Deputy Chief (ret.) Burton W. Phelps makes a good case for the use of incident commander assistants in his article "The Case for an Aide at Multiple-Alarm Incidents" (August 2002). Budget cuts, unfortunately, have done away with the ability of many agencies to assign chiefs' aides as they did in the past. But the tasks of communications, resource accountability, and documentation need not be restricted to line firefighters. Why not use a resource at the command post who accomplishes those very tasks every day—the fire dispatcher?
A number of fire departments in the California Bay area have acknowledged the value a dispatcher—trained and certified in the incident command system and field command post operations or communications management—can bring to command post coherency by establishing incident dispatcher teams (IDTs). The concept is not a new one: FDNY, for example, has staffed its Field Communications Unit with civilian fire dispatchers for decades, deploying citywide on any greater alarm fire; many other agencies have selectively deployed dispatchers to staff mobile command vehicles during major incidents. What Bay area departments have done is to standardize the concept by creating a deployable team of dispatchers, on call and available to respond from one to four members from off-duty to the command post of an incident at any time. One of them brings out the department's mobile communications van.
Fire departments in San Jose and Mountain View, California, spearheaded the concept, new to most firefighters and chiefs, who quickly embraced the notion after working with the dispatchers a time or two and realizing the benefits. Palo Alto, Sunnyvale, Gilroy, Napa, San Mateo County Communications, Marin County Communications, and others have all developed IDTs based on those in San Jose and Mountain View.
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