Incident Command System: Buncefield Oil - Case Study Example

Incident Command System: Buncefield Oil Name & ID Course Name & Code Instructor’s Name 13 February 2010 Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Establishment of Effective Incident Command System (ICS) 3 Levels of Command 5 Dynamic Risk Assessment 7 Incident Action Plan 8 Roles and Responsibilities of Public Agencies 10 The Police Service 10 The Fire Service 10 The National Health Service 11 The Ambulance Service 11 Hospitals 11 Public Health 12 Primary and Community Care Services 12 Local Authorities 12 Central Government 13 The Environment Agency 13 Information and the Media 13 Conclusion 15 References 15 Introduction Incidents and emergencies are inherent in a society that has embraced technology. Numerous threats and risks exists that may be disastrous to the society, economy and environment. An example of such incident is the 2005 Buncefield incident in which oil plant explored and through a series of explosions resulted in damaging of more than twenty oil containers. Luckily, no serous casualties had been reported, or death. The entire fire and rescue incident took five days, while the restoration process took longer because it had adversely affected the socioeconomic environment. Thus, the aim of this report is to analyse incident command system utilising Buncefield as example. Establishment of Effective Incident Command System (ICS) Incident command system brings together a set of procedures, personnel, equipment, policies and facilities that are then integrated into a common organisational structure that is aimed at improving emergency response operates of different complexities (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, 2003). Mostly, ICS is based upon a scalable and flexible response organisation that provides common framework in which people can operate together effectively. Thus, the people can be obtained from multiple agencies but with the single aim of ensuring safety and health is guaranteed. Numerous reasons exist that champions the establishment of effective Incident Command System, and they include: Establishment of ICS is necessary and desirable in that all stakeholder e.g. local governments and central government plus other emergency agencies and personnel can easily coordinate their efforts efficiently and effectively provide the highest standards during emergency incidents. Thus, it facilitates formulation and implementation of framework and policies that ensure stakeholders can cooperate, ensuring optimal service is provided to the community and society. Mitigation is an important component in ICS since it attempts to prevent accident or emergency from developing into disaster. This means that establishment of ICS ensures that long-term strategies and measures that eliminate or reduce risks are formulated and implemented. Mitigation approach can take different strategies that may include non-structural or structural perspectives. For example, structural strategies may include technological solutions while non-structural measures may include legislations or policies (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, 2003. Establishment of ICS ensures that preparedness is championed. Emergency managers and other stakeholders develop plans of action that will ensure if disaster strikes, measures are in place to resolve the issue. Thus, the responsibility of ICS in preparedness may include proper training and maintenance of emergency services, communication plans, stockpiling of resources, training volunteers and educating society and community on emergency warning methods. In the case of Buncefield oil storage incident, the fire and entire emergency took five days. Response was not that much efficient, and thus establishment of an effective incident command system will improve on efficiency of response. Hence, an effective ICS will easily mobilise the necessary emergency service and they will be among first responders in the incident area. Therefore, ICS can provide core emergency services, such as police, fire fighters and ambulance crews. After any incident, recovery is an important requirement that can be fulfilled by an effective ICS. Establishment of effective ICS could ensure that restoration of the affected area to its previous state is achieved. The recovery efforts involve re-employment, rebuilding destroyed property, and repairing other important infrastructure. Formulation and implementation of an effective incident management system will provide a system and framework that reacts to dynamic and continuous risk assessment. Moreover, it could allow for strategic and tactical plans, and documentation group and individual activities ensuring that a dynamic risk assessment is developed and in producing post-incident debrief procedures. Levels of Command Large incidents usually are disastrous to the economy, society and environment. Appropriate framework should be in place that ensures resources involved in dealing with the incident are clearly assigned. The type of command that can be utilised in such scenarios is unified command because multiple agencies are involved. Unified command brings together representatives from different major agencies but chooses one person to be the spokesperson. Moreover, the level of command will borrow from Gold-Silver-Bronze command structure. The Gold-Silver-Bronze command structure is used to establish a hierarchical framework that helps in commanding and controlling disasters and incidents. The Gold Commander is the leader or controls activities and resources that are availed for a given incident. Most of the times, the Gold Commander will not be at the disaster area, but at a control room away from the disaster. The Gold Commander formulates strategies for dealing with the disaster. Moreover, the function of Gold Commander is to provide means within which tactical officers will operate, and to provide appropriate support for tactical operations through providing and prioritising of resources. Silver Commander is the highest-ranking person at the scene, and the person is