Water-only Systems and Incident Action Plan

An incident action plan is vital in all emergency situations such as fire emergency. The incident action plan will help the commander and the firefighters implement strategies for faster and more effective response to fire emergencies. Basically, the incident action plan should include specific operational objectives, general and specific response tactics to achieve these objectives, specific tasks, logistic plan, communications plan, health and safety plan and incident map. All of these documents are important for the incident command system since there are many factors that have to be considered in fire protection including the health and safety of the firefighters.

Water-Only Systems and Its Influence on Incident Action Plan

Essentially, fire protection response is very critical. This is why the commander should create a comprehensive and feasible incident action plan. While the plan has many aspects and factors to consider, one of the most important among these is the knowledge of water-only systems. Apparently, the commander should know where and when the water is available and determine which water source is necessary to fight the fire at a certain site or location.

The commander’s knowledge of the water-only systems has a big influence on how he is going to plan responses to fire emergencies. For instance, if there is a deficiency in the available water source, the commander should consider this problem in the plan and think of a strategy to resolve this problem where the available water source will match the fire requirements. When such problems crop up, the commander should identify specific strategies to address the problem so they will come to the location well prepared and well equipped with necessary tools to control and fight the fire.

As a commander, it is his job to identify and understand how the water-only system works and operates to identify helpful tactics and strategies for the fire department to implement. All these strategies should be included in the incident action plan and must be followed during fire emergencies. The job of firefighters is not easy and there are many other problems that they may face during the operation and if there is a problem with the water-only system, the situation will be worse and may compromise the safety or lives of the victims. If the commander does not have ample knowledge of the water-only systems, the incident action plan will not serve its purpose and the entire fire department will not achieve their objectives.

Another important thing to locate is the connection of fire department to the sprinkler system. They should know the type and capacity of the water sprinkler as well as the type of fire pumps and where they are located. Fire alarm systems, standpipe connections and other hazard protection systems should also be located properly and be included in the incident action plan (Jabukowski, 2013). Apart from locating various systems crucial to fire protection, it is also essential for the fire department to ensure a copy of the design of the water-only system or even talk to the fire engineers to fully understand the design of the system. This is an important action because some systems have complicated design which may impede the efforts of the fire fighters during emergencies.

Conclusion

Concisely, knowledge and skills go hand in hand when responding to fire emergencies and creating an incident action plan. The knowledge of the water-only systems is one of the most important things that the commander has to consider to come up with effective strategies and tactics for a safer and quicker emergency response. The knowledge of various fire protection systems should be applied to the incident action plan to determine possible problems earlier and address them immediately to prevent hazards during operations.