City Staff Receive Advanced Incident Command Training
For three days, department managers for the City of Russell and officials from across Kansas participated in advanced incident command training designed for personnel who would function in a command or general staff position during a large, complex incident or event.
The City of Russell Fire Department hosted the training designed to allow public officials to assume roles and responsibilities if a large disaster strikes the area. Participants practiced setting up the command structure, filling roles involved with the incident, allocating resources, communicating with outside resources and other crucial behind-the-scenes functions for expanding incidents.
"There is a growing interdependency among response agencies and government entities who respond to large planned events and emergencies. A common management structure, terminology, communications and procedures allow responding agencies to work together to achieve successful outcomes," said City Manager Jon Quinday. "The use of ICS achieves these goals when we lay the foundation at the local level."
The Kansas Department of Emergency Management provided the training. The instructors for this class were Richard Lewallen, a retired US Marine working for the Kansas National Guard as the Antiterrorism Program Manager and teaching ICS for five years, and Ron Brown, who works for the Kansas Department of Emergency Management and is responsible for teaching ICS across the State of Kansas and has been teaching ICS for 25 years.
(Information and photos courtesy City of Russell Fire Department.)
