Without good information, it is impossible to create accurate mo-
dels, to influence and thereby gain and maintain control. When
information is lacking, however, one may need to make certain
assumptions. But the more or better the facts, the fewer assump-
tions that need to be made.
At some point on the path to gaining and maintaining control,
decisions must be made. The fire chief provides a framework for
individual emergency response operations with the help of, for
example, response intent, time considerations, the pertinent geo-
graphy and available resources. The incident commander must
have unambiguous and realistic objectives for response opera-
tions. A sector commander, based on these objectives, shall arrive
at certain conclusions. And a crew commander must sometimes
be able to provide unambiguous instructions to his or her person-
nel, or decide what is to be prioritised within the framework of
the crew’s duties, etc.
To be able to gain and maintain control, all of the following
criteria must be fulfilled:
- There must be an objective.
- It must be possible to determine the status of the system.
- It must be possible to change the status in this system.
- There must be a model of the system.
Basically, control refers to the ability to make something happen
as expected and to understand why. Control thus to a great extent
deals with competence, knowledge and a tactical approach.
Flexible configuration
Effective emergency response operations require the ability to
adapt the organisation based on the situation. The entire response
must be oriented to providing the assistance that is most needed in
the current situation. Based on the need for assistance, efforts are
oriented to gaining and maintaining control.
When one allocates tasks and authorities among different indi-
viduals in conjunction with emergency response operations, this
must be done in such a manner that concrete measures to prevent
further damage or injury can be conducted without interruption.
The allocation of tasks and authorities, and the establishment of
an organisation at the incident site, must be conducted so that
measures to prevent further damage or injury are facilitated.
The establishment of the organisation and the gearing up of an