Is your Emergency Management Coordinator in charge of your Mutual Aid calls?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by PFC Harmon on March 6, 2009 at 9:47pm

In my area the OIC is in charge of all mutail aid companies, if we leave the county the ranking officer will answer to the requesting counties OIC. Hope that makes sense.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by chele on March 7, 2009 at 12:18am

But is your OIC your Emergency Management Coordinator?

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by PFC Harmon on March 7, 2009 at 8:47pm

No the OIC is the highest ranking member or who ever is in charge of the initial fire department responding. Our emergency management coordinator only deals with mainly administrative duties or as a liaison with TEMA (Tennessee emergency management) or FEMA.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by PFC Harmon on March 7, 2009 at 8:51pm

Also each county has it's own EMA office and coordinator and full staff around ten people to get paid to do something............... actually I don't know what they do but they all have new vehicles and equipment but we have to beg for fuel for our fire engine huh.............

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by chele on March 8, 2009 at 1:09am

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.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by chele on March 7, 2009 at 11:16pm

That is how we do it too and also what we expected our EMC to do!

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by John on March 7, 2009 at 3:08pm

Thats sounds like what we have here as well.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Chief Tal Mong on March 6, 2009 at 10:31pm

I was just reading through all the discussions and this one really caught my eye! So I read what you had written several times. Then I asked my wife who is the Emergency Management Director for our County, and asked her the same question, her reply, why fix something if it's not broke !!!! We have Strike Teams that were set-up by the State for the different disciplines or all hazards mutual aid. These Strike Teams have certain criteria they must meet regarding staffing, equipment and training. These Strike Teams are Regionally based resource, not the same as a USAR Team. As well as the State Mutual Aid Agreement for all fire departments. One phone call and you can order a lot of people and equipment, but no matter what, the Incident Commander is still in charge! My question would be, is your new Emergency Management Coordinator, the EMC for the other 2 Counties as well? If not, his name may be the only name signed on the mutual aid agreement! Just because you write and agreement, doesn't mean the other parties will sign! Do the other Counties have their own Emergency Management Coordinators? If so, what are their opinions to this new process?

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by chele on March 7, 2009 at 12:18am

Hah! Our sentiment exactly!! "If it ain't broke why fix it?" has been our question all along. We are willing to support the Strike Team idea, but only for calls beyond our Mutual Aid agreements. The Strike Team consists of sending one truck from each of the three fire districts in our county. We have mutual aid agreements will all bordering counties, including two in Oklahoma. The Mutual Aid agreement allows us to share fire fighting with the bordering counties, sending as many trucks as we can. Normally that would be more than the three trucks allowed by the Strike Team. The Strike Team has delayed response time by as much as an hour while waiting for the other two trucks from the county to meet so we can all travel together. It's messed up. With Mutual Aid we respond within minutes.

Our EMC is not the EMC for any other county.

Our IC is generally whoever arrives on scene first! That would normally be either the Fire Chief, one of the Assistant Fire Chiefs or another experienced fireman.

We were just notified of the proposed change today, so we are still making contact with the counties involved to see what their thoughts are on this issue. At this point I have talked to nearly all of our firemen and nobody supports the propsed change. We are exploring our options on how to stop it from happening.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Tom Priddle on March 7, 2009 at 12:09am

I know what the chiefs around my parts would say and probably tell him to get lost at any point that he would try and take command of any of our scenes.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by chele on March 7, 2009 at 12:23am

Well, that's kind of what we have done - thumb our nose up at him and go about our business of fighting fire like we've always done. Now he's gotten the backing of the County Commisioners. I thought maybe if this was a national trend or something it would be (tough to swallow) tolerable.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Chief Tal Mong on March 7, 2009 at 7:28am

Good morning, don't underestimate the reach of the Emergency Management Coordinator, it's as high as it is in width. However, if all departments involved are not in agreement, they should approach your Coordinator and explain your side of the issues. If that doesn't pan out, then each of the parties envolved should go to the County Commisioners. If anything needs be fixed from what your telling us, it would be, " why it takes an hour for your Strike Team to deploy"? Rob is right, there's been a lot of planning over the years for the Ohio Emergency Response Plan, and I can't imagine that being invoked ever. If I'm not mistaken, the OERP has been activated 5 or 6 times over that past couple of years. Our County almost used the Plan from the Hurrican force winds that came though the Ohio Valley a year ago. In 14 hours throughout our County, there were between 600 700 different calls in that time frame. Getting off the subject a little! I think every department should have some type of working relationship with the Emergency Management Directors/Coordinators, they have a lot of resources at their disposal and the ability to make things happen. Mitigation, Preparedness, Response and Recovery, that's why our Emergency Management Director is in almost every aspect of our Village and County EOP!

▶ Reply to This

• First
• Previous
• Next
• Last