[KYHAM] KEN Training for March 2005: NIMS Part 2

[Ron Dodson]

NIMS Part 2:

During my time in Frankfort, March 2-4, 2005, I had a chance to discuss 
NIMS (among other things) with KyEM staff and listen to many classroom 
talks on how it is believed that NIMS will change our program. My thanks 
to Pat Conley, Steve Oglesby, Homer Druin, Chuck Bogart, Jeff Frodge, 
Jill Roberts, Bob Stephens, Ky OHS’s Logan Weiler III, Justice Training 
Cabinet’s Shawn Herron and county EMA Directors: Jack Donovan and Gary 
Epperson for some interesting thoughts and perspectives on NIMS and many 
other issues. Kentucky is so fortunate to have people of their caliber.

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After reading last month’s KEN training on the new National Management 
System, you might ask, “Is NIMS, ICS on steroids?” Well, in a way, yes 
and no! As with anything, change will come to all things and NIMS is one 
of those changes.

While ICS and Kentucky’s “Unified Command” structure has been with us 
for years and we have grown used to working under it on incidents, NIMS 
takes several steps farther into management overall and not just for the 
incident of the moment. Let’s examine the similarity and what is 
changing in the move toward a national system.


ICS has always had the following:

    * Common terminology. (NIMS is moving toward a national standard for
      terminology. What a piece of equipment or a response position is
      called in New England, will now be the same in Los Angeles. Plain
      English will be replacing codes and special designators that are
      area specific.)

    * Organizational resources. (NIMS is going to establish standards
      for what resources are by type and capability. Equipment,
      responder physical and educational qualifications etc., will all
      fall under this umbrella.)

    * Manageable span of control. This element will stay at 5 responders
      to one supervisor as an optimum just as it was under the old ICS.)
      What is interesting to me was that Law Enforcement has a span of
      control of 1:10 under NIMS while all others stay as described
      above at 1:7 (with 1:5 being optimum.)

    * Organizational facilities. (Common terminology is also used to
      define incident facilities, help clarify the activities that take
      place at a specific facility, and identify what members of the
      organization can be found there.)

    * Use of position titles. (Under NIMS, ICS positions have distinct
      titles.

þ Only the Incident Commander is called “Commander”— and there is only 
one Incident Commander per incident. Only the heads of Sections are 
called “Chiefs”.

    * Reliance on an Incident Action Plan. (For those of us used to the
      old Kentucky ICS, this will not change all that much. We have
      always had the requirement to have an IAP when working any haz-mat
      under Annex Q. IAPs depend on management by objectives to
      accomplish response tactics. These objectives are communicated
      throughout the organization and are used to:

þ Develop and issue assignments, plans, procedures, and protocols.

þ Direct efforts to attain the objectives in support of defined 
strategic objectives)

    * Integrated communications. (This will cover not iony RADIO
      communications, but ALL communications during an incident or large
      scale operation. Communications needs for large incidents may
      exceed available radio frequencies. Some incidents may be
      conducted entirely without radio support. In such situations,
      other communications resources (e.g., cell phones or secure phone
      lines) may be the only communications methods used to coordinate
      communications and to transfer large amounts of data effectively.

    * Accountability. (Accountability has always been a factor under
      Kentucky’s ICS. Chain of command and responder check-in procedures
      will not change. What will change is the NIMS ability to manage
      other scales and types of operations such as multi-scene
      operations. The TRANSFER OF COMMAND is also spelled out under NIMS.

As I said earlier, Unified Command has always been a part of Kentucky 
ICS. What will be added is AREA COMMAND which will:

þ Oversee the management of multiple incidents that are each being 
managed by an ICS organization.

þ Oversee the management of large incidents that cross jurisdictional 
boundaries.

Area Commands are particularly relevant to public health emergencies and 
bio-terrorism events because these incidents are typically:

þ Non-site specific.

þ Not immediately identifiable.

þ Geographically dispersed and evolve over time.

An Area Command is organized similar to a conventional ICS structure 
but, because operations are conducted on-scene, there is no Operations 
Section in an Area Command. Other Sections and functions are represented 
in an Area Command structure. An Area Command has the responsibility for:

þ Setting overall strategy and priorities.

þ Allocating critical resources according to the priorities.

þ Ensuring that incidents are properly managed.

þ Ensuring that objectives are met.

þ Ensuring that strategies are followed.

An Area Command may become a Unified Area Command when incidents are 
multi-jurisdictional or involve multiple agencies.

Some other changes are in the 5 Functional Areas: NIMS retains the 
Command, Operations, Planning, Logistics and Admin/Finance and adds a 
6th Function, Intelligence. As Pat Conley explained, Intelligence can 
be; a separate function, a part of op’s, a part of the planning section 
or as a command function. Probably, this is mostly used in WMD/Terrorist 
events. The “Sectors” branch of ICS is eliminated under NIMS. Remember 
the old; “Divisions”, “Groups” and “Sectors” under span of control? No 
longer do “Division” and “Group” span of control have to be maxed-out 
before adding additional resources. The IC now has more flexibility to 
expand in a major operation.

Once the National Incident Management Integration Center is up and 
running at full steam, things will become more clear. Kentucky also has 
a NIMS working group that is looking at the best way to implement NIMS 
and train everyone to best use it. As progress is made, we will learn 
more. INIMS is coming! We need to be ready. f you have not already done 
so, I ask that DEC’s, EC’s their assistants and even ground floor ARES 
operators go take the IS-700 and IS-800 free home study courses.

To access these, go to these URL’s:

IS 700 - National Incident Management System (NIMS), An Introduction

http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/is700.asp

and also: IS-800 National Response Plan (NRP), an Introduction 
http://training.fema.gov/emiweb/is/is800.asp