Incident Command System
The Incident Command System (ICS) is an organizational system for the
management of emergency incidents and non-emergency events. The system was
developed in the 1970's in response to problems that occurred in fighting
several major wild land fires in California. Multiple agencies responding to
the fires lacked common terminology, action plans, and communications. The
ICS was developed with a common organization structure and standardized
management principles, so that multiple response agencies would be able to
work effectively together.
ICS is being adopted by more and more groups. It is required by federal law
to be used now in HazMat incidents, and many states are adopting it as their
standard. Understanding the basic system is important for us as Auxiliarists
who might be called on to assist in emergencies.
Basic courses
(IS-100, IS-700, and more) can be taken through FEMA's Independent Study
Program at
http://training.fema.gov/EMIweb/IS/crslist.asp .
