Have an instructor assigned as a spotter and a scorekeeper,

9. RULES FOR JEOPARDY Answer must be in the form of a question
One point for a correct answer
Minus two points if incorrect
Losing group has to take instructor to lunch
Briefly discuss the rules of the game as they appear on the screen.

10. LETS PLAY JEOPARDY!

11. A: The person who sets objectives for the incident.
Q: Who is the Incident Commander
Explain that for an incident with an IC vice a Unified Command, the IC would be the person who set the objectives for the incident. In the case of a Unified Command approach where there is more than one agency with a statutory requirement to oversee the incident the objectives would be set jointly by the members of the Unified Command.

12. A: ICS positions that can have deputies.
Q: What are the IC, General Staff and Branch Level positions?
Refer students to the definition of a Deputy on page 10-4 of the FOG glossary. Highlight the fact that the Deputy must be fully qualified in the position for which he/she is assigned.
Also refer the students to the definition of an Assistant on page 10-2 of the FOG glossary. Ensure the students understand the distinction between a Deputy and an Assistant.

13. A: Liaison, Safety & Information Officers
Q: What are the Command Staff positions
Briefly describe the three most common Command Staff positions and using the next slide show where they fit in the ICS organization.
Safety Officer: responsible for monitoring and assessing safety hazards or unsafesituations.
Information Officer: responsible for interfacing with the public and media or with other agencies requiring info on the incident or event.
Liaison: responsible for coordinating with representatives from cooperating and assisting agencies.

14. COMMAND STAFF POSITIONS
Incident
Commander
(IC)
Safety
Officer
Info
Officer
Liaison
Officer
Other less common Command Staff positions may include a Legal Officer or a Human Relations Specialist.

15. A: Operations, Planning, Logistics & Finance Section Chiefs
Q: What are the General Staff positions?
Describe the four General Staff positions and using the next slide show where they fit into the ICS organization.

16. GENERAL STAFF POSITIONS
Incident
Commander
(IC)
Ensure the students understand that if the IC doesn’t specifically assign these positions that he/she is responsible for carrying out their duties.
Operations
Planning
Logistics
Finance

17. A: The name used to describe geographic areas of an incident.
Q: What are Divisions?
Describe when an incident might need to be broken down into geographic divisions. Use an example like a river area or large shoreline area with impacts over a great distance that would need to be broken down into Divisions.
Mention that Divisions are designated with a capital letter such as Div A or Div B.

18. A: The title used to describe an ICS component with a functional responsibility.
Q: What is a Group?
Explain that Groups are designated and given a functional responsibility. Give some examples such as a Salvage Group or EMS Group.
Explain that groups can operate or be tasked with missions in several Divisions or geographic areas at an incident.

19. A: The title of a person in charge of a division or group.
Q: What is a supervisor?
Briefly describe the use of titles in the ICS organization and how that helps clearly define the chain of command.
Incident Commander
Branch Director
Section Chief
Division or Group Supervisor
Unit, Task Force or Strike Team Leader

20. ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
INCIDENT COMMAND
“COMMANDER”
“OFFICER”
COMMAND STAFF
FINANCE
OPERATIONS
PLANNING
LOGISTICS
“CHIEF”
/ ADMIN.
“DIRECTOR”
BRANCH
BRANCH
BRANCH
GROUP
DIVISION
“SUPERVISOR”
DISCUSS THE USE OF TITLES AT THE VARIOUS LEVELS IN THE ICS ORGANIZATION.
SINGLE RESOURCE
UNITS WITHIN
PLANNING,
LOGISTICS, FINANCE
ADMIN SECTIONS
TASK FORCES
“LEADER”
STRIKE TEAMS

21. A: The Section Chief who is responsible for staging areas.
Q: Who is the Operations Section Chief?
Mention that each staging area will have a manager who answers directly to the Operations Section Chief. The purpose of the manager is to have an individual who is responsible to organize staged resources in a such a manner that they can be effectively utilized at the incident.
Staging areas can be used in a variety of ways including staging specific types of resources together or having backup equipment readily available in the event of a mechanical breakdown.

