Incident Command System

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ICS Functions
ICS Details

Back in 1970's the fire service started to realize they needed a uniformality in the way they operated such as communications, utilities, planning, etc. Out of this brainstorming came "Firescope" (Firefighting Resources of California Organized for Potential Emergencies), the standarized fire service for the State of California. Out of Firescope came the Incident Command System or ICS for short. The ICS was made for 3 purposes; preparing for a disaster, responding to a disaster, and recovering from a disaster. Since ICS worked so well, it became popular throughout the nation and they adopted ICS as their standard also.

ICS diagram


Disclaimer: This interpretation of ICS is to assist the fire scanner listener in understanding how fire radio traffic works over large fires. While very accurate, it should not be used as study material for official ICS or NIMS courses. Diagrams are strictly the original interpretation of the author in regards to ICS and communications.