Over the last week a number of SES volunteer members attended training in Sydney to familiarise themselves with AIIMS.
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What is AIIMS? Its full title is Australasian Inter-Service Incident Management System. It is a system for the management of incidents such as floods, storms, tsunamis, fires, chemical spills, building collapse and so on.
AIIMS is based on a structure with five main functional areas which includes: Incident Control; Planning; Operations; Logistics and Public Information. This group generally form the Incident Management Team (IMT). The size of the IMT is dependent on the size of the operation. It can be expanded even further or contracted depending on the amount of work to be carried out in response to the event.
Each position has its main activity:
- The Incident Controller is responsible for the overall management of all activities and personnel deployed to resolve the incident;
- The Planning Officer evaluates and analyses the intelligence on the current situation and identifies what might happen – ie: a river is rising and they identify what actions are needed to reduce the impact;
- The Operations Officer is responsible for the management of activities to resolve the incident having talked to the Planning Officer and Logistics Officer;
- The Logistics Officer provides support to the activities including personnel, facilities, services and materials; and
- Public Information Officer may advise of warnings issued by the Bureau of Meteorology, expected threats