22. A: Single Resources, Task Forces, ICS Strike Teams
Q: What are the three ways to organize and use ground resources on an incident?
Discuss the three ways to use resources on an incident.
Single resources: An individual, a piece of equipment and it’s personnel complement or a crew or team of individuals with an identified supervisor that can be used on an incident.
Task force: A group of resources with common communications and a leader, assembled for a specific mission.
Strike Force: A group of like resources with common communications and a leader, assembled for a specific mission.

23. A: The Resources, Situation, Demobilization and Documentation Units.
Q: What are the four units of the Planning Section?

24. A: The unit that oversees the check-in of all incident resources.
Q: What is the Resources Unit?
Describe how the Resources Unit Leader might use check-in recorders to capture resources arriving at various locations on an incident. Give examples of where a check-in recorder might be used such as a staging area, the ICP or a route into the incident.

25. A: The unit that provides all duplication services.
Q: What is the Documentation Unit?
Explain that this unit is responsible for providing duplication services for the incident.

26. Q: What is a Technical Specialist?
A: The Scientific Support Coordinator is an example of this position type.
Q: What is a Technical Specialist?
Give other examples of Technical Specialists such as:
Sampling Specialists
Responder Training Specialists
Alternative Response Technology Specialists
ICS Technical Specialist
Archeologist
Legal Specialists
Pipeline Specialists
Product Specialists
Disposal/Decon Specialists

27. Technical Specialists Documentation Unit Leader
PLANNING SECTION
Operations
Planning
Logistics
Finance
Resource Unit
Leader
Technical Specialists
Situation Unit
Leader
Briefly go over the four subunits of the Planning Section.
Resource Unit Leader: Responsible for tracking all resources assigned to the incident.
Situation Unit Leader: Responsible for collecting, processing, displaying and analyzing information pertinent to the incident. Uses numerous resources to accomplish this tasking. Field observers are used extensively by this section to gather information.
Documentation Unit Leader: Responsible for documenting all aspects of the response to satisfy operational, fiscal and fiduciary ($) concerns.
Demobilization Unit Leader: Responsible to ensure that a logical demobilization process is developed and followed.
Documentation Unit Leader
Demobilization
Unit Leader

28. A: The Support and Service Branches fall under this section.
Q: What is the Logistics Section?

29. A: The position that the Comms Unit Leader works for.
Q: Who is the Logistics Section Chief?
The Communications Unit falls under the Service Branch of the Logistics Section If the organization is not complex enough to require the use of branches, the comms unit leader will work directly for the Logistics Section Chief.

30. LOGISTICS SECTION Operations Planning Logistics Finance Support Branch
SUPPLY
Support Branch
FACILITIES
GRND
Service
Branch
Briefly go over the Branches and Units that fall under the Logistics Section. Highlight the use of a Vessel/Ground Support unit as an example of how the ICS organization is flexible enough to accomodate other agencies such as the CG. Refer students to page 7-1 of the FOG.
COMMS
MEDICAL
FOOD

31. A: This unit ensures accurate tracking of personnel hours.
Q: What is the Time unit?

32. FINANCE/ADMIN SECTION
Operations
Planning
Logistics
Finance
Time Unit
Cost Unit
Describe the four units under the Finance Section and give a brief description of what each is responsible for.
Time Unit: Equipment and personnel time recording.
Cost Unit: Collects all cost data, determines cost effectiveness of response options, provides cost estimates and cost saving recommendations for the incident.
Claims Unit: Manages all aspects of damage and injury claims associated with the incident.
Procurement Unit: Administers all financial matters pertaining to vendor contracts.
Claims Unit
Proc. Unit

33. Q: What is the Incident Command Post or ICP?
A: The facility where the General Staff are located to carry out their primary duties.
Q: What is the Incident Command Post or ICP?
Explain that there is only one ICP. In ICS there is a specific definition (page 10-7 of the FOG) of what the ICP is and there can be only one. Other facilites may be located at the incident but should not be called ICP’s to avoid confusion.

