Incident Commander

In each emergency response there is one person in charge, the Incident Commander. In fact, out of all the Incident Command System (ICS) positions, the Incident Commander is the only one that is always filled. The Incident Commander does the jobs of all ICS positions until the size of the response requires more people to help maintain the span of control (supervising 3-7 resources, with 5 being optimum).

In larger incidents involving more than one response agency (health and fire for example), there may be a need to have a Unified Command where an Incident Commander from health and an Incident Commander from fire work together side by side setting a common set of objectives for the emergency response.

In public health emergencies all activated MRC volunteers will report to the Davis County Health Department who will have a staff member either serving as the Incident Commander, a partner in the Unified Command, or as a supervisor within the Operations Section.

To learn more about Incident Commander and all ICS operations, complete (or review) FEMA Independent Study Course 100.a: Introduction to Incident Command System, and Independent Study Course 200.a: ICS for Single Resources and Initial Action Incidents.