What is the Incident Command System (ICS)?
ICS is a standardized on-scene incident management concept designed specifically to allow responders to adopt an integrated organizational structure equal to the complexity and demands of any single incident or multiple incidents without being hindered by jurisdictional boundaries. In the early 1970s, ICS was developed to manage rapidly moving wildfires and to address the following problems: Too many people reporting to one supervisor; Different emergency response organizational structures; Lack of reliable incident information; Inadequate and incompatible communications; Lack of structure for coordinated planning among agencies; Unclear lines of authority; Terminology differences among agencies; and Unclear or unspecified incident objectives. In 1980, federal officials transitioned ICS into a national program called the National Interagency Incident Management System (NIIMS), which became the basis of a response management system for all federal agencies with wildfire management respo
