Here is a brief synopsis on the break out training sessions attended at the 2010 All Hazard Incident Management Team (AHIMT) Conf December 7, 8 and 9th 2010. Overall the conference went well. In talking with some of the other Teams and comparing them to ours (Pierce County, WA, I feel that our Team composition is good as we are truly an All Hazard Team with members from different disciplines and not just "Fire" oriented. Approx 570 people attended the conference.
1300-1430 session- Planning Section. Identified that there is no current Core Competency training for members of EOC's, and this is something that FEMA is working on for future training. Also identified the confusion that happens sometime in using some of the ICS positions in an EOC environment (at times there is some confusion, with the main issue being to differentiate between the Command Functions/Titles in the field with Incident Command and the Coordination aspect with an EOC). Discussion was on the official changing of an EOC to an ECC [Emergency Coordination Center]. An example given was changing the Planning Section Chief title to Planning Manager/Coordinator for an ECC. Also talked on the importance of Planning and maintaining that "Situational Awareness/Common Operating Picture" for your Team. One analogy that was used that I like is, "Type 1 & 2 Teams are Critical Care units in a Trauma Center and they respond to the victims who have been packaged up and Triaged by Type 3 Teams".
1600-1700 session- Logistics and EOC/IMT Interface. I was a little disappointed in this session as the speakers talked a very basic level of the two entities and did not present new information. One aspect they did mention that in Colorado their EOC/ECC positions are tied to the 15 positions of the Emergency Support Functions, which may be a good way to separate Command/Coordination.
Dec 8 AM session- Dealt with handling an "Incident Within an Incident" and some of the stressors that may affect the Team, especially if the internal incident is an injury or loss of a Team member. Studies have shown that Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) is most effective 24-72 hours after the event happened, but some people may need more time. One idea that was thrown out was to create an incident within your main incident to see how people react.
0945-1215 session- Facilitated by Dr. Donahue and was based on a list of the top 10 IMT priorities that were identified at the 2008 conf. Our role was to look at the priorities and decide if we need to shift them in importance or add and delete to the list. My initial question was how many priorities on the list had actually already been completed or adopted by DHS/FEMA and our facilitator did not know the answer, but indicated she would make a note of the question and check. Our group had 26 members and some of the priorities we identified was to have a single web based repository that Teams can go to for training and Lessons Learned from other Teams; the need for a local standardized Credentialing/Qualifications system for Teams; that DHS/FEMA recognizes the AHIMT Association. We provided our priority list to Dr. Donahue who was going to compare with the other groups and come up with a master priority list, based on everyone's votes.
1330-1430 session-IMT's and Law Enforcement for planned Events. This was an interesting topic as a Colorado IMT Planning Section worked up an Incident Action Plan (IAP) for a motorcycle rally that came through Gunnison County Colorado with 400 plus members of the "Hells Angels"(H.A.) This was an official H.A. run with 2 members of each Chapter in the U.S. and Canada present and was a week before Sturgis. They utilized a Unified Command approach and realized that working with all of the Federal intel agencies they had to be flexible. They used 400 local LE members and 100 Fed members for the event, and included a Liaison from the H.A.'s for issues that came up. The pre-planning they did for this event was critical.
1445-1545 session- Radiological Incident Management. This was somewhat of a good refresher for myself based on previous online and classroom courses I have taken. During the session we also mentioned the IEMC Pierce County Specific Training that we attended in Emmitsburg. The importance of having a plan for this type of an incident,( that may have low chance of happening), but if did, would create a lot of problems, was stressed.
1600-1700 session- Use of Social Media. For me and other Team members that attended, this was one of the better sessions. The presenter mentioned how Social Media is expanding for everyone and that Teams may be able to target key wording or zip codes for events within your area or interest. Stressed how Social Media can be used for intelligence gathering. IMT's can and should use Social Media for publicizing and identifying your Team and the incidents/events they respond to. Speaker stressed the importance of your Team having a Social Media account, and keeping the information current with updates at least once a week or people will not view it. Speaker did caution though that once something is posted to a media source such as "Face Book or Twitter", that source owns the information and will keep it forever, so there may be privacy issues. The speaker mentioned that "RSS Feeds" are a good way to get information and help with privacy issues.
December 9 session- Speaker was firefighter from Australia and involved in the "Black Saturday Fire", which was their worst natural disaster. One of the big issues was communications with LE agencies involved in helping. The Fire Departments had communication systems in their rigs where they could talk to each other. LE is similar to what we see in our area, they all had different systems that were not compatible with each other and they could not directly talk to each other or the fire dept. A couple of Lessons Learned that came from the fires was that Fire is going to integrate more with LE through training and exercises. At the time in Australia, LE was responsible for sounding their warning system and it was not done. Another Lessons Learned was that Australia had long prepared their citizens in "Sheltering In Place" and did none or little preparedness in "Evacuation". This presented problems for the citizens when it came time for their need to evacuate and may have been one of the causes for the 173 deaths from the fires (this is important to keep in mind and to have that balance. Interesting in a lot of our instances we tend to think of "Evacuation" where in some cases, "Sheltering In Place" is a much better option and less of a hardship on the public/victims). Australia also had good success in using their IMT's and no Responders were killed during the fire response.
The remainder consisted of introductions of the Board of Directors of the AHIMT which consisted of a rep from each of FEMA's 10 regions. Also spoke on marketing of your Team. Colorado markets their Team through the Sheriff's/Police and Fire Chief's Association. FEMA will be coming up with an All Hazard website where Teams can get Lessons Learned and Training ideas. FEMA will be focusing on Unit Leader training and our FEMA Region 10 will host some of the training. The NWCG is looking to develop a pilot "Position Shadowing" program for Teams.
Marty Kapsh shared this information.
