MutualAid.net: Resource deployment and tracking software, free to you!
In the aftermath of the 2005 hurricane season, the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) identified the need for an enhanced mutual aid system that could mobilize resources to cope with such large scale incidents. The IAFC created the Mutual Aid System Task Force (MASTF) to study the issues of national mutual aid. The task force recommended the formation of the IAFC Emergency Management Committee (EMC) to oversee the Intrastate Mutual Aid System (IMAS) project. The IMAS project, with the support from the Department of Homeland Security’s National Integration Center (NIC), had the ultimate goal to support the development of comprehensive and functional mutual aid plans for the fire service in all states, tribal nations, and U.S. territories. These intrastate plans can be used in a time of national disaster through the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC), to efficiently move resources across the country; however, the focus of this offering is a single component of the IMAS project known as Mutual Aid Net (MAN).
One of the focus areas of the National Preparedness Goal (NPG) is the capability to mobilize and deliver governmental, nongovernmental, and private sector resources to the affected area to save and sustain lives, meet basic human needs, stabilize the incident, and transition to recovery. Although the implementation and exercising of statewide mutual aid plans significantly enhanced response capabilities within the states and ultimately on a regional and national level, the process was plagued by reliance on outdated technology, crude databases or spreadsheets, and ultimately numerous telephone calls or electronic mailings in attempts to locate deployable resources. The capability of these plans is greatly enhanced by the deployment of the technology developed as a result of the IMAS project. MAN is a resource data and dispatch system, based on code from the Ohio Department of Public Safety and its Emergency Response Plan System model. The system was developed in Ohio and was tested in a 2008 multidiscipline exercise involving fire service, law enforcement, and emergency medical services units. Through the development of this technological advancement, the state of Ohio provided a valuable resource and focused the IMAS project on another tenant of the NPG, which is to promote innovation and ensure that the administrative, finance and logistics systems are in place to support these capabilities. While the successful demonstration of this new technology had great implications for the IMAS project, a significant drawback was noted in that this system was based in mainframe technology while most agencies across the country utilize server based applications. The format had to be rewritten and adapted to the readily available server and personal computer type systems before distribution to the public safety agencies across the country could be accomplished.
MAN is a software application that is designed to serve as both a resource database and mutual aid deployment tool. It is designed to be used at the state level, using geographic information systems, to quickly and efficiently request and provide the closest, most appropriate resources; this allows a rapid, efficient and cost-effective movement of personnel, equipment and/or expertise across jurisdictional lines. The system is designed to enhance resiliency by leveraging locally owned and maintained resources that can be deployed to support incidents across the state or across the nation.
The system has a host of features that support state emergency management agencies’ efforts to mobilize resources; it catalogs equipment in the database, based on the National Incident Management System (NIMS) resource typing system or resources can be user defined for specialized equipment or teams. Available resources are added to the system by the local administrator and can likewise be taken off of deployment availability if it goes out of service or is already responding to the incident which may have affected a large geographic area such as a hurricane, earthquake, or tornado. The system is designed to make timely notification of every statewide participant in the event of activation. It can generate up to eight hundred notifications in sixty seconds and is capable of sending the notifications via text message or electronic mail. The system also allows for enhanced asset management by showing maps of requested and responding resources, and allows all system users to monitor activations to predict the probability of their involvement. It can be used to aid in the lengthy reimbursement process that often follows deployments to declared disasters by printing reports of assets that are tracked from deployment to demobilization by the system. A great feature of the system since it is server based and capable of being accessed over a secure internet connection is that chief officers and administrators have access from wherever they may be and can see what is being requested and can instantly make a determination to deploy or retain their resources; likewise, the Staging Officer at the incident can access the system to see what requested resources have mobilized, where they are coming from, and an estimated time of arrival in staging, so more detailed plans can be developed. The system is also capable of handling multiple incidents simultaneously, which is often the case during large scale natural disaster. The aforementioned features make MAN an essential component of any statewide mutual aid plan.
MAN took advantage of the existing Ohio software, improved upon the technology and made it available for the entire homeland security community. The program has been enhanced, tested, and is now being offered free of charge to any state that wishes to enter into a memorandum of understanding with the IAFC. Furthermore, the IAFC will also provide hosting of a state’s data on servers at the corporate office in Fairfax, Virginia if the state does not have the server capacity or as a back-up should the state’s emergency operations center become compromised by an event. Efficient, effective, and economical use of technology to enhance emergency response and public & responder safety!
Photo compliments of Chicagoareafire.com of another staging area in the 2010 Illinois Mutual Aid Box Alarm System Exercise; In all 297 pieces of fire equipment (Engines, Ladders trucks, Ambulances, Heavy Rescues, and Command Vehicles) were checked into 3 staging areas within 90 minutes of the request for assistance.
