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Is your Emergency Management Coordinator in charge of your Mutual Aid calls?
Our county is staffed by volunteer firemen in three fire districts.
We have had Mutual Aid agreements with our surrounding counties for about 30 years now. It has always worked very well at getting the most help to where it is needed quickly. We have a new county Emergency Management Coordinator that wants to rewrite our Mutual Aid agreements. He wants to create a Strike Team and to also put himself in command any time the fire trucks leave the county. Does anyone else operate this way?
We have had Mutual Aid agreements with our surrounding counties for about 30 years now. It has always worked very well at getting the most help to where it is needed quickly. We have a new county Emergency Management Coordinator that wants to rewrite our Mutual Aid agreements. He wants to create a Strike Team and to also put himself in command any time the fire trucks leave the county. Does anyone else operate this way?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by chele on
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"In our area the EM Coordinator is not in charge of anything. " Which is just the way we'd like to keep it!
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"The man is on a power trip. He wants to change the title of his job to 'Emperor'." *LOL* wait, er, that would be funny if it weren't true!
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I know just what you mean. We only have the one EMC but he has been supplied with a pickup, GPS, Laptop, etc. etc. etc. and the other day it said he had advised the Commissioners he was going to need a new pickup. The one he is driving is newer than most of our fire trucks. pft.
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Permalink Reply by united 289..{Dave} on
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We have mutual aid agreements written within our county and is kept at each department and the EMA Office. The Agreement is kept at EMA office for FEMA requirements for federal funding for our county. The same goes for out of county agreements. The out of county agreements is kept at our station, Respective out of county EMA office and the department we provide mutual aid to. This all done to meet FEMA requirements for federal funding in our county. This is what I feel your county EMA director is trying to do with the agreement. However, He should not and does not have authority over your departments IC and SOP's.
Our county EMA director is there to assist us when called upon to do so. The director does not interfere with our operations.
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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It's a little different for us. Our Emergency Management Coordinator is part of the fire-rescue department and reports to the fire chief. In South Carolina, the fire chief (or the chief's "designee") has the legal authority to be in charge of any fire or emergency that isn't a primary law enforcement matter. That includes writing agreements and MOUs for mutual aid response and making the mutual aid requests.
Under the NIMS system, emergency management has a support role (coordination), not a command role.
We use the NIMS incident management model. Our EMC typically fills the Liaison role on the Command Staff, regardless of the rank of the incident commander. The EMC is responsible for coordinating victim services with the Red Cross, coordinating private contractor support, and coordinating shelter operation if it's necessary.
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"Under the NIMS system, emergency management has a support role (coordination), not a command role."
That's the way we see it too. We expected our EMC to be a valuable resource; need a grader? Call the EMC; need air support? Call the EMC. Instead he thinks he is the County Commander in charge of all fires.
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"Our county EMA director is there to assist us when called upon to do so. The director does not interfere with our operations."
Thank you for your reply. We'd like our EMC to not interfere with our operations too!
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Permalink Reply by Joe Zamgulis on
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Speaking strictly in relationship to both the local level and county level Emergency Managament positions here in Luzerne County PA. When the situation is a fire, MVC or Mass casuality incident the OIC is the OIC. EMA personnel are there to provide support either technical, or resource procurement. When the incident in not something the Fire, Police, or Emergency Medical services would normally deal with, The EMA person may be requesting the staff of the emergency services to assist in things like route alerting, or evacuation, the EMC may in those cases be the OIC.
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Right. As in when we had an Anhydrous ammonia truck overturn, law enforcement was called of course, EMS was paged for the driver and Fire was paged to assist in traffic control and be on stand-by for any spills. The EMC was notified and arrived on scene some time after I left on the ambulance, but as I understand it he then notified the appropriate authorities and coordinated the resources etc. for the situation.
I just don't understand where he got the notion he should be the county commander for the fire departments.
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I'd check out your state's laws on the emergency powers of fire departments. In the three states where I've worked (Maryland, Tennessee, and South Carolina) the duties and powers of fire departments and fire chiefs are clearly spelled out. Generally, the fire chief (or his/her designee in the chief's absence) is in charge.
There's another way to keep fire departments in control of fire department responses.
Form a mutual aid association (charter as a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit) with all of the fire departments, rescue squads, and specialty teams (hazmat, technical rescue, dive, swiftwater, etc.) with which you run mutual aid and have all of them sign a contract. You can use legally-binding contracts as a way to define who responds to specific mutual aid requests and who is in charge of what. You can specify NIMS compliance that way, too.
See the MABAS system and the Tennesseee/Georgia/Alabama Tri-State Mutual Aid System as examples of how that can work.
MABAS: http://www.mabas.org/
Tri-State Mutual Aid System: http://www.hamiltontn.gov/EmergencyServices/hcesstaff.htm and contact the Chief of Field Services
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Thank you Thank you Thank you! This is just what I was looking for! Right now we do have mutual aid contracts with the surrounding counties, but they are signed by the commissioners. We could change that. We are already a 501c for donation purposes, and it is the fire department, NOT the county - do you suppose that would work or do we have to form a second?
As for checking state laws, from what I can tell he has no jurisdiction. I have a call in to the Adjutant General's Department, Kansas Division of Emergency Management Policy; hoping to hear from him tomarrow.
I don't plan to go unprepared to the County Commissioners meeting!
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