BY I. DAVID DANIELS
The function of the command support officer is to assist the IC in a variety of critical capacities and to manage the command post.
Effective incident management is the critical foundation on which all incident safety rests. However, given the fact that the number of annual firefighter fatalities exceeds 100 and the number of injuries exceeds 80,000, the fire service needs to consider just how effective it is at managing incidents. The reality is that most instances in which firefighters are injured or killed result in the questioning of the incident’s management. And when multiple firefighter fatalities occur, people question the function of command itself.
At a July 2000 meeting in Seattle, Washington, the National Fire Service Incident Management System Consortium began discussions on changing the incident management system (IMS). One proposed change is to move the safety officer from command to the general staff. Another proposal is to create a “command support” function to assist the incident commander (IC), which I discuss below.
COMMAND OVERLOAD
In an escalating incident, the incident commander must make a number of decisions that usually are critical to successful mitigation and have a direct impact on firefighter safety and well being. While establishing a planning section helps at larger incidents with adequate staffing, at smaller escalating incidents such as residential structure fires, the IC is often reluctant to allocate resources to a planning function when suppression staffing is insufficient. This leaves the IC to prioritize and juggle critical decisions in a rapidly changing environment. Often the result is that responder safety suffers because the IC has overcommitted limited resources. Many departments provide command aides to chief officers to ease the workload. However, the position of aide (or field incident technician) is not recognized throughout the emergency response community.
COMMAND SUPPORT OFFICER
The function of the command support officer (CSO) is to assist the IC in a variety of critical capacities and to manage the command post. The title of “officer” is IMS-consistent for members of the command staff. Loosely based on the function with the same name from the United Kingdom’s incident command system, this function is designed specifically to assist the American fire service in the initial stages of an incident prior to the implementation of a planning section. In the incident’s latter stages, the CSO becomes the command post manager and the IC’s personal aide. The CSO is in a position to assist the IC as well as to glimpse the command function from the inside, valuable experience for future command officers. You can use and staff the function of command support in a number of ways, depending on the needs of the incident and the IC.
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At smaller incidents, the CSO may be a company officer or firefighter-the initial CSO may be the individual who is relieved of initial incident command-and can do the following:
- Oversee the accountability function prior to the safety section chief’s initiation of an accountability unit.
- Monitor the alternate radio channels as directed by the IC. Based on the CSO’s training and expertise, he can also monitor the primary channel, freeing the IC to focus more on making critical strategic and tactical decisions.
- Manage the setup and function of the command post.
At larger incidents, the CSO may be a company officer; the initial CSO may act as an assistant CSO. Since chief officers generally are in short supply in a department, reserve them for other tactical command or general staff positions. The CSO can do the following:
- Serve as the IC’s chief of staff, if so qualified.
- Provide support to the IC in an administrative capacity.
- Assume no strategic or tactical responsibilities during the incident.
COMMAND SUPPORT COMPANIES
Fire departments can also designate command support (CS) companies to fill the command support role. CS companies can be predetermined or assigned at the scene. You can implement these companies with very little training and equipment beyond those of an engine company. CS companies should understand the department’s incident management system, their accountability, and rapid intervention policies.
A four-person command support company would generally fill the following functions:
Company officer: command support officer, assisting the IC.
Driver/engineer: accountability recorder for division/group/sector supervisors.
Firefighters 1 and 2: initial rapid intervention crew.
The most significant resource the CS company provides is that of accountability recorder for tactical level supervisors. Many departments routinely violate the spirit of the buddy system by deploying chief officers without partners. This use of existing resources provides increased safety without a significant fiscal impact.
The Washington State Department of Labor and Industries recently cited the Seattle Fire Department for placing a chief officer in a hazard area without a partner. The citation, though technically correct, represents a new interpretation of the buddy concept at an incident. Not only should firefighters be in teams of two in a hazardous environment, but chief officers should do the same.
I. DAVID DANIELS, a 20-year veteran of the fire service, is chief of the Fulton County (GA) Fire Department and former assistant chief of safety and employee services for the Seattle (WA) Fire Department. He is certified as a safety and health specialist and a fire service health and safety officer. Daniels is a member of the National Fire Service Incident Management Consortium and lectures on incident management and fire service health and safety.
