City, Police and Fire Personnel Attend National Incident Management Training
Twelve West Pierce Fire & Rescue personnel received invaluable training on the National Incident Management System this week in Emmitsburg, Maryland alongside community partners within Pierce County. This training would be used to manage complex, multi-jurisdictional disasters. While first responders use these expandable systems on a regular basis for emergencies, the opportunity to coordinate with city and elected officials on a large scale exercise presented a valuable training scenario for the communities.
The first three days consisted of instruction on Incident Command System and interaction between a Policy Group and Emergency Operations Center staffers. In addition, the group had some training time on Washington state specific Web EMD, a PC-based program to catalog resource requests and activities pertaining to an emergency event. The final day was reserved for an actual exercise in which managing a large train derailment with a hazardous material release was the scenario.
Approximately 70 participants from agencies throughout Pierce County attended this course. Partner agencies include the cities of Lakewood, University Place and Tacoma, Lakewood, UP and Tacoma Police, Pierce County Department of Emergency Management, Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, Port of Tacoma and Public Works.
This course was sponsored and paid for by FEMA, including training, lodging and airfare expenses.
