Firefighting

EMERGENCY SUPPORT FUNCTION 4

Firefighting

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I. GENERAL INFORMATION

A. Purpose

To provide guidance for the coordination of public fire and life safety services.

B. Scope

1. This ESF addresses firefighting activities for fires occurring separately or coincidentally with a significant natural or technological emergency or disaster. The scope of this section will not address details regarding mutual aid and regional fire mobilization responsibilities and procedures that are contained in other documents.

2. Planning for every firefighting contingency is beyond the scope of this ESF but it will outline broad objectives that will provide the greatest protection of life and property that can be achieved with the resources available.

II. POLICIES

A. During emergencies or disasters, local fire services mobilize all available apparatus and personnel required to manage the situation. Mutual aid agreements are activated when initial resources are inadequate. When mutual aid and local resources are exhausted, the provisions for regional and state fire mobilization apply.

B. Each local, state or Federal agency will assume the full cost of protection of the lands within its respective boundaries unless other arrangements are made. Fire protection agencies should not incur costs in jurisdictions outside their area without reimbursement unless there is a local mutual aid agreement between those jurisdictions. It is essential that the issue of financial limitation be clarified through proper official channels for efficient execution of fire support.

III. SITUATION

A. Emergency/Disaster Conditions and Hazards

Refer to the Pierce County Hazard Identification and Vulnerability Analysis.

B. Planning Assumptions

1. Urban, rural, and wildland fires will occur within Pierce County. In the event of an earthquake or other emergency or disaster, large, damaging fires are also likely to occur.

2. In a disaster some firefighting resources will become scarce or damaged.

3. Wheeled-vehicle access may be hampered by bridge failures, landslides, etc., making conventional travel to the fire locations extremely difficult or impossible. Aerial attack may be needed in these situations.

4. Efficient and effective mutual aid among the various local, county, state, and Federal fire services requires the use of the Incident Command System (ICS) together with compatible firefighting equipment and communications.

IV. CONCEPT OF OPERATIONS

A. The public fire and life safety services in Pierce County include municipal fire departments, county fire protection districts, the U.S. Forest Service, the National Park Service, the Department of Natural Resources and the military bases.

B. Fire services within Pierce County are all signatory to a county-wide mutual aid agreement. The fire services also cooperate in a county-wide mutual aid disaster plan with predetermined strike team and task force identification and coordination. This plan is activated through Fire Comm at Pierce County Fire Protection District #2 (Lakewood).

C. The Pierce County Fire Chiefs' Association (PCFCA) Emergency Management Committee is the lead group for emergency planning with the fire services. Fire services which are not members of the Association will be coordinated with on a case-by-case basis.

D. The PCFCA will designate a county Fire Coordinator to be an overall coordinator of fire service activities during a disaster. The Fire Coordinator may operate from a field command post or the Pierce County Emergency Operations Center (EOC), as necessary. If the Fire Coordinator works from a field command post, a liaison may be designated to go to the EOC.

E. Upon the occurrence of a major disaster, such as an earthquake, county fire services are requested to make initial assessments of their personnel, apparatus, equipment and facilities and report this information as soon as possible to the Pierce County Department of Emergency Management (DEM) or to the EOC.

F. To the maximum extent possible, fire services are requested to also make initial damage assessments of their jurisdictions and to report this information to the DEM or the EOC. This information should include an assessment of what has happened, what the fire service is able to do about it with existing resources, and what specific assistance is needed.

G. To facilitate coordination in a major event, the county Fire Coordinator may divide the county into zones and in coordination with respective Incident Commanders in the zones, designate Zone Coordinators. Coordination within a designated zone would be the responsibility of the Zone Coordinator. Direction and control of individual fire service staffing and equipment would be the responsibility of that agency. It is anticipated that specific incident objectives and policy decisions would be set by respective Incident Commanders in coordination with the county Fire Coordinator and/or Zone Coordinators.

H. The emergency medical capabilities of the fire services are covered in ESF 8. The hazardous materials capabilities of the fire services are covered in ESF 10.

V. RESPONSIBILITIES

A. Primary Agency

1. Pierce County Fire Services

a. act as lead agencies in the provision of fire suppression and control, and immediate life safety services within their respective fire protection jurisdictions, and support other fire protection agencies if they are signatories to a mutual aid agreement.

b. conduct light duty rescue operations.

c. maintain inventories of firefighting staffing and equipment.

d. provide initial and continuing situation assessment information of major incidents to the DEM or EOC.

e. identify and provide county Fire Coordinators

1. coordinate fire service resources and activities during disaster operations.

2. collect situation reports of initial assessment information and ongoing operations from the field and relays information to the DEM and the EOC.

f. identify and provide county Fire Zone Coordinators.

1. collect and relay information to the Fire Coordinator including available and committed staffing and equipment, and operational needs.

2. act as Fire Coordinator, as needed.

B. Support Agencies-Pierce County Departments

1. Emergency Management

a. support fire suppression operations with resources not covered under mutual aid agreements.

b. activate EOC, if necessary.

c. Fire Prevention Bureau

coordinate fire prevention activities in unincorporated Pierce County and assist fire districts in fire prevention planning and programs.

2. Sheriff's Department

Assist in the identification of crime scenes and provide appropriate security.

VI. REFERENCES

None

VII. DEFINITIONS AND TERMS

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VIII. TABS

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