in charge of all resources. Silver commander usually decides on how to utilise available resources to achieve the strategic goals of Gold Commander, and thus Silver Commander determine appropriate tactical approach. During their operations, they will coordinate with, and work in harmony and proximity with other stakeholder that are usually located in makeshift command room or purposefully built command vehicles. On the other hand, Bronze Commander directly deals with the incident and in most cases found with the staff at the scene. They ensure that resources are utilised effectively. Moreover, a Bronze Commander ensures safety is championed throughout the incident period. Furthermore, the Gold, Silver, Bronze command cannot easily be understood, and thus the entire process is controlled by an Incident Commander. In most incidents, staff may be grouped into four parts, which are operations, planning sector, financial/administration, and logistics. Each grouped would be tasked with specific responsibility, and their operations can be understood through analysing the following diagram (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, 2003). Operations, planning, administration and logistics are tasked with different roles, and they are supposed to manage resources that are availed. Dynamic Risk Assessment Dynamic risk management can be defined as a continuous process of accessing risks, identifying hazards, taking action to reduce or eliminate risks, monitoring and reviewing emergency incidents. Dynamic risk management usually operates at the systematic, strategic and dynamic level championing the safety of personnel or people. Dynamic risk assessment is aimed at helping people assess effectively a given situation from personal safety perspective, as the emergency unfolds. In most cases, safety performance depends upon safe place and safe person strategy (Stollard & Abrahams, 1999). The safe place is dependent on engineering, design, and physical controls while safe person is dependent upon human factors. To ensure safety of persons certain strategies should be implemented. The staff or individuals should be selected based on their capability and experience. The Buncefield Incident was an oil incident, which means people with appropriate oil-fire related experience should address the issue (Cabinet Office, 2003). Moreover, the individuals should be provided with adequate information so that they can determine the appropriate strategy and means to deal with the fire incident. For example, information such as the extent of the fire, nature of fuel, speed of development of the fire, and other important factors that the fire fighter or emergency personnel can utilise to champion their safety. Furthermore, the care of personnel should be championed. The personnel should be provided with protective equipment and other necessary equipment that would facilitate extinguishing the fire. PPE will ensure the safety of the staff is championed, and the staff will operate easily while fulfilling their duties. Moreover, the staff members should follow safe system of work so that they reduce risks. This can be achieved through providing of necessary training and instructions and appropriate levels of supervision. Additionally, the personnel should be competent to perform, they operate effectively as team members, are self disciplined, adaptable to changing environments, following guidelines, and they are vigilant for their safety (Cabinet Office, 2003). Incident Action Plan Incident Action Plan Objectives Champion the safety of the response personnel and citizens Updating stakeholders regarding response activities Maximising environmental awareness Return the community to normalcy Prevent the fire from spreading Operational Period Command Emphasis Updating stakeholders promptly The organisation should formulate remediation project plan Extinguish the fire Establish data management system Analysing impact of smoke to the environment Analysing extent of damage Resources Assigned Fuel trucks Fire engines Ambulances Fire protection equipments Work Assignment Extinguish the fire Protect the environment Evacuate people within the incident area Medical assistance for affected people Special Instructions Information should be referred to Joint Information Centre Staff should follow guidelines Resources should be shared efficiently Staff should check frequently with security Roles and Responsibilities of Public Agencies In the Buncefield Oil storage incident, different stakeholders came together to ensure the fire is extinguished, environmental awareness is improved and ensuring safety of personnel. Thus, some public agencies that played major role include (Cabinet Office, 2003): The Police Service Coordinate all the activities of those people responding at and around the incident area Preserving the scene to ensure evidence cam be collected for possibly criminal proceedings and subsequent enquiries The police maintains cordon at appropriate distances; cordons are established to facilitate emergency requirements. The police are responsible for assisting the injured, and thus, they search the surrounding area. The Fire Service There major role is to rescue people trapped by wreckage, fire or debris They prevent further escalation of the fire and incident through extinguishing or controlling fires, undertakes protective measures, and rescue people. They are supposed to deal with the smoke and other contaminants so that, the incident are can be recommended as exclusion zones Assist the ambulance service with handling the casualty; the casualty ranges from the public to employees of different agencies. They manage access to the inner cordon under their ICS, and liaising with the police service about who should be allowed to enter the cordon. The National Health Service The Ambulance Service They are responsible for coordinating health issues on site through determining the hospital the injured will be taken, and this is usually based on types and nature of injuries received With the help of other agencies, the ambulance service tries their best to