Rogue Valley Fire Prevention

Incident Command Systems: Key Concepts

Some key concepts of ICS are: unity of command, common terminology, management by objective, flexible organization, and span-of-control. 

·       Unity of command:

Each individual reports to only one supervisor.  This prevents conflicting orders from multiple supervisors, thus increasing accountability, improving information flow, helping coordination efforts, and enhancing operational safety.

·       Common Terminology

The Incident Command System has an associated glossary of terms that help bring consistency to position titles, resource descriptions and their organization, the type and names of incident facilities, etc.  This is important because an emergency response organization is often made of individuals who normally do not work together as a team.  The use of common terminology ensures that everyone is “speaking the same language.”

·       Management by Objective

This means that all actions at an incident should be directed toward satisfying a major goal of the incident.  Objectives are usually written, and any event with a written Incident Action Plan must have the objectives included. 

The Incident Action Plan covers: 

            What do we want to do?

            Who is responsible for doing it?

            How do we communicate with each other?

            What is the procedure if someone is injured?

·       Flexible Organization

This describes the ability of an Incident Command structure to adjust as needed by the incident scope or available personnel.  The level of response necessary for a specific incident dictates how and when the organization develops.

·       Span-of-Control

The object of this is to limit the responsibilities being handled by, and the number of resources reporting directly to, an individual.  One manager should have no more than seven people under them at any given time.