Introduction
1. The Government of Bangladesh tried to manage the natural disaster with its own efforts and the support from foreign aids as well. But lack of sound management system and policies it couldn’t unified the effort of government organization (GO), Non-government organization (NGO) and Armed Forces in same chain to mitigate the natural or man made disaster. To overcome this issue, the recently revised Standing Order on Disaster (SOD) 2010 has incorporated the Multi-Agency Incident Management System which is mainly denoted the Incident Command System (ICS). Actually the ICS is a system where it creates a scope to work together for various agencies having different organizational structures or jurisdictions. The new concept of Multi-Agency Incident Management System or ICS which has been incorporated in SOD 2011 should understand by the members of the Army as they have often deployed during disaster.
Aim
2. The aim of this paper is to introduce the Incident Command System and provide an idea on its mechanism in emergency response phase during disaster.
General Ideas on Disaster
3. Disaster is divided into two categories like man made and natural but the management of the disaster is almost same for both the parts. Management of the disaster is divided into 4 phase which has shown in figure-1.
Among these 4 phases army mainly deals with the response phase in maximum time where the affected people are evacuated and medicine, food, treatment are provided. Emergency response phase is the most sensitive time among the phases because of casualty. To minimize the casualty rate it is necessary to manage this phase with sound management by ensuring command, control, coordination and communication (C4) as number of agencies are involved there. And this challenge is overcome after introducing the Incident Command System or ICS.
Incident Command System
4. The Incident Command System (ICS) is a standardized on-scene incident management concept designed specifically to allow responders to adopt an integrated organizational structure equal to the complexity and demands of any single incident or multiple incidents without being hindered by jurisdictional boundaries. This system was first introduced by the fire department of California under FIRESCOPE (Firefighting Resources of California Organized for Potential Emergencies) programme in 1070 to ensure command, control and coordination among the agencies fighting against wildfire. Later on ICS was turned into national programme for United States of America (USA) called as National Interagency Incident Management System (NIIMS).
ICS Framework
5. An ICS enables integrated communication and planning by establishing a manageable span of control. An ICS divides an emergency response into five manageable functions essential for emergency response operations: Command, Operations, Planning, Logistics, and Finance and Administration. And this structure can be created in any organization beside its own structure and it will only activate when any disaster will occur. In case of ICS when any natural or man made disaster needs to involve a number of responders to mitigate the disaster the ICS nominates the incident commander from the leading responder/agency. The incident commander will act as a chief coordinator. He/She will organize the rest of the agencies according to ICS’s prescribed structures basing on their roles. Figure2 below shows a typical ICS structure.
Mechanism of ICS
6. The mechanism of ICS is described bellow;
a. The Incident Commander is appointed from the leading agency and he is responsible for overall. He will establish and monitor ICS near the incident place. And makes priorities of the objectives, prepares action plan, ensure the safety of his men and the incident place itself and stabilize the situation.
b. The Command Staff is combination of the information officer, Liaison officer and the safety officer they are respectively responsible for public affairs, liaison activities and health and safety within the incident command structure.
c. The General Staff includes Operations, Planning, Logistics, and Finance/Administrative responsibilities. These responsibilities remain with the IC until they are assigned to another individual.
d. The Operations Staff is responsible for all operations directly applicable to the primary mission of the response.
e. The Planning Staff is responsible for collecting, evaluating, and disseminating the tactical information related to the incident, and for preparing and documenting Incident Action Plans (IAP).
f. The Logistics Staff is responsible for providing facilities, services, and materials for the incident response.
g. The Finance and Administrative Staff is responsible for all financial, administrative, and cost analysis aspects of the incident.
Conclusion
7. The SOD 2011 has incorporated the ICS for emergency response phase. The new training syllabus “Military Operation other Than War (MOOTW) has incorporated in Army and the recent Army Headquarter Study Period (AHQ) the 14 Independent Engineer Brigade has proposed ICS as subject of that said new training syllabus. Now its time to prepare and formulated a well defined action framework for the Army on the context of ICS as it often participates and works with other agencies during disaster.
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