sustain life through treatment at the site, decontamination with the help of the fire service, release of trapped casualties, and transporting the injured to the hospitals. Moreover, they may seek support from other voluntary medical services such as St. John Ambulance in transporting and managing casualties (Stollard & Abrahams, 1999). Hospitals They respond to requests for the ambulance service, provide treatment for casualties, and they may provide trained staff to be on-site. Management of medical resources Other hospitals should be ready to and support other hospitals especially taking patient transfer. Public Health Update the public on 24 hour basis This advice is appropriate especially because of the smoke, since the smoke can cause acidic rain Primary and Community Care Services Responsible for providing community care support Operate mostly during major incident such as the Buncefield incident Local Authorities Local authorities utilise their civil contingency plan to coordinate training, planning and exercising within the local authority departments. The Local authorities corporate with different stakeholders in ensuring the community is informed on what they are supposed to do at the time of any incident. They cooperate with the emergency service is providing appropriate support to communities, especially reverting the society to its previous state. They are the custodian of organisation resources, thus, they provide resources to mitigate the effects of emergency on infrastructure, property, and people. Moreover, they endeavour to provide support and care for the community throughout the disruption period. They will take the leading role in restoration of the environment and rehabilitation of the community. Central Government Provide advice or support to response teams especially local response The Environment Agency Environmental protection of land, water and air Provide remedial strategies to mitigate and prevent the effects of the disaster Provide specialist advice Investigate the cause of an incident Monitor the effects of the disaster To give warnings to those who may likely be affected Collect evidence for future references Information and the Media Liaison is an important component in determining success of any emergency response, and entire Incident Command System. Effective liaison between the ICS, the media and other agencies is important in facilitating and ensuring optimum solution is obtained. In many incidents, a Liaison Spokesperson is nominated who will be responsible for communicating and informing on the development of the incident. Effective communication could ensure conflicts and misunderstanding are minimised and ensuring specific persons are strategically positioned and informed. Media is an inherent factor in any emergency, and the public dependent on the media to be updated on the developments on the site, and decisions reached. The liaison officer should ensure that clear details are provided to the media, to inform the panic and clearly define the limits of the message submitted (Crandell, 2006). Civil community are vulnerable to information that can be transmitted by these media outlets, which means that effective liaison strategies should in place. Numerous benefits are associated with effective liaison, which include ensuring the right resources are availed. This will improve on the efficiency and effectiveness of agencies involved in offering fire and rescue services. Thus, effective communication between the stakeholder and agencies will ensure panic and eagerness of the public is addressed through been provided with information that is appropriate. Generally, effective liaison is important in ensuring the success of any incident command system (Moore and Lakha, 2008). In the case of Buncefield Incident transmitting of information should have been improved. The entire rescue process took five days while restoration process took longer since more than two thousand people had been displaced, roads had been closed affecting numerous people. Information should have been provided appropriately such that many people may have been affected by the closed roads, while others had been affected because of evacuation. The media should have been provided with information, helping the civic community to decide appropriate means of escape from the scene. Nevertheless, the entire process of providing for information was beneficial since many people became aware of the incident, were able to stay away from the incident, while being informed on the development, impact and restoration of the incident area (Stollard & Abrahams, 1999). Conclusion Buncefield incident caused huge damages in terms of economic, social and environment. However, strategies and respond was effective and thus consequences of the incident were minimal. ICS is usually established to formulate and implement means in which risks can be prevented, and mitigation approach if it may occur. ICS brings into consideration numerous stakeholders that assistant in ensuring the civil community is provided with optimum service. Roles and responsibilities are played by different stakeholders, and this usually ensures effectiveness and efficiency of such missions. References Cabinet Office. 2003. Dealing with disaster: Revised Third Edition. Available at: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200203/cmselect/cmsctech/415/41513.htm [Accessed 13 February 2010] Crandell, J., 2006, Residential Building Loads: Review and Roadmap for Future Progress, New York: ASCE Publications. Fire Service Inspectorate, 2002, Fire Service Operations: Incident Command (Fire Service Manual 2.), London: Stationery Office Books. Moore, T. and Lakha, R., 2008, Tolly’s Handbook of Disaster and Emergency Management: Principles and Practice, 3rd ed. London: Heinemann Butterworth. Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, 2003, Our Fire and rescue service, Cm 5808, London: stationery Office Books. Stollard, P. & Abrahams, J., 1999, Fire from First Principles: A Design Guide to Building Fire Safety, 3rd Ed, London: Taylor & Francis Publishers. Read More