TRAINING UPDATES FIREFIGHTERS ON NEW SYSTEM

When a fire broke out in a warehouse at 2143 Independence April 1, five fire engines, a ladder truck and several special units were dispatched.

It took 45 firefighters more than an hour to bring the fire under control and several hours to extinguish the flames. In the end, the fire gutted a vast majority of the 150-by-50-foot building, causing the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars in raw materials and equipment.

At the time, Cape Girardeau Fire Chief Robert L. Ridgeway had been on the job for less than three weeks, coming here from a department in Massachusetts. It was the first major fire he worked with the Cape Girardeau Fire Department.

"During that fiasco, you didn't understand where I was coming from and I didn't understand what you were trying to tell me," Ridgeway told a group of firefighters during a recent training session. "So we burned it down together; it probably would have burned to the ground anyway."

To remedy the situation and to promote a universal understanding between the city department and fire departments throughout the country, local firefighters are "coming up to code" by learning and implementing the National Fire Association's Incident Management System (IMS).

"This won't do you a bit of good if we try and use this for the first time at a major fire," Ridgeway said. "It's something that must be used every day for every call; it has to be part of your thought process every day."`

"A lot of hard mistakes have gone into the development of this system," he said.

The system originally dubbed the Incident Command System (ICS) was formally written after the devastating forest fires in California in 1970. As a result of the sweeping fires, agencies saw the need to document a system that allowed them to work together toward a common goal in an effective and efficient manner.

Ridgeway said that although the formal system may have been written down and officially named in 1970, the concept has been with man through millennia.

"It's a system of reliability and accountability as old as we are," Ridgeway said. "The day man identified a need for organization which applied to emergency management, this system was born."

IMS is designed to begin developing from the time an incident occurs until the requirement for management and operations no longer exists. The basic structure of an IMS can be established and expanded or contracted, depending upon the changing conditions of the incident.

It's overall design panders to any type or size of emergency.

The system "will work from everything from an auto fire to a nuclear attack," Ridgeway said. "Communication is the key that's what it's all about. A good ICS is peat and repeat," he said.

The department plans to implement the system Friday. Representatives from other agencies, including Jackson, Scott City and East County fire departments have attended sessions held at Fire Station No. 1.

Since both Ridgeway and training officer Mark Hashheider are certified to teach the course, and the state provides written materials at no cost, the program is being implemented at no cost to the city.

Cape Girardeau firefighters have known since Ridgeway joined the department that they would go to the standardized form of emergency management. About half of the department has already had some formal IMS training, Ridgeway said.

"We needed to go to the IMS because it's required by federal regulations," Ridgeway said. "Besides, it's plain-old good management."

The reasoning behind not implementing the system earlier was due partly to Ridgeway's unfamiliarity with the department and the community. In addition, the chief appointed a committee of firefighters to evaluate different IMS programs and choose the best to present to their peers.

"The beauty of IMS is you can take it anywhere," Ridgeway said. "It's a universally understood language in firefighting, applicable to all situations."

In addition, the department will no longer use the traditional 10-codes in communications.

"It's just as effective to say `We've arrived at the scene' as it is to go 10-23," he said. "In fact, a company can tell the dispatcher and other trucks what side of the building they've arrived on or other pertinent information that 10-23 just doesn't cover."

As part of their training, firefighters are going through a series of scenarios, which, in small groups, they must outline a plan of attack and a system of scene management.

"We'll burn them down by the numbers," Ridgeway said. "That's one way to get (firefighters) thinking along IMS lines, by giving them situations where it's most effective."

The chief said scenario training can be transferred to situations close to home.

"This place is beautiful for disaster preplanning," Ridgeway said. "You have the New Madrid Fault, tornadoes, severe storms and floods, not to mention the Industrial Park area (south of Cape Girardeau) where who-knows-what kinds of chemicals are stored in their buildings."

The training is not only designed to make the department more efficient in handling of large and potentially dangerous situations, but also to protect the firefighters.

"If someone doesn't call the shots, the fire will," he said. "When people are out free-lancing, that's when someone get's hurt.

"It comes down to either managing the incident, or the incident will manage you," he said.