Incident Command System Research Paper

Words: 681
Pages: 3

How can the Incident Command System (ICS) be used in a crisis? This is an important question to ask since the country pours millions, if not billions, of dollars into developing the ability to handle a crisis. It is important to know if they can help the people during a crisis and if it has been completely thought out. This essay will see how ICS could be used during an event by examining a past event. It will give an idea of how it will work in the real world without going through a real event happening. Looking at a past event can help us understand how ICS could handle an incident.
Graniteville Disaster The past incident that is going to be studied is the train derailment that occurred in Graniteville, SC. During the early morning hours of January 6, 2005, a train carrying liquefied chlorine hit a parked train on the tracks in the town (Dunning and Oswalt, p.130). This caused the trains to derail and release 40 tons of chlorine into the morning air, leading to a
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In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, the first thing that would happen would be the first responders arriving on the scene. They would establish some sort of control over the area. As time goes on, more departments will become involved. This would start causing confusion with the different responders (Dunning and Oswalt, p.131). This confusion caused problems during this crisis regarding how and where to evacuate the people in the town, and who was making the decisions which also led to confusion (Dunning and Oswalt, p.131). Once the incident command system was activated during this chaos, it would be something that could mitigate confusion effects on rescue operations (DHS, 2008, p.45). Having this command system activated would give a clear picture on who is running the scene from the incident commander to the person on the ground. One of the biggest things during a crisis is knowing who is in charge and the direction the operation needs to