the question was:

1. Describe the activities associated with incident termination.

2. Describe the transferring responsibilty of the incident scene – compare and contrast two differing events, i.e. only local resources actively involved, multi-state resources involved.

3. Describe how to conduct a debriefing with response and receiving personnel.  In addition, describe how, when, and why you would incorporate lessons learned for the next event.  Finally, how do you translate the lessons learned into lessons implemented.

this is the 1st post from my classmate afra need to responded :

1. Describe the activities associated with incident termination.

Communities respond to numerous incidents each day resulting from hazardous materials. Hazardous materials refer to any biological, chemical, radiological, or physical agents that can cause harm to humans, animals, and the environment. Incident termination involves all the activities that support the transition between the emergency phase and the recovery operations phase. The incident termination phase consists of the documentation of incident response operations, including the hazards, encountered, the problem, safety procedures, involved agencies, on site processes, and the learned lessons (Noll et al., 2016). The primary activities associated with incident termination include debriefing, post- incident analysis, and incident critique. A debrief provides a quick inventory after an incident and the assessment of damage on the used equipment. The post- incident investigation lead to the improvement of emergency response in the future. It ensures correct reporting of the incidents and the determination of financial accountability in the response. Critique of the event allows for an extension of suggestions that lead to improved emergency response system and the prevention of injuries.

2. Describe the transferring responsibility of the incident scene – compare and contrast two differing events, i.e. only local resources actively involved, multi-state resources involved.

Transferring responsibility for the incident scene refers to the formal regard for the response efforts of incident termination. It involves the official transfer of duties of an incident scene from one agency to another. First, it requires the stabilization of the incident scene with no physical hazards or threats. The guidelines for transferring incident scene responsibility include a briefing of the officer in command of the incident  by face to face or radio communication. A meeting with the representatives when transferring responsibility helps in handling any form of hazards remaining on the incident scene. Transfer briefing covers the nature of the incident, amount and names of hazardous materials, mitigation measures taken, and the potential risks. The levels of response to various events vary depending on the size of the emergency. Some incidents are small- scale and require local resources to manage, handled by the local emergency units (Bevelacqua & Norman, 2018). Significant events require a response by both regional and multi- state resources. Emergency response to local fire outbreak on a residential building requires the use of local available resources including local firefighters and vehicles within the local fire department unit to manage. The emission of industrial wastewater by local industries that contains hazardous chemicals into local rivers is significant incident that requires an emergency response from both regional and multi- state parties. The dangerous chemicals in local rivers present danger to other states that use water from the same river, which may be harmful to humans, animals, and the environment. it requires an unprecedented response with resources from local states as well as the other states to deal with the situation effectively.  Support from different regions including human resources can help by providing training on water treatment procedures to prevent the release of hazardous chemicals into the rivers. The differentiating factor between the multi- state and the local response in the emission of dangerous wastewater and domestic fire incident is the level of assistance required by the response teams.

3. Describe how to conduct a debriefing with response and receiving personnel.  In addition, describe how, when, and why you would incorporate lessons learned for the next event.  Finally, how do you translate the lessons learned into lessons implemented.

Debriefing with the response and receiving personnel requires leadership to communicate information between the groups effectively. Effective debriefing informs the responders of the specific risks of exposure and helps in the identification of the damaged recovery equipment. Debriefing also serves to assign responsibilities to responders (Bahr, 2018). Leaders should conduct debriefings in locations with no distractions to briefly review the incident in not more than twenty minutes. The leader does not require analyzing every action of each responder when conducting debrief. The lessons learned to promote teamwork, objectivity,  improvement of operations, and information sharing between the responses and receiving personnel. Lessons learned should get incorporated during the planning for an emergency response using the action review documents. It enables the use of the identified opportunities and strengths from the previous event for improved response. Translating the lessons learned into implemented actions requires a set of quarterly reviews and assigning someone the responsibility of tracking the implementation of the experiences and the recommendations. The lessons learned should be incorporated into the formal application and improvement plan to ensure efficient tracking.

References:

Bahr, N. J. (2018). System safety engineering and risk assessment: a practical approach. CRC press.

Bevelacqua, A. T., & Norman, L. A. (2018). Hazardous materials, chemistry. Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Noll, G. G., Hildebrand, M. S., Schnepp, R., & Rudner, G. D. (2016). Hazardous Materials: Managing the Incident. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.

this is the 2nd post from my classmate fran need to responded :

1. Describe the activities associated with incident termination.

As best described by Noll and Hildebrand, the 8thstep of Incident management is the termination process. This process begins the journey to a certain level of normalcy post a hazardous material incident regardless of the size and magnitude. Termination consist of demobilizing the emergency crews and it commences the clean up, restoration and recovery efforts. This process has to be formally declared and the involvement of the agencies that will be taking over has to be properly documented. The IC has to transfer command to the PERO Incident Commander as the players will shift their focus to clean up, point of contact as well as post-incident debriefing.

1. Describe the transferring responsibility of the incident scene – compare and contrast two differing events, i.e. only local resources actively involved, multi-state resources involved.

Post incident, transferring the scene is not only part of the 8thstep but it’s a crucial time that must be documented. The players change and the focus of the mission shifts from recovery to reinstatement. In the event of a dwelling fire, which I am going to utilize as part of my local response. After the fire has been extinguished, the job of the fire department is not over. The fire scene is transferred to the Fire Marshall which will make determinations and will investigate causes such as electrical problems of foul play. The FM releases the scene to the Community Assistance Team (CAT team,) who works with the residents and might request other agencies such as Red Cross for displaced occupants or Red Paw for animals needing housing. While a Multi-Agency response is more extensive. As we saw with Deep Water Horizon, the release of a hazard material which in that case was crude oil, sparked a nationwide response. The Multi-Agency effort had too many hands in the pot, therefore it is important to follow checklist and the ICS framework. D.W.H., started with the the local emergency response team onboard the rig, once they realize the severity of the incident, additional help was requested. A collected effort between Transocean Offshore drilling, EPA, USCG, FEMA, OSHA and Department of state where among some of the few that participated. Furthermore, the purpose of this post is to talk about the incident scene transfer efforts. Most of the clean up efforts where performed by USCG and contractors, which of course where paid by BP via fines and contractional billing.

3. Describe how to conduct a debriefing with response and receiving personnel.  In addition, describe how, when, and why you would incorporate lessons learned for the next event.  Finally, how do you translate the lessons learned into lessons implemented.

According to Noll and Hildebrand, “The purpose of the incident debriefing in the field is to provide accurate information concerning the hazards and risk involved directly to the people who may have been exposed, contaminated, or in some way affected by the response.” (Noll, 2014)     The debriefing process should be systematic, factual, purposeful, and topics should be passed on, in order of importance. This approach will allow the response team to state what steps where done and the receiving personnel will have a better understanding of what transpire during the response. The second portion of the debrief is associated with lessons learned, evaluation of equipment used and its effectiveness as well as short-coming as a team without blaming individuals. This is by far the hardest part for emergency responders to do, due to the vulnerability associated with it. The mission approach and actions taken after the effectiveness is evaluated should be implemented and incorporated into future events. My approach on lessons learned into lessons implemented starts with self accountability. Rome was not built in one day; therefore, every little event/call should be a learning experience that you implement in your next call. The name of the game is to attempt to have a flawless event but in this line of business which is very dynamic and filled unforeseen circumstances, previous event paved the way for SOG’s, SOP’s, checklist and other necessary tools.

Reference:

Noll, Hilderbrand, and Yvossa. 2019. Hazardous material: Managing the incident (4th ed.)