Taking Lead in an Emergency Situation
At Selkirk College, we take time to research best practices prior to implementing any emergency procedures for our staff, and we follow that same philosophy when implementing the College's emergency response program. We are currently in the process of adopting the Incident Command System, a standard on site command and control system used to manage emergency incidents and planned events. Once adopted, this system transforms the confusion of an emergency into a well-managed response by providing critical answers to "Who's in Charge" and "What’s my Job".
Who's in Charge? Establishment of Command:
The person in charge of an incident is called the Incident Commander. The incident command position has been granted a level of authority by the President of the College to make the decisions necessary to accomplish the goals listed below. This means that regardless of who steps in as Incident Commander and what level of authority his or her regular job has, the incumbent is granted the Incident Commander's designated level of the authority during an incident.
Designated individuals at the college are in the process of being trained to step in as Incident Commander should an incident occur. These individual’s receive notification to establish command when staff follow the chain of command and notify their supervisor immediately of an emergency.
What's my Job?
An important piece of the ICS is that the Incident Commander is solely responsible for establishing incident objectives and strategies, and is directly responsible for ensuring that all functional area activities are directed towards that strategy. The ICS has eight goals and guiding principles that Selkirk follows when responding to an emergency:
- Protect the health and safety of all responders
- Save lives
- Reduce suffering
- Protect public health
- Protect infrastructure
- Protect property
- Protect the environment
- Reduce economic and social losses
For all staff regardless of your level within the organization, your job in an emergency is to follow the first three goals and guiding principles and then notify your supervisor of the situation so that the college’s designated individuals will become notified to establish command to carry out the remaining goals. If you’ve been trained in ICS, you’ll know that your job is to be on stand-by and to be prepared to receive direction from the Incident Commander.