Incident Commander: In The Vehicle or On The Street?

We are sending our Battalion Chiefs and Command staff through the Blue Card Command System, which was produced by the Brunacinis, and based on the updated Fire Command model that Phoenix has been using for years. Our department has been a "run it from the street" ICS model for years that has slowly evolved to running most ops from the back of their command buggy (outside). The Blue Card very strongly advocates running the IC from inside the command vehicle (F-250 in our case). This is a completely foreign concept for our Batt Chiefs and the idea so far is meeting some resistance. I would like to hear from anyone who has actually run IC from both positions and give me some pros and cons on the inside the vehicle approach. Thanks

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Permalink Reply by Lee Jones on October 19, 2010 at 6:02pm

Then you need to beef your response system. Auto aid/mutual aid.

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Permalink Reply by 55 TRUCK on October 21, 2010 at 12:02pm

Each Battalion chief is diffrent. Some run there scenes from the street some from the vehicle. Our bats all have 20+ yrs of experience most are close to 30yrs. Plus they have a Battaliuon aid, this is a Lt. who is hand picked by the Battalion. The Aid is the eyes & ears of the Bat. inside the fire. Battalion aids all have 10 or more yrs. The aid inside the fire will go from attack crew to the truck crew. Basicly they get to free lance and can apprise the batt of the situation or give direction to crews if needed.

Each scene is diffrent a Battalion chief or IC shouldn't be restricted as to where they should or shouldn't run there batt. It's ok to learn new things and put it in your FM book of knowledge.

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Permalink Reply by Al "Top" Styles on November 28, 2010 at 10:49am

Ben,
Your point about PFD and aides is correct, however I too do not have an aide, I utilize the manpower I have via IMS. When I say “stay in the car”, that can either be in the “seat” or at the back of the SUV. Some (getting fewer) IC’s still “walk around” and can be challenging to find. Also with some sort of IMS plan in place any incident can be managed, there are always new and amazing ways to do things, and some people have their own ways (we may not agree with them, but if it works for them than we have to let them run their show).
Like I said in the 1st post, I tend to like the car better, than I’m in one spot and everyone know where that is (i.e. law enforcement, DPW, home owner, media, etc.) but I will, have and will continue to “stand in the lawn” as well. It is all incident driven.
Great discussion and look forward to “bouncing things” off each other in the future. Stay safe bro

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