34. FINAL JEOPARDY

35. A: NIIMS
Q: What is the acronym for the National Interagency Incident Management System?
COMDTINST adopted NIIMS ICS in February of 1996 as the response management system for the CG.

36. SETTING OBJECTIVES IN THE RESPONSE ORGANIZATION

37. $ C O S T $
$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $
.The steps of spill management can be described using the acronym “cost”. The acronym “cost” is appropriate because the environmental, economic and other costs escalate if the steps are not followed.

38. Constraints Objectives--What Strategy--How Tactics--Tasks
The constraints on the IC/UC drive the objectives. Objectives are addressed by strategy. Tactics implement the selected strategy or strategies.

39. Constraints Objectives Strategy Tactics
In this particular module we will address objectives. Future modules will address constraints, strategy and tactics.

40. What you want to achieve for this response
“OBJECTIVES”
What you want to achieve for this response

41. RESPONSE OBJECTIVES Why Develop?
Communicate what you want to accomplish during the response
Objectives become the basis for all response activities
It is imperative that the IC or UC be able to effectively communicate to the response organization what they want accomplished. If objectives are developed properly they will address all stakeholder’s concerns and be prioritized by the IC or UC.
Once developed, objectives become the basis for all response activities. In other words, they “DRIVE” the response.

42. GOOD OBJECTIVES ICS: “SMART”: Attainable Measurable Flexible Specific
Assignable
Reasonable
Time-specific
NIIMS suggests that effective objectives should be Attainable, Measurable and Flexible.
Another good way to remember objectives is that they should be SMART. Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Reasonable and Time-Specific. For example, protectively boom the two sensitive areas in Division A by 1800.

43. Use early but be careful !
CHECKLIST
Use early
but
be careful !
One method of quickly establishing objectives is to have a generic checklist of objectives that are common to most incidents.
Refer students to the back cover of the FOG as an example of generic response objectives. Several of those come directly from the NCP.
When using generic objectives be careful not to overlook any important objectives that may be peculiar to your response and to customize the objectives by adding details so the response organization will understand exactly what you want to accomplish.

44. INFORMATION FLOW
If this is how information about the incident gets out you are doing something wrong!

45. FLOW OF INFORMATION:
To the extent possible, must be complete freedom for flow of information within organization
Orders, directives, resource requests, and status changes must follow the hierarchy of command unless otherwise directed
+The ICS organizational framework is open for individuals to freely supply and exchange information.
Examples:
(1) Food Unit Leader can directly contact the Resources Unit to determine the number of persons requiring feeding.
(2) Cost Unit Leader may discuss alternative (cost saving) strategies directly with the Planning Section Chief.
(3)A Division Supervisor may directly contact the S.U.L. to pass info on an environmental hazard in the division.
+The flow of orders and directives in an ICS organization must follow a specific route.
(1) A Division Supervisor requesting fuel for resources in the Division would pass the request through the Branch Director or Operations Section Chief to ensure that fuel requests are consolidated before going to Logistics Section.
(2) The Ops Section Chief in a Branch org would pass directives to change the status of resources via the Bramch Director to ensure the Director is kept informed of resource status changes.
(3) The Situation Unit Leader would request additional personnel via the Planning Section Chief to ensure that any available personnel already working in the Planning section are utilized.

46. MODULE 7 OBJECTIVES
Match responsibilities to ICS organizational elements
Tell when and how to use deputies & assistants and their roles
Describe the use of Technical Specialists and Agency Reps

47. MODULE 7 OBJECTIVES Cont.
Describe reporting relationships and information flow in an ICS organization
Demonstrate the process for setting objectives in an ICS organization

48. ?
Ask if the students have any questions that you can answer.