Preface
To the uninitiated, an emergency response operation can be per-
ceived as a confusion of vehicles, equipment, personnel, smoke
and injured people. There are cries for help, rescue personnel rush
about with no apparent plan and vehicles are positioned more or
less at haphazardly. But behind this apparent chaos, there is a
plan, a thought or concept for how rescue personnel, along with
their equipment, will be able to accomplish certain objectives at
the incident site in a manner that is as effective as possible. The
personnel are highly trained and motivation is often high.
Conducting emergency response operations is based to a large
extent on proven experience, and the training of rescue personnel
has a substantial element of practical training. In recent years, how
ever, there has been increased interest in addressing basic safety
engineering problems, including those encountered in emergency
response operations, in a more scientific manner based on both
technical and humanistic aspects.
Research, development, experience and the general flow of
knowledge within the fields of tactics, management and leader-
ship have come sufficiently far that a comprehensive approach
can be appropriate. Most work in these fields is normally conduc-
ted based on the respective fields’ points of view – leadership is
viewed from a leadership perspective, management from a ma-
nagement perspective and tactics from some sort of tactical per-
spective. However, there can be reason for establishing the pre-
requisites for being able to crossfertilise and thereby renewing
the approach to conducting emergency response operations. It is
important for management staff in rescue organisations to have
good knowledge and understanding of both tactics, and manage-
ment and leadership. Moreover, one must have insight into how
these different fields influence one another – all to be able to con-
duct emergency response operations as effectively as possible.
Tactics, command, leadership is primarily oriented to manage-
ment staff in municipal organisations for fire and rescue services.
The leadership role is often challenging, especially in conjunction
with municipal structures for providing rescue services. Manage-
ment staff must have considerable knowledge, and there is much