Emergency response teams Incident Commander

V Team Procedures The emergency response team procedures that detail the responsibilities and duties of each ERT member. Responsibilities and duties are detailed by job description, Incident Commander, fire Captain, fire brigade team member, fire equipment operator, hazardous material response specialist, and other associated emergency response members. 

Participates within Emergency Response Teams or Incident Command System ... 

Incident Command System—Procedure for emergency management used by fire departments and other emergency response teams. 

If an emergency is declared, the Emergency Response Team (ERT) will take control of operations. There must be one person, the Incident Commander, who is in charge of the team— usually the Offshore Installation Manager (OIM). He or she has total control over all operations and activities on the facility. The ERT will consist of selected employees who are specially trained to respond to fires, explosions, helicopter crashes, and other potential disasters. 

V. Victim management Victim management includes rapid stabilization and removal from the Exclusion Zone, initial decontamination, delivery to emergency medical services personnel at the Support Zone perimeter, and medical assessment and treatment in the support area. Usually only the HazMat team or other fire department personnel with appropriate training and protective gear will be responsible for rescue from the hot zone, where skin and respiratory protection may be critical. Emergency medical personnel without specific training and appropriate equipment must not enter the hot zone unless it is determined to be safe by the Incident Commander and the medical officer. 

Personnel who responded to a chemical spill of methyl acrylate were never briefed by facility personnel. As a result, they did not assume command of the event, even though facility procedures require the command to be transferred to Emergency Management and Response (EM R) if the facility does not have adequate resources to handle an event. The fact that the facility called for the hazardous materials (HAZMAT) team and used the services of occupational medicine was a sign that it did not have the necessary personnel to deal with the event, so EM R should have assumed the role of incident commander. Furthermore, no one was concerned about the flammability of the chemical. No one called the lire department to respond as a precautionary measure. If the methyl... 

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