ST.CLAIR COUNTY AREA

MUTUAL AID BOX ALARM SYSTEM

DIVISION 32

STANDARD OPERATING GUIDELINES

 

A.      BOX ALARM CARDS

 

1.     Each department will be responsible for completing box alarm cards for their department.

2.     Box card terminology and suggested box alarm card formats are listed in Attachment A. The actual format of a department's box alarm card is left up to that department and its dispatching agency.

3.     Each department will be responsible for insuring that its dispatching agency receives copies of its box alarm cards.  Each department is also responsible for insuring that its box alarm cards are current and that its dispatching agency has current copies.

4.     When assigning numbers to box alarm cards, the first two digits must be the MABAS identifier number for that particular department (this is to avoid duplicate numbers)

 

B.            EMERGENCY SCENE MANAGEMENT

1.    All members of MABAS Division 32 will utilize the St. Clair County Incident Command System to manage the emergency scene. (See attachment B.)

2.     When a box alarm has been struck, Incident Command will, in addition to other sector officers, establish a Staging officer to insure that responding departments are quickly and efficiently utilized in the emergency.  The Staging officer must establish a staging area and inform Command and responding departments of its location.

3.    If a box alarm is struck, and further size-up at the scene results in the

determination that responding departments are not required, the incident commander will call off responding departments as soon as possible.

4.    If a responding department is unable to fulfill its obligation under the utilized box card, it will notify the stricken departments dispatching agency as soon as this determination has been made, that it will be unable to respond.  The dispatching agency will immediately notify incident command.  It will then be the decision of incident command to request the next alarm on that box card.

 

C.   EMERGENCY SCENE COMMUNICATIONS

1.    All emergency communications will be in common English text.  No"10"codes will be used other than the commonly accepted " 10-04".

2.    If a department uses an emergency scene radio frequency other than 154.190 or 154.265, it is the responsibility of that department to insure that all departments on its box cards are aware of that fact.  It will be the responsibility of the stricken department and its mutual aid departments to establish a common frequency.

3.      All MABAS members must have 154.190 and 154.265 on at least one mobile and one portable

4.   When requesting a box card alarm, the stricken department will provide the dispatching agency with the following information.

                   a. the stricken department name;

                   b. the nature of the call;

                   c. the box card number,

                   d. the level of the alarm;

                   e. the EXACT location;

                   f. the location of command, if established;

                   g. the location of staging, if established.

5.    If a dispatching agency has not had a radio response from a department it has dispatched in regards to a box card alarm within 4 minutes, it will notify the stricken department's dispatching agency (if different) that the requested department is unable to respond.  The stricken department's dispatching agency will, in turn, notify incident command.  Incident command will then decide on what course of action to take.

6.    All MABAS Division 32 members must utilize the four digit apparatus numbering system established by the MABAS Division 32 executive board.

 

D.  PERSONNEL ACCOUNTABILITY SYSTEM

1.    All emergency response personnel responding to a box card alarm will be provided with two identical personal identification "badges".

2.     These badges will provide, as a minimum the following information:

a.          the identity of the emergency responder, and;

b.          the identity of the emergency responder's department;

c.          an emergency notification telephone number;

d.          a photograph.

3.    One of the badges will be left on the apparatus that the emergency responder arrives on and the second will be left at a location established by incident command.

4.    Any emergency responder arriving on the emergency scene without these personnel accountability badges will not be allowed to participate in emergency scene activities.

5.    All responders to a box card alarm must be from a department dispatched from that particular box card and must have the appropriate personnel accountability badges.  Individuals not complying with this requirement will not be allowed to participate in the alarm.

 

 

E.      TASK FORCE ASSIGNMENTS

1. Task forces will be established by the executive committee of MABAS Division 32.

2. Participation in these task forces will be on a voluntary basis.

3.  The division 32 executive committee, will establish box alarm cards for these task forces.

4.  Apparatus will be defined using the MABAS definitions and any apparatus responding on a task force assignment must meet current NFPA standards for the particular apparatus.

      5.   Firefighters participating in a task force assignment must be trained to the Firefighter 11 level or equivalent as a           

           minimum.  Firefighters responding to a hazmat incident in a support role must be trained to the operations level or    

         equivalent as a minimum.  Hazmat team members responding to a hazmat incident must be trained to the technician level

         or equivalent.    

  1. Firefighters participating in a task force assignment must be equipped with NFPA compliant bunker gear, NIOSH compliant SCBA, and one additional SCBA bottle.  

7.      The meeting location for all task force responders will be at the Cracker Barrel restaurant parking lot near the intersection of 1-64 and 1-255.

 

F.         HAZMAT INCIDENTS

 (Utilizing St. Clair County Special Emergency Services Association)

 

1.      When a department receives a call that is a potential hazardous materials response,

the incident command of the stricken department will respond to the scene and obtain as much information regarding the incident as possible.

2.    After the information has been secured, incident command will contact CENCOM and request the County hazmat duty officer be paged and requested to contact the stricken department's incident command.  The stricken department will provide a telephone number for the duty officer to contact.

3.    The stricken department's incident command and the hazmat duty officer will determine if a response by the hazmat team is warranted.  If a response is warranted the hazmat duty officer will notify CENCOM to page out the County hazmat team.

4.    The County hazmat team members will respond to the stricken department's engine house.  If the stricken department has more than one engine house, incident command will inform the hazmat duty officer which engine house to respond to so this information can be included in the page to the hazmat team.  If, for whatever reason, the stricken department's engine house is not available to the hazmat team, the stricken department's incident command will select another location and inform the hazmat duty officer of this location.

 

 

G.   HAZMAT OR SPECIALIZED CALLS UTILIZING AGENCIES OTHER THAN SCSESA.

 

Departments utilizing agencies other than SCSESA for specialized calls are responsible for developing procedures for the notification, response, and utilization of these agencies and communicating these procedures to their dispatching agencies.

 

 

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