Incident Command System (ICS)

​ICS was developed in the 1970's following a series of catastrophic fires in California's urban interface. Property damage ran into the millions, and many people died or were injured. The personnel assigned to determine the causes of these outcomes studied the case histories and discovered that response problems could rarely be attributed to lack of resources or failure of tactics. Surprisingly, studies found that response problems were far more likely to result from inadequate management than from any other single reason.

The Incident Command System:

 Is a standardized management tool for meeting the demands of small or large emergency or nonemergency situations.

Represents "best practices" and has become the standard for emergency management across the country.

 May be used for planned events, natural disasters, and acts of terrorism.

 Is a key feature of the National Incident Management System (NIMS).

​ The ICS is a management system designed to enable effective and efficient domestic incident management by integrating a combination of facilities, equipment, personnel, procedures, and communications operating within a common organizational structure, designed to enable effective and efficient domestic incident management. A basic premise of ICS is that it is widely applicable. It is used to organize both near-term and long-term field-level operations for a broad spectrum of emergencies, from small to complex incidents, both natural and manmade. ICS is used by all levels of government—Federal, State, local, and tribal—as well as by many private-sector and nongovernmental organizations. ICS is also applicable across disciplines. It is normally structured to facilitate activities in five major functional areas: command, operations, planning, logistics, and finance and administration.

Any time MDF shows up to a disaster to render relief or assistance to first responders ICS will be the structure they will be utilizing so being certified in ICS 100, ICS 200 and ICS 700 will be a baseline on how they are structured and operating on scene. . 

Search - Rescue - Recovery

Ground search and rescue is the search for persons who are lost or in distress on land or inland waterways. Traditionally associated with wilderness zones, ground search and rescue services are increasingly required in urban and suburban areas to locate persons with Alzheimer's disease, autism, dementia, or other conditions that lead to wandering behaviour. Ground search and rescue missions that occur in urban areas should not be confused with "urban search and rescue", which in many jurisdictions refers to the location and extraction of people from collapsed buildings or other entrapments.
MDF is dedicated to assisting local law enforcement, volunteer firefighters and other Search and Rescue (SAR) Groups in SAR operations. What a better group of people to assist than a force trained in land navigation, tracking and sign cutting. A group that understands chain of command and the importance of maintaining and following a command structure. MDF will be hosting SAR training seminars to understand but not limited to areas such as Grid Searches, Lost Person Behavior, Securing a Crime Scene and Evidence Chain of Custody. 

HAM Radio Operators

In times of crisis and natural disasters, amateur radio is often used as a means of emergency communication when wireline, cell phones and other conventional means of communications fail.
Unlike commercial systems, Amateur radio is usually independent of terrestrial facilities that can fail. It is dispersed throughout a community without "choke points" such as cellular telephone sites that can be overloaded.
Amateur radio operators are experienced in improvising antennas and power sources and most equipment today can be powered by an automobile battery. Annual "Field Days" are held in many countries to practice these emergency improvisational skills. Amateur radio operators can use hundreds of frequencies and can quickly establish networks tying disparate agencies together to enhance interoperability.
Recent examples include the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in Manhattan in 2001, the 2003 North America blackout and Hurricane Katrina in September 2005, where amateur radio was used to coordinate disaster relief activities when other systems failed.
On September 2, 2004, ham radio was used to inform weather forecasters with information on Hurricane Frances live from the Bahamas. On December 26, 2004, an earthquake and resulting tsunami across the Indian Ocean wiped out all communications with the Andaman Islands, except for a DX-pedition that provided a means to coordinate relief efforts. Recently, Amateur Radio operators in the People's Republic of China provided emergency communications after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake and U.S. hams did similar work following Hurricane Ike. They were there on the Boston Marathon bombing when the cellphone systems were instantly overloaded.
The largest disaster response by U.S. amateur radio operators was during Hurricane Katrina which first made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane went through Miami, Florida on August 25, 2005, eventually strengthening to Category 5. More than a thousand ham operators from all over the U.S. converged on the Gulf Coast in an effort to provide emergency communications assistance. Subsequent Congressional hearings highlighted the Amateur Radio response as one of the few examples of what went right in the disaster relief effort.
Many MDF members are HAM radio operators and radio communications is a huge part of MDF operations which would include HAM radio frequencies. If you are not familiar with HAM radios or radio's in general you will be given the opportunity to learn radio operations from experienced operators and if you choose to expand your knowledge there are plenty of "Elmer's" that would be willing to help you accomplish your Technician HAM license and your own call sign.