Date:09/10/04
IAFC Discourages Self-Dispatching to Florida for Hurricane Response
Fairfax, Va., September 10, 2004...The International Association of Fire Chiefs is
urging all fire fighters to refrain from self dispatching to the areas of
Florida that were affected by hurricanes Charley and Frances, and to those
areas that may be affected by hurricane Ivan.
The IAFC strongly
discourages self dispatching to incidents
because of the significant accountability issues and risks to fire fighters,
civilians and others who are operating within the parameters of the incident
action plan. The IAFC asks all fire chiefs to review and follow its policy
statement on self dispatching, below and online at http://www.iafc.org/about/policy/index.asp.
"We appreciate and understand that fire
fighters and fire chiefs want to help the areas hit by the hurricanes in
Florida," said IAFC President Chief
Bob DiPoli. "But we must remember
that an emergency response plan is in
place, and that order is essential for
the safety of the communities devastated by the storms. Self dispatching
disrupts this order and puts more lives at risk."
If you have resources available, please work
through your state emergency management agency, which will coordinate offers of
assistance with FEMA.
-end-
Policy Statement
The International Association of Fire Chiefs
(IAFC), International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF), and the National
Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) Discourage the Practice of Self-Dispatch Among
Emergency Response Personnel to Emergency Incidents Without Notification or
Request
One aspect of responding to disasters of major
proportions is that local fire departments have in place a system of aggressive
monitoring and enforcement practices to control the self-dispatching of
personnel and/or apparatus to the scene.
In major disasters the fire service needs to be
disciplined in its response, ready and available to the local community, and
when requested, ready and available to respond to the major disaster should the
call for assistance be received from that jurisdiction.
It has been proven in several past disasters
that the local fire department command structure while struggling to organize
and control resources at the scene have had to commit additional resources to
the management of those people and equipment that self dispatched to the scene.
Uncontrolled and uncoordinated arrival of
resources at emergencies cause significant accountability issues as a result of
personnel freelancing and creating additional safety risks to firefighters,
civilians and others who are operating within the parameters of the incident
action plan. Chaos at the scene occurs, creating additional safety risks
because these companies or individuals are not aware of the overall strategic
plan.
Further, unrequested emergency units and
emergency personnel at incidents disrupts
the accountability and incident management system.
An incident management system requires that a
formal structure is utilized to determine the needs of an incident. The needs
of the incident are in most cases directly related to personnel and equipment.
When resources show up that have not been requested, the incident management
system fails. Unplanned resources in many cases block roads, create traffic
jams, restrict access and ultimately affect the safety of those fire fighters
who are operating at the scene by denying them needed resources. Freelancing of
personnel and fire companies adversely impact incident management systems and
require that the Incident Commander assign more
personnel to control and coordinate these resources that were not requested.
The ultimate risk is to emergency personnel
when uncoordinated resources and freelancing by individuals and crews, create
additional risks that are unnecessary and could be avoided. Lives are at risk
when fire companies or personnel leave their local communities, thereby
reducing the level of protection and support should an emergency occur, or when
other fire fighters perform contradictory operations or interfere with assigned
units performing their duties.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the IAFC, IAFF, and the NVFC encourage state
and federal organizations to develop pre-determined mobilization plans to
address this issue and encourage those states and federal agencies that do have
a plan to incorporate this issue into the plan
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the IAFC, IAFF and the NVFC encourage local fire
chiefs, elected officials, managers and labor leaders to develop written policy
to control emergency personnel from self-dispatch to an emergency event unless
requested by the incident commander.
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