The Evolution of ICS to NIMS
Introduction
A disaster can strike at anytime and when it does, it can bring untold woes to the country and the population. It can claim the lives of many and destroy houses and infrastructures. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 is an example of a costly disaster and so was the 9/11 terrorist attacks on mainland USA. It is important that in such times a comprehensive disaster program is put in place to minimize their impact. For this reason the Incident Command System was created in the 1970s in the aftermath of the California wildfires and the National Incident Management System in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Both these systems are geared towards the prevention, minimization and quick recovery in times of disasters through well-coordinated and efficient efforts of various government agencies.
The Origin of ICS
ICS, which stands for Incident Command System, originated in the 1970s in the aftermath of several wildfires that ravaged parts of southern California. The system in place then for responding to incidents was dependent on the methods adopted by local agencies, such as the local Fire Department. The magnitude of the California wildfires, however, exposed the weakness of this approach. Local methods failed to prevent the loss of 16 lives, the destruction of 700 structures and the damage to more than one-half million acres of land when wildfires devastated the region for 13 days. The incident highlighted the weakness in coordination and communication between agencies that resulted in the failure to contain the wildfires (FEMA 2004). Congress immediately called for a coordinated response to such fires resulting in the collaboration of several agencies at various levels to form the Firefighting Resources of California Organized for Potential Resources or FIRESCOPE (Molino 2006, p. 198) with two major components: ICS and the Multi-Agency Coordination System or MACS. Eventually, FIRESCOPE ICS was refined and its use broadened to non-fire incidents, such as earthquakes, airplane crashes and floods. Its use also widened to other parts of the country and in 1982, its documentation was amended and adopted as the National Interagency Incident Management System (NIIMS). The standardized yet flexible system offered by ICS underpinned its success and allowed others who have adopted it to modify and come out with a variant of the system (FEMA 2004; Ciottone 2006, p. 208).
The ICS, in brief, is a concept of incident management that has been adopted as a model for managing all emergency situations. Its goal is to minimize the effect of jurisdictional boundaries in responding to such situations so that responders can meet the magnitude of the exigencies without being slowed down or hindered by it. For this purpose, a typical FIRESCOPE ICS structure is composed of five divisions with Command spearheading the following divisions: Operations, Planning, Logistics, and Finance and Administration (OSHA 2010).
The Birth of NIMS ICS
In the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the US Congress created the Department of Homeland Security. In 2003, then President George Bush issued Homeland Security Presidential Directive 5, which mandated the Secretary of that Department to create and head a national response plan that will ensure domestic preparedness in times of emergencies. HSPD-5 mandated the integration of all federal emergency response systems for the purpose of enhancing and improving disaster response preparedness through a unified, comprehensive management system. The Directive also called for all federal agencies to adopt this unified management system by 2005 – a precondition for the grant of federal preparedness assistance funds to State and local governments (Infracritical 2009).
On March 1, 2004, the DHS published the final version of the National Incident Management System or NIMS. The new management system is consistent, but also flexible and is applicable in all stages of an emergency from prevention, to preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation. One of the mandates of the new system is compliance with ICS – not FIRESCOPE ICS, but NIMS ICS. Before the issuance of NIMS, ICS was deemed to be the exclusive concern of local fire departments. However, with the HSPD-5 mandate, which makes adoption of NIMS, and therefore, NIMS ICS, compulsory, all agencies are now compelled to adopt it (FEMA 2004).
FIRESCOPE ICS and NIMS ICS, however, are closely similar in all aspects except for one. As earlier indicated FIRESCOPE ICS has only five divisions or functions. NIMS ICS has also all of these functions, but a sixth function is added to it. This is the information and intelligence function, which is used to gather and share information among government agencies when an incident happens. In addition, NIMS ICS must abide by the principles and concepts imparted by various DHS training entities (FEMA 2004).
Conclusion
The ICS, whether during the FIRESCOPE era or as a component of NIMS, was created to efficiently coordinate the management of incidents that have the potential to devastate and destroy lives and property. Its goal is not only the quick mobilization of resources to minimize damage, but to prevent such disasters as well. ICS has come a long way since its inception in the 1970s. The refinements of the system through the years and especially after it was made a component of NIMS with a compulsory mandate for adoption by all agencies bring hope that future disasters in the country even if they cannot be fully prevented will have less damaging impact.
References
Ciottone, D. (2006). Disaster Medicine. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier Health Sciences.
FEMA (2004). NIMS and the Incident Command System. http://www.fema.gov/txt/nims/nims_ics_position_paper.txt
Infracritical (2009). What is ' NIMS'? NIMS
Molino, L. (2006). Emergency Incident Management Systems: Fundamentals and Applications. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
OSHA (2010). What is an Incident Command System? https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/ics/what_is_ics.html
