NIMS Integration Center Releases Criteria for Credentialing SAR Personnel

Started by fyrfitrmedic, November 23, 2006, 11:11:09 PM

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ELTHunter

It seems to me that the purpose of NIMS is to set a training and credentialing standard nationwide for emergency services personnel so that when a rescue squad from New York responds to a disaster in Florida or Louisiana, they can be certain they are trained to the same standards and speak the same language.  So, yes, the NY crew may be working along side a Tennessee crew under the command of an IC from Florida or Louisiana.  In that case, they all need to have been trained to the same standard.

CAP is a bit different, as our personnel will probably be tasked with specific jobs that we are trained to do, i.e. SDIS, ARCHER, COMMS, etc.  Most likely, CAP will be working independently but supporting the larger effort.  While I agree we need to be integrating NIMS standards into our training so that we appear to be competant to other agencies, I don't think it is vital that our crews be certified to NIMS as long as our training is standardized nationally (as it is now) and those standards include everything that we need to perform our missions.

Basically, I agree with D.  When the National Guard is called in to help in a disaster, I don't think anybody is going to ask if they are NIMS qualified.  It should be the same with CAP
Maj. Tim Waddell, CAP
SER-TN-170
Deputy Commander of Cadets
Emergency Services Officer

RiverAux

I think you're approaching it from the wrong direction.

If an IC wants ground SAR units he wants to make sure that they all meet the same standard.  So, he wants to know that the Podunk Co SO SAR Team is just as capable as CAP ground team from Podunk City. 

Yes, CAP has been trying to get better at having all its units meet the same standard, but we now will have to meet the same standards as everybody else or we won't be able to play.  The IC won't care who we are or what we've trained for if we don't meet the minimum national standards, whenever they are agreed on. 

By the way, I've received backchannel info from a person who has talked with NHQ's ES staff who tells me that it is CAP's intent to get fully NIMS compliant they're just having trouble getting it down on paper -- expect something over the next few months. 

DNall

Quote from: RiverAux on November 27, 2006, 04:38:27 AM
By the way, I've received backchannel info from a person who has talked with NHQ's ES staff who tells me that it is CAP's intent to get fully NIMS compliant they're just having trouble getting it down on paper -- expect something over the next few months. 
That's what I've heard also.

It's perfectly concievable that out GTs can train to the mountain & wilderness standards listed there, then be attached off to some other agency w/ no further coordination in input/veto from CAP till it's all over. You could do the same with plane/crews under an outside AOBD, that's how NIMS works, and they can very easily direct CAP recon flights or whatever. The problem in both cases is you'll be working directly for a state agency but are a federal resource bound by certain legal restrictions. The best easiest solution is for us to just move all opcon to 1AF & let them administer taskings out of there as requests for federal assistance. Even if we function outside the mutual aid system, we still must be NIMS compliant or we can't be operating in the AO at all. The NG does have its people trained to NIMS standards, at least crew leaders & staff. If we really want to play, we should train up our staff so we can step in interchangably & assume some of those joint multi-agency ICS staff roles.

ELTHunter

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against the NIMS courses.  I've taken 100, 200 and 800.  However, it's difficult enough now getting people qualified in the upper levels like IC.  There will be many in the rank and file membership that will be discouraged from participation.
Maj. Tim Waddell, CAP
SER-TN-170
Deputy Commander of Cadets
Emergency Services Officer

RiverAux

Quoteno further coordination in input/veto from CAP till it's all over
at some level (ground team leader, mission pilot or whoever) someone from CAP on scene or back home will still have ultimate control over what that CAP unit does on scene.  He may be taking orders from someone else but still can decide not to do it if it violates CAP regs or for any other reason). 

Over on the CG Aux board at mil.com they did some numbers crunching and it looks like up to 20% of the people who were told to take 100/700 and 200/800 (depending on their specialty) or that they would lose the qual have not yet taken the tests.  There may be some stragglers but I would expect CAP to also lose a similar percentage of qualified people.  Just another price to pay for professionalism. 

arajca

Quote from: RiverAux on November 27, 2006, 09:46:03 PM
Quoteno further coordination in input/veto from CAP till it's all over
at some level (ground team leader, mission pilot or whoever) someone from CAP on scene or back home will still have ultimate control over what that CAP unit does on scene.  He may be taking orders from someone else but still can decide not to do it if it violates CAP regs or for any other reason). 
Hence the Agency Representative.

