National Incident Management System

What is NIMS?

On February 28, 2003, President Bush issued Homeland Security Directive – 5.

HSPD – 5 directed the Secretary of Homeland Security to develop and administer a National Incident Management System. The intent was developing a system that would enable government, private sectors, and non-governmental entities to work together under auspices of a common system to deal with emergency situations. For more information:  FEMA: National Incident Management System

Compliancy to this directive not only took initial re-tooling of written plans, it also included mandatory minimum levels of training in Incident Management practices. Compliancy to this directive is going to be an ongoing process from the Federal, State, County, and Local Municipal levels.

Based on conversation with our County Coordinator, the City of Titusville is in the lead of the municipalities of Crawford County regarding NIMS compliancy.

The City hopes, with cooperation from all, we can continue to have the others follow our lead in future compliance efforts regarding the NIMS HSPD – 5 processes.  Compliancy to this directive will be ongoing and dynamic.  If you have any questions regarding NIMS compliancy, you may contact either the City Manager or Fire Chief Joseph Crotty at 814-827-5300.

Titusville's "Road to Compliance"

Step 1

In March of 2003, the Titusville City Council by motion authorized the proper city official to enter into an Emergency Operations Plan development grant by and between  Crawford County and the City.  The local plan was re-written in compliance with the National Incident Management Systems framework.

Step 2

In June of 2006, Chief Joseph Crotty and Allen Clark of the Crawford County Office of Emergency services conducted IS-700 training for the City of Titusville’s elected officials, administrative workers, and Department of Public Works employees. Additionally, members of our Board of Health and supervision employees from the Titusville Area School District participated. The intent of this initial compliance training, other than compliancy, was to introduce the National Incident Management System and its concept of operations.

Step 3

In August 2006, a resolution will be presented to Titusville City Council that attests that all who are required have received initial compliance training pursuant to the standard. Training for the effected has taken place and all that need be done is the formality of passing the resolution. A template for this resolution has been provided by our County EMA Officials to the City Manager’s Office.

Step 4

The next step in the process is to complete the IS – 100 training. IS – 100 training is an introduction to the Incident Command System that was referred to in the initial IS – 700 training sessions completed in June of this year. The target audience for compliance in this training will be the same individuals that were in attendance for the IS – 700 sessions. These sessions will like the initial sessions, be 4 hours in duration. We will attempt to make the same offer of 3 separate sessions to facilitate all concerned.  This next step is anticipated to take place in the fall / winter time period.