Street Smart Fire Officer

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Becoming an officer is a daunting task. Becoming a good officer on the fireground is even harder. This group will concentrate on Fireground operations and the decisions that fire officers of all ranks make. I will post scenarios and ask question.
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Is it safe to say that the Incident Managemet System (IMS) is used the same way in your department.

by Skip Coleman

Feb 9, 2009

In my Second edition on page 1, I give my definition of IMS. to me, IMS is a Standard way opf operating at all incidents that your department responds to. Paid departments have different shifts ot platoons and on volunteer departments, there can be different people running different "jobs". Is it standard and done the same way in your department and if not, how do you overcome the disparities?
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    Shareef Abdu Nur

    IMS is a very good system. It has been proven to save lives and increase efficiency when it is implemented and followed. I recently went to a mutual aid fire in 2.5 story bungalow about 1500 sq ft. On scene there were 3 Eng Co's with 4 members each, 1 Tower Co with 4 members, 1 Rescue Co with 3 members, 3 Chiefs, 3 Assistant Chiefs, and 3 Investigators. I was never clear on which Chief was Command, but we got orders from every white helmet there. It was complete chaos. No Chief ever announced that he was Command. Thank God no one was hurt or missing. So, IMS is very good when it is implemented and followed.

    Sep 28, 2009

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    Skip Coleman

    Hopefully, you are young enough and can wait the "older" chiefs out. Protect yourself and your crew and when the time is right, make the changes to make it work. It's a horrible way to do business but sometimes it's all you can do.

    Sep 28, 2009

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    Shareef Abdu Nur

    yes, I would say that IMS is implemented the same way at my career and part time Fire Departments. EMS incidents may not require the depth of IMS that Fire, HAZMAT, or resuce incidents require but a scaled down version of IMS is always in place.

    Nov 24, 2009