Texas Fire Chief - Spring/Summer 2009 - (Page 19)

the mutual aid stakeholders meeting to discuss the development of an Intrastate Mutual Aid System for Texas. Fire Chief Dannie Smith, then 1st Vice President for TFCA, volunteered to attend and report back to TFCA. On his return, Chief Smith recommended that TFCA support this initiative and put together a task force to begin the process. The goal was to develop a formalized, comprehensive statewide fire service mutual aid system. TFCA then appointed a committee of eight members, all fire chiefs, to work with the assigned Technical Expert (Chief Terry Lipinski) to begin preparing a draft plan. The long-term intent was to correlate this initiative with the national initiative, The National Fire Service Intrastate Mutual Aid System (NFSIMAS). integrated statewide mutual aid response capabilities between local government entities without a written mutual aid agreement. The Texas Intrastate Fire Mutual Aid System (TIFMAS) The development of the TIFMAS was a partnership between Texas Fire Chiefs and the Texas Forest Service (TFS). The Texas Forest Service is an agency of the State of Texas and is part of The Texas A&M University System. The TIFMAS document is a part of the State of Texas Emergency Management Plan as Appendix 6 of Annex F-Firefighting. The TFS is responsible for providing direction and control of Annex F (Firefighting) of the State of Texas Emergency Management Plan including the related Appendices to Annex F. The TFS also manages those functions associated with ESF-4 (Firefighting) as the primary state agency. TFS is responsible for Annex F-Firefighting in the state plan and is the agency tasked with locating and deploying fire resources in the State of Texas when so requested to do so by the Governors Division of Emergency Management (GDEM). TFCA and TFS both had key roles in the development, training, and exercising TIFMAS. The Texas Forest Service may commit resources to perform specific emergency missions requested by the SOC, DDC, regional MAC, or by a lead state agency carrying out a state response. The TFS is responsible for tasking the TIFMAS Committee to administer Appendix 6 of Annex F. The purpose of the TIFMAS Appendix is to provide guidance for a response to catastrophic emergency incidents of state significance involving fire and incidents to which the fire service would normally be involved such as for search and rescue, hazardous materials, and EMS. These include, but are not limited to, incidents that are: A. Beyond the resource capabilities of local and regional response organizations, including local mutual aid resources. Legislation (Senate Bill 11) Along with plan development, the task force was charged with developing legislation to enable intrastate mutual aid. The initial draft legislation came from discussions between the Emergency management Association of Texas (EMAT), representatives of the Councils of Governments, and the Texas Fire Chiefs. The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Transportation had an interim charge to look into mutual aid and these parties were invited to provide ideas. After several months of work from TFCA members and Legislative Coordinator Randy Cain, EMAT leadership, Texas Municipal League attorneys, and several other stakeholders, the language for the mutual aid bill was finalized. Texas Senator John Corona, Chair of the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee, sponsored the bill. This legislation became known as Senate Bill 11 (SB 11). After surviving several points of order and amendments, the bill was passed by the Texas Legislature on May 28, 2007, the last day of the 80th Regular Session. Governor Rick Perry signed the bill on June 7, 2007. SB 11 created the Texas Statewide Mutual Aid System to provide TEXAS FIRE CHIEF Spring/Summer 2009 B. Multiple single significant (major) events occurring that exceed local and regional resources. The intent of the TIFMAS appendix is to provide for the systematic mobilization, deployment, organization, and management of Texas local fi re-related resources, by working with the regional MACS, in order to provide assistance in mitigating the effects of emergencies and disasters throughout Texas and the nation, when so requested. The effective management of emergency response personnel during the incipient stage of any major incident and throughout its extended operations, will, by far, have the most significant impact on reducing the life loss and the severity of injuries to the affected population. The TIFMAS lends itself to the rapid activation and response of aid to a community in the event of localized all-hazard emergencies. It should be noted that this appendix is not intended to replace local mutual aid agreements or fi re-related resource requests/deployments within an affected COG region (3). The TIFMAS is directed towards enhancing disaster management and emergency response at the state level of government by the following means: • Utilizing the National Incident Management System (NIMS) as a model to manage actions during a disaster • Providing central coordination for fire-rescue resource response through TIFMAS, Regional MultiAgency Coordination Systems, Texas Forest Service (ESF-4) and Disaster District Committees • DSHS will coordinate fire-based EMS resources, activated via TIFMAS, and will advise the TIFMAS leadership of resource status • TEEX-ESTI will coordinate fi rebased USAR and water search and rescue resources, activated via TIFMAS, and will advise the TIFMAS leadership of resource status 19

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Texas Fire Chief - Spring/Summer 2009

Texas Fire Chief - Spring/Summer 2009 Contents Executive Director's Report 2009 Annual Conference Preview Hurricane Resistant Fire Stations in South Texas Texas Intrastate Fire Mutual Aid System The IAFC and TV Worldwide Launch IAFC TV KITA and Firefighter Motivation TFCA Legislator Award What Do They See When They See You Coming? Texas Fire Chiefs Academy Standing Tall Lake Travis Fire Rescue Answers the Call 2009 TFCA Executive Board TFCA Region Map Index to Advertisers

Texas Fire Chief - Spring/Summer 2009

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