Hotel 179

Hello All,

I have assigned an officer to coordinate the NIMS credentialling with our State Emergency Operations.  We are fortunate that he is a career fire fighter/administrator with amazing credentials and background in all levels of Emergency Services.  Since my day-job is teaching I have access to our school computer lab and hold regular meetings there to bring everyone up to speed on the courses. 


Because of our proximity to the Gulf of Mexico, I have worked in the ICS during the last 3 hurricanes.  The State Emergency Operations sends a District Director to the scene.  I sign-in my air/ground teams and take my place at the desk at the opening of the mission.  Meanwhile, the Wing gets its team together and I send an plane to pick them up and bring them to the eye of the storm.  Our IC works in conjuntion with the mission planners to "speak" for our abilities as air/ground crews. 

At no time does anyone want to commandeer our aircraft or ground teams.  The National Forest Service has traditionally been the lead agency on these missions due to their experience in managing large events.  Katrina was a different animal, but even then no one came up to me and said, "Hand me the keys to your plane."

If you are the squadron commander, then put on your cheerleader hat and get your folks trained. 

Semper vi,

Stephen
Stephen Pearce, Capt/CAP
FL 424
Pensacola, Florida

DNall

I've worked a lot of hurricanes, floods, & tornados in & out of ICS, few big joint search ops too. Of course they aren't going to take the keys. They'll take the crew too. This isn't what you've seen before, it is a different world we've been refusing to comply with for several years now because we don't really fit in it. NIMS is the foundation for mutual aid. We will get NIMS quald, but we will not that I can imagine be functioning in mutual aid, which is where NOC gives over individual teams to be run by another agency & there is no CAP staff. In fact if you tell the real IC that you have qual'd people & you're prepared to run an independent operation on their tasking orders, they're more than likely going to do everything in their power to shut you down. The whole point of ICS is to have one unified chain of command with no independent groups out doing seperate operations under their own staffs. It's meant to coordinate ALL efforts. They don't want you even running around turing off ELTs when it means buring avgas they need to move people & supplies around the AO, or when it means extra GTs in the AO using up logistics. You have to be part of the full combined team or you can't be in teh area, and that means giving up control, which is very complicated to say the least.

RiverAux

The amount of CAP staff needed is going to be directly proportional to the number of CAP personnel committeed. 

If it is a ground team helping out in a lost person search there will be an "official" CAP IC over the GTL, but he will probably be sitting back at the house letting the GTL get his tactical orders from the county sheriff.  Same thing with most local small scale missions that just require an airplane to take the county official up to oversee an area destroyed by a tornado.

Now, if you get more than 1 or 2 aircrews or ground teams, especially for an extended period, you will probably start having CAP staff be a bigger part of the mission and oversee CAP participation under the direction of the real IC. 

Where it starts to get a little tricky from a NIMS point of view is when you get to the point where you've got multiple CAP ground teams and aircrews and a full-on CAP staff and finding the proper place to fit that in the overall structure of the incident.  In this case the guy heading the CAP Task Force would be the Task Force Leader if you asked the IC, but if you asked a CAP guy he would be called the IC.   Linking in CAP's staff structure with the overall structure requires a bit of work. 

isuhawkeye

well here is the gt stuff enjoy.


