3rd Edition 2008 Edition 3rd Volume 2 Volume IncidentCommand Fire Service Operations Fire and Manual Rescue Fire Service Manual Volume 2 Fire Service Operations Incident Command 3rd Edition 2008 www.tso.co.uk £00 Fire Service Manual Volume 2 Fire Service Operations Incident Command 3rd Edition 2008 London: TSO Published by TSO (The Stationery Office) and available from: Online www.tsoshop.co.uk Mail, Telephone, Fax & E-mail TSO PO Box 29, Norwich NR3 1GN Telephone orders/General enquiries: 0870 6005522 Fax orders: 0870 6005533 E-mail: [email protected] Textphone: 0870 240 3701 TSO Shops 16 Arthur Street, Belfast BT1 4GD 028 9023 8451 Fax 028 9023 5401 71 Lothian Road, Edinburgh EH3 9AZ 0870 606 5566 Fax 0870 606 5588 TSO@Blackwell and other Accredited Agents Published with the permission of the Department for Communities and Local Government on behalf of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. © Crown Copyright 2008 Copyright in the typographical arrangement and design rests with the Crown. This publication, excluding the Royal Arms and any logos, may be reproduced free of charge in any format or medium for research, private study or for internal circulation within an organisation. This is subject to it being reproduced accurately and not used in a misleading context. The material must be acknowledged as Crown copyright and the title of the publication specified. This is a value added publication which falls outside the scope of the HMSO Class Licence. Applications for reproduction should be made in writing to HMSO, The Licensing Division, St Clements House, 2-16 Colgate, Norwich, NR3 1BQ Fax: 01603723000 or email: [email protected] ISBN 978-0-11-341321-8 Cover photograph courtesy of West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service Printed in the United Kingdom for TSO N5653433 5/08 Contents Chapter 1 – Fire and Rescue Service Incident Command Doctrine 7 1.1 The Incident Command System 7 1.2 Leadership 7 1.3 The Operational Environment 9 1.4 The Incident Command Environment 9 1.5 Leadership in Operation 10 1.6 The Incident Commander’s Leadership Role 12 1.7 Operating within the Multi-Agency Bronze, Silver and Gold Structure 14 1.8 The Operational Commander’s Competence 17 1.9 Incident Management and Decision Making 17 Chapter 2 – Organisation on the Incident Ground 19 2.1 General 19 2.2 The Role of the Incident Commander 19 2.3 Levels of Command 20 2.4 Duties of the Incident Commander at Operational (Bronze) Level 21 2.5 Duties of the IC at Tactical (Silver) Level 22 2.6 Duties of a Strategic (Gold) Level Commander 24 2.7 Structuring an Incident 24 2.8 Managing Crews on the Incident Ground 29 2.9 Line of Command 30 2.10 Span of Control 30 2.11 Roles and Responsibilities within Incident Command 31 2.12 Identification of Command Roles 35 2.13 Briefing & Information 44 2.14 Communications 44 2.15 Inter-Agency Liaison 44 2.16 Cordon Control 45 2.17 The Closing Stage of the Incident 46 2.18 Maintaining Control 46 2.19 Welfare 46 2.20 Debriefing 47 2.21 Post-Incident Considerations 47 Chapter 3 – Command within the UK Resilience Framework 51 3.1 Introduction 51 3.2 Local and Regional Structures 52 3.3 Central Government’s Role 54 3.4 Roles of the Emergency Services and Military 55 3.5 Structured Response to a Major Incident 57 3.6 FRS Resilience 57 Chapter 4 – Incident Risk Management 63 4.1 Introduction 63 4.2 FRS Operational Risk Philosophy 64 4.3 Risk Assessment in the Fire Service 65 4.4 Managing the Risk 68 4.5 The Tactical Mode 71 4.6 Announcement and Recording of Tactical Mode 73 4.7 Using Tactical Mode when Sectors are in Use 73 4.8 Responsibilities within Tactical Mode 77 4.9 Examples of Application of Tactical Mode 78 4.10 Analytical Risk Assessment 79 4.11 Risk Control Measures 80 4.12 The Role of a Safety Officer 81 4.13 Closing Stages of the Incident 83 4.14 Summary 84 Chapter 5 – Command Competence 85 5.1 Introduction 85 5.2 Definition of Competence 85 5.3 National Occupational Standards 86 5.4 Unit 86 5.5 Element 86 5.6 Performance Criteria 87 5.7 Knowledge and Understanding 87 5.8 Workplace Assessment 87 5.9 Knowledge and Understanding in Incident Command 88 5.10 Evidence 89 5.11 Personal Development Records 90 5.12 Continuing Personal Development 90 5.13 Guidance for assessors 92 Appendices Appendix 1 – Analytical Risk Assessment Process 96 Appendix 2 – Incident Command System 100 Appendix 3 – The Psychology of Command 107 Appendix 4 – Decision Making Model 119 Appendix 5 – Response Arrangements in Wales 132 Appendix 6 – Response Arrangements in Scotland 135 Appendix 7 – Response Arrangements in Northern Ireland 138 Glossary of Terms 141 References and Bibliography 144 Further Reading 146 Acknowledgements 147 Incident Command Chapter 1 Chapter 1 – Fire and Rescue Service Incident Command Doctrine 1.1 The Incident Command System framework. Building upon changes to legislation and supporting guidance2 the broader role of Fire The Incident Command System (ICS) constitutes and Rescue Services in incidents other than fire is the doctrine of the Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) considered in relation to the capacities, objectives, in the context of operational incident management, and constraints of other responding agencies. leadership, and the functional command and control processes that flow from it. The Incident Command System and supporting processes described in the following chapters The Incident Command System is the recognised constitutes a template against which incident “nationwide safe and effective system for managing command policies and procedures can be written in operations”.1 It presents the key elements of FRSs, and the training and assessment of individuals effective incident command in three functional and teams to operate those systems safely and areas; these are: effectively can be conducted. Any amendment to this template should be proposed to the Chief Fire ● Organisation on the Incident Ground – this and Rescue Adviser’s Unit (CFRAU). gives the Incident Commander a recognised system from which to work when organising The Incident Command System itself operates and using resources at an Incident. within a wider framework of policies, values and an ● Incident Risk Management – the principal in depth understanding of operational issues which consideration of Incident Commanders is must be taken into account by staff in all roles in the safety of their personnel. Therefore, the FRS. Some of these are considered below. prior to deciding upon the tactics an assessment of risk must be performed. The Incident Commander must identify the 1.2 Leadership hazards, assess the risks, and implement The Fire and Rescue Service in England and all reasonable control measures before Wales has chosen to express its values and vision committing crews into a risk area. of leadership in the form of a simple model. The ● Command Competence – considers the skills model has been named “Aspire”. It has at its heart, knowledge and understanding required by an the core values of the service; which are: Incident Commander and the importance of maintaining such competencies. ● Diversity ● Our People Additionally, this edition of the manual reflects the ● Improvement need for FRSs to be able to work effectively within ● Service to the Community a broader multi-agency incident management 1 Framework Document 2006-08 2 Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004, Civil Contingencies Act 2004, HM Government Emergency Response and Recovery (Non-statutory guidance document) and Emergency Preparedness (Statutory guidance do cument) Incident Command 7 Although not usually discussed in the context of Leadership Capacities: incident command, it can be seen that the values are intrinsic to everything we strive to achieve at ● Organising and Changing an operational incident, where we routinely serve ● Partnership Working all of our communities equally and professionally, ● Delivering Services with the safety and well being of our own crews ● Community Leadership at the forefront of our mind and reflecting on how ● Setting Direction well we have done in order to be better next time. ● Priorities and Resources ● Personal and Team Skills The core values inform and underpin the personal qualities and attributes (PQAs) at each role level. These are practiced in the three Leadership Thereafter the model describes the “Leadership Domains: Capacities” and “Leadership Domains”, which take the model a stage closer to the actual behaviours ● Operational and outcomes: ● Political ● Personal-team approach Core Values PQAs Leadership Qualities Leadership Domains 8 Fire Service Manual Command and Control of operational incidents ● Time sensitivity/ tempo of activity. Time is inextricably linked with the Aspire model and pressure on the requirement to make the values of the Service. Operational incident decisions and act upon them is arguably command represents an area where leadership the major contributory factor in the takes on a risk critical and central role. In recent determination of incident criticality. Further years the Fire and Rescue Services has advanced to that, time pressure on decision-making the notion of leadership in many ways that appear will, by definition, drive the tempo of to be allied to, but distinct from, the operational activity in any incident response. context. The identification of core values and the ● Complexity. Critical incidents may be expression of key domains provide an excellent accompanied by a degree of complexity that platform upon which to build a robust command will result in uncertainty about outcomes. and control doctrine. It is sometimes thought ● Moral Pressure. Critical incidents involving that such work is left behind when the “bells go people and property at risk will generate down”, and the service is called into action in its moral pressure on those responding who may key operational intervention role.