Incident Action Plans

There is an Incident Action Plan (IAP) for each operational period in responding to a critical incident, disaster or catastrophe. The IAP usually covers 12 hours. IAPs, based on FEMA's Incident Command System (ICS), include a briefing on health and safety requirements that the emergency/first responders should observe, the primary materials and hazards that drive the health and safety requirements, and operational challenges that the emergency/first responders will face. Emergency responders may include a variety of operational branches, agencies and disciplines, depending on the type and magnitude of the incident. Basic operational branches would include fire service, law enforcement, emergency medical services, search and rescue, and the like. More complicated incidents might also require air or water-based operations branches.

There is one overall question for this week focusing on several issues or elements, which is to be addressed in your response:

1). Select a major disaster or catastrophic event from the news, and present your analysis for inclusion in an IAP, covering the elements just described.

• Primary materials and hazards that could threaten emergency/first responders.
• Health and safety requirements for those responders.
• Operational challenges.