Last week Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge unveiled the Initial National Response Plan, which will give him the authority to coordinate federal response assets and agencies reorganized under the Department of Homeland Security. How does this plan affect local fire chiefs?

Ultimately, it will help local fire chiefs by improving planning for disaster response, said Chief Ernie Mitchell of Pasadena (Calif.) Fire Department, president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs.

The INRP provides an initial roadmap for integrating response between local, state and federal emergency response organizations, Mitchell said, “so that in the event of a disaster or terrorism incident, we can assure the maximum effectiveness of response as well as the maximum in personnel safety and give our local responders the best chance of a positive outcome.

“A lot of it is about preparedness and knowing what you can expect, then having an opportunity to train in that, so that you know where you fit into the system. It better allows us to plan our actions and know what we can expect to come in support of those actions.”

The IAFC has shared in the development of the INRP in meetings since August as part of the Public Safety Preparedness Coalition, a partnership among the IAFC, the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the National Sheriffs’ Association. The IAFC will continue to work with DHS on the final National Response Plan, scheduled for completion by June 2004.

“The concerns of local public fire and law enforcement representatives were openly expressed and discussed with DHS during the development of this initial plan,” said a Coalition statement released Friday.

Consulting almost nightly with various IAFC committee members, Chief John Buckman of the German Township (Ind.) Volunteer Fire Department spoke for the nation’s 30,000 fire chiefs as the IAFC’s representative at these development meetings. When Congress established the DHS, its mission was to coordinate federal emergency response resources, but until now there hasn’t been a plan to do that, Buckman explained. “The Department of Justice had their plan; the Department of Defense had their plan; other agencies had their respective plans,” he said. “This plan, although small is size, is actually extremely large in scope, in that it does direct all those agencies to bring their plans into compliance with the National Response Plan.”

Buckman emphasized that the primary objective of the INRP is to give Secretary Ridge the authority and framework to coordinate federal response to emergencies and disasters. He believes the final National Response Plan will have greater ramifications to local fire chiefs.

“In my opinion, what eventually is going to happen is the National Response Plan, along with the National Incident Management System, will dictate to local [and tribal] governments how to organize, how to manage and then how to be reimbursed by the federal government for disaster response,” Buckman said. “Currently, the federal government only tells you how to be reimbursed.… The National Response Plan will tell you how to respond, and the National Incident Management System will tell you how to organize.”

While the NRP and NIMS gel, Buckman says, turf battles and power struggles continue behind the scenes to determine what roles various departments and agencies will take in the future.

The National Incident Management System, currently under development, is a national system of standardized incident management processes and protocols designed to support the NRP. NIMS will improve the interoperability between fire, EMS, law enforcement, public health and various other state and federal forces so that everyone’s using the same ”playbook” in the command center, according to Mitchell.

The fire service has had a national incident command system for years, and the IAFC is working to incorporate elements familiar to fire service incident commanders into NIMS, Mitchell says, but the new system will expand that concept. “Our local systems have in the past and will continue to be built for our organizational structures and our personnel that we use on a regular basis. But we have to expand that and broaden that to incorporate resources that may be coming in from different resources in major disasters,” said Mitchell. “We need everyone speaking the same language when we ask for something.”

The INRP also establishes new DHS entities and replaces some federal entities used to manage disasters in the past. The key changes include the creation of the following:

• National Homeland Security Operations Center:

  The HSOC will be the primary national-level hub for operational communications and information pertaining to domestic incident management. Located at DHS headquarters, the HSOC will provide threat monitoring and situational awareness for domestic incident management on a 24/7 basis.

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• Interagency Incident Management Group:

  The IIMG is made up of senior representatives from federal departments and agencies, non-governmental organizations, as well as DHS components to facilitate national-level situation awareness, policy coordination and incident coordination.

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• Principal Federal Official:

  The Secretary may designate a PFO during a domestic incident to serve as the personal representative of DHS locally during an incident. The PFO will oversee and coordinate federal incident activities and work with local authorities to determine requirements and provide timely federal assistance.

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• Joint Field Office:

  Federal activities at a local incident site will be integrated during domestic incidents to better facilitate coordination between federal, state, and local authorities. The JFO is expected to incorporate existing entities such as the Joint Operations Center, the Disaster Field Office, and other federal offices and teams that provide support on scene.

Mitchell said the INRP and the final National Response Plan are necessary to clarify everyone’s roles in national disasters, which hasn’t always been clear in the past, and that building such systems is necessary to meet the mandate for homeland security. “It’s an idea whose time seems to finally have come,” he said. “It will result in better plans and in better responses.”

In announcing his approval of the plan Friday, Secretary Ridge said the INRP represents a significant first step towards the overall goal of integrating the current family of federal domestic prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery plans into a single all-hazards plan. "As this effort further evolves," Ridge said, "our homeland security effort will be guided by the concept of one plan, one team and one fight."

Download the complete INRP document in free Adobe Acrobat format.

View a DHS Fact Sheet on the INRP.