FEMA: IMATs Incident Management Assistance Teams

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

FEMA: IMATs Incident Management Assistance Teams

FEMA has developed a next generation of rapidly deployable emergency response teams called Incident Management Assistance Teams (IMATs).

The IMATs are full-time, rapid-response teams with dedicated staff able to deploy within two hours and arrive at an incident within 12 hours to support the local incident commander. The teams support the initial establishment of a unified command and provide situational awareness for federal and state decision-makers crucial to determining the level and type of immediate federal support that may be required.

IMATs were developed from an expanded concept of the former Emergency Response Teams (ERT) at the National and Regional levels. The plan is to establish three National IMATs with 16 fulltime staff, and 13 Regional IMATs staffed with 4 fulltime and 6 collateral duty personnel each.

All ten FEMA Regions will have at least one Regional IMAT. Regions II, IV and VI will have two

Regional IMATs. Currently, two National IMATs and ten Regional IMATs are operational. The
remaining one National and three Regional IMATs will be established later this year.

IMATs provide a forward federal presence to facilitate the management of the national response to catastrophic incidents. The primary mission of a FEMA IMAT is to rapidly deploy to an incident or incident-threatened venue, provide leadership in the identification and provision of federal assistance, and coordinate and integrate inter-jurisdictional response in support of an affected state or territory.

IMATs are led by experienced, senior-level emergency managers and staffed with a core of
permanent full-time employees, unlike FEMA’s Emergency Response Teams (ERT), which were staffed on a collateral duty basis. When not deployed, the teams are responsible for building and maintaining a close working relationship with regional, state, tribal, and local emergency management officials, federal partners, and the private sector to support planning, training, exercising, and other activities in preparation for disaster response.

Both national and regional-level teams can be augmented with additional staff from other
departments and agencies as needed and are supported by FEMA’s Mobile Emergency Response Support elements. The teams are fully compliant with the National Incident Management System and the Incident Command System and they train and exercise as a unit.
• The National IMAT-West is located in Sacramento, California.
• The National IMAT-East and the third National IMAT are co-located in Herndon, Virginia.
• The Regional IMATs are located at the Regional Offices.

“FEMA’s mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we
work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards.”

CFN - California Fire News 2012

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How fires get their names

Every year in California thousands of wildfires start throughout the state. In most cases, the dispatch center sending the initial resources to a wildland fire will designate a name for the fire, but the first on scene engine or fire official can also name the incident. Fires are usually named for the area in which they start – a geographical location, local landmark, street, lake, mountain, peak, etc. Quickly naming the fire provides responding fire resources with an additional locater, and allows fire officials to track and prioritize incidents by name. For example during the Southern California Fire Siege of 2003, the largest wildland fire in California history, the Cedar Fire in San Diego County, was named after the Cedar Creek Falls area where it started. The destructive Old Fire, which burned during the same time period in San Bernardino County, was named after the road along which it started - Old Waterman Canyon Road.

CAL FIRE is the largest fire department in California and the second largest fire department in the United States. CDF - CAL FIRE Firefighters answer the call more than 300,000 times a year. CAL FIRE Firefighters make up the fire department for 30 of our 58 counties in California and more than 100 local communities. We serve as the incident command during many of California’s most serious disasters. CAL FIRE Firefighters respond to many various types and forms of calls ranging from structural fires, to auto accidents, to earthquakes, to floods, to the spilling of hazardous materials, to every conceivable disaster; CAL FIRE answer's the calls. CAL FIRE is the largest fire department in California and the second largest fire department in the United States . CAL FIRE firefighters protect 33 million acres of State Responsibility Area (SRA). We have over 4,000 members within CAL FIRE and CAL FIRE is associated with the California Professional Firefighters (CPF) and the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF).

CFN - CALIFORNIA FIRE NEWS - CAL FIRE NEWS

Tuesday, October 30, 2012