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Thursday, 17 October 2019 19:17

Regional Task Forces

Purpose

  1. The purpose of this guideline is to establish  “Regional Task Forces” capable of handling a wide variety of incidents.  These task forces are design so that moving them will not deplete their region causing a need to recover.
  2. The plan will allow for these task forces to be moved from one region to another area where resources have been depleted because of a catastrophic emergency.
  3. The plan will also enable Burlington County to move task forces when requested into other counties when they have depleted their resources.

Policy

  1. It shall be the policy of the Burlington County Fire Coordinator to utilize the task forces for when a region has been depleted of adequate fire-rescue protection.
  2. The County Fire Coordinator or designee shall manage the design and deployment of the task forces.  Each task force shall be designed to have the following capabilities:
    1. Command
    2. Structural Fire Protection
    3. Thermal Imaging
    4. Rapid Intervention
    5. Aerial/Ladder Company Operations
    6. Vehicle Rescue and Extrication
    7. Cascade Air System
  3. Chiefs of the departments having apparatus identified as part of these task forces shall be notified in advance, indicating which apparatus is requested for task force response.
  4. Selection of task force resources will be designed so that deployment of a taskforce will not require backfilling those stations sending apparatus.

Procedure 

  1.  In County Responses
    1. The County Fire Coordinator or designee, upon determining a region has been depleted, shall notify Central Communications to dispatch a task force from an unaffected region.  Upon making the request, the coordinator will notify Central of the following:
      1.  The Task Force to be dispatched
      2.  The Location where the Task Force shall stage.
      3.  If providing regional coverage, the region that the task force will be  responsible for.
    2. The Coordinator shall see that a Task Force leader is identified and insure all communications for the task force are routed through the task force leader.
    3. The Coordinator shall insure that notification is made to the Region 3 Coordinator and/or New Jersey Division of Fire Safety per protocol.
  2.   Out of County Response
    1.  Upon request from another county for a regional task force, the County Fire Coordinator shall be notified.
    2.  The Coordinator will notify Central of the following:
      1. The Task Force to be dispatched
      2. The Location where the Task Force shall stage.
    3.  The Coordinator shall see that a Task Force leader is identified and insure all communications for the task force are routed through the task force leader.
  3.  Communications
    1. To reduce radio traffic, all communications shall be routed through the task force leader.  Radio communications shall be kept to a minimum.
    2. When responding out of county, the task force leader will designate an Operations (OPS) channel so that the task force can communicate when out of range of the trunk system.

Closing

  1. All fire departments in Burlington County shall receive a copy of this plan.  All Chief Officers shall become familiar with this plan.
  2. Any plan previously published that is in conflict with this plan is hereby rescinded.
Published in Guidelines