SAR Job Title 35: Wilderness Search and/or Rescue Technician
Description: A Wilderness Search and/or Rescue Technician is a member of a Wilderness SAR Team who searches for and rescues
those in trouble in urban/suburban as well as other environments.45
R E Q U I S I T E C R I T E R I A
The table below lists minimum requisite criteria, based on existing protocols and standards, for a Wilderness Search and/or Rescue
Technician to participate in the NIMS Integration Center's National Emergency Responder Credentialing System.
Category Criteria
Training
Fulfillment of requirement(s) as stated in the following standard(s):
1. MRA 105 Operational Level; or ASTM F-2209 or NASAR SAR Tech II; or
equivalent
2. NFPA 472 HazMat Awareness and/or OSHA 1910.120(Q)(6)(i), HazMat
Awareness Training or equivalent basic instruction on responding to and
operating in a CBRNE incident
3. Bloodborne/Airborne Pathogens per OSHA
4. DOI AM B-3 or equivalent
Completion of the following baseline criteria:
5. OSHA 1910.120 and/or 1910.134(f) Respiratory Protection
6. Risk assessment
7. Hazard mitigation, including lifting, dealing with animals and possible armed
subjects and criminals
8. PPE for 4 seasons in any of the anticipated areas of operation
9. Use of related SAR tools and devices
10. Various SAR Standards
11. Legal Aspects of SAR EMS, SAR risk, liability, insurance, and injury and death of
members
12. SAR ethics, including dealing with families, confidentiality and media
13. Team and crew safety issues
14. For drivers: Driver's safety
15. Personal and team physical, medical and behavioral wellness, fitness, and
limitations
16. Wilderness weather
17. Survival and bivouac in four seasons in any anticipated areas of operations
18. Use of other resources including canines and other animals
19. Recognizing possible child predator situations
20. Awareness for search around swift/flood water, underground spaces
21. HazMat awareness to include drug labs
22. Animal technical rescue awareness
23. Documentation and record keeping for SAR and EMS
24. Field Communications, interoperability, equipment, proper use of phones, radios,
data
25. Medical aid of self, team members, and customers
45 A Technician credentialed only in the Search aspects is a Wilderness Search Technician. A Technician credentialed only in the Rescue aspects is a
Wilderness Rescue Technician. A Technician credentialed in both SAR aspects is a Wilderness SAR Technician.
DESIGNING A NATIONAL EMERGENCY RESPONDER CREDENTIALING SYSTEM
SAR Working Group November 2006
Job Title Criteria 87 of 90
Category Criteria
26. Customer evacuations, choices, methods, equipment
27. Helicopter operations in SAR for all seasons in all anticipated areas of
operations, including;
• Types of Helicopters in SAR
• Risk Continuum: low risk to higher risk helicopter use
• Related FAA regulations
• Personal capabilities and limitations and preflight prep
• Helicopter capabilities and limitations
• Safety Briefing/ Aircraft familiarization, storage, Emergency Locator
Transmitter (ELT) introduction
• Safety rules, dos and don'ts
• Helicopter-related Communications for SAR personnel
• Night operations
• Customers on helicopters, control of, consent issues
• Basic emergency procedures on ground and in flight
• Uses of helicopter adjuncts, such as NVG and FLIR
• Basic physiological effects of flight on personnel, customers and equipment
• Special-Use issues, hazards, and mitigation
• Ingress and egress training and practice in all methods to be used on
operations, such as hover ingress-egress, etc.
Completion of the following courses and/or curricula:
27. ICS-100: Introduction to ICS
28. ICS-200: Basic ICS
29. FEMA IS-700: NIMS, An Introduction
30. CERT (G-371) or equivalent for disaster related responses46
Experience
1. Finger print and background check
2. Participation in an AHJ currency program
Physical/ Medical Fitness
Completion of the following baseline criteria:
1. Medical requirements established by the AHJ
2. Minimum physical fitness standards as required by the AHJ, such as:
• MRA 105.1 Fitness
• CO WSAR Fitness
• NWCG Pack Test "Arduous"
• MCSOMR/CAMRA Mountain Rescue Specific Physical Ability Test
(MRSPAT)
• NIMS WSAR Type II and IV Fitness
3. CDC/ WHO recommended inoculations
Certification
1. Any of the following or equivalent:
• MRA 105.1 Operational Level
• NASAR SAR Technician II or greater
• Colorado State SAR Board WSAR Technician Type II or greater
• Appropriate equivalent State certification
46 These are areas that may not be required for non-disaster and non-INS responses

DNall

SarTech II looks like the easiest fit of those options & of course we're already close with them & some states do some limited crossover already. I'm curious what those physical fitness tests involve, particularly the NIMS varriation. The rest I guess is okay, seems a little heavy on the HAZMAT, but whatever. Thanks for the info!!

We need to pay attention to the mountain SAR req's too.

arajca

Hazmat awareness consists of:
1. Being able to identify if you have a haz amt incident
2. Keep other people out of the incident
3. Call for help.

That's it. Awareness tained responders (most LE types) do not get into suits and try to stop a leak or pull someone out of a spill. Operations trained responders (most ff types) will do rescue if the victim is moving. They will also do decon of patients and other responders. Finally, they will take defensive actions to minimize the impact - defensive meaning no contact with the chemical. Technician trained responders (all Haz Mat Teams) go into the mess and plug the leaks, minimize the spill, and get all sloppy with the chemicals. Specialist trained reponders (some Haz Mat Team personnel) will develop plans and handle some unique aspects of the response.

So the level of haz mat training called for is basicall enough to keep you safe in that regard.

DNall

yeah I have the certificate for it right here actually, circa 1994. It was put on just for CAP. We have a chem plant & rail line off the end of our runway so we spent some time. Obviously they're more concerned with meth lab in remote trailer, versus teh common sense don't touch stuff & stay back till the pros get there. seems like they mentioned it a couple extra times tho