Incident Command and Volunteers

Volunteer Frederick and the Frederick County Volunteer and Medical Reserve Corps, as well as the Volunteer Mobilization Centers follow the Incident Command system as established for Frederick County.  The National Incident Management System (NIMS) has placed Incident Command (IC) requirements for volunteers as being completion of the FEMA certification courses IS-100 and IS-700 and certification tests, which are available online Here.  Completing these courses is an excellent first step in volunteer preparation for exercises and events.

The Incident Command System (ICS) is a management system used to organize emergency response and was designed to offer a scalable response to incidents of any magnitude.

Photo: Basic Top ICS divisions chart

The chain of command is an essential part of being able to control incidents of any size. Every person on the incident has a designated supervisor. There is a clear line of authority within the organization, and all lower levels connect to higher levels, eventually leading solely back to the IC.

The principles clarify reporting relationships and eliminate the confusion caused by multiple, conflicting directives. Incident managers at all levels must be able to control the actions of all personnel under their supervision. These principles do not apply to the exchange of information. Although orders must flow through the chain of command, members of the organization may directly communicate with each other to ask for or share information.

The ICS is an extremely flexible organizational system that ideally reflects only what is required to fill the planned incident objectives. The efficient use of all resources on an incident is a high priority, reducing incident clutter and costs. A single person may be in charge of more than one unit if the span of control for that single person has not yet been exceeded, but in all cases an element of the incident must have a person in charge of that element. Elements of the system that have been expanded but are no longer needed are contracted and the resources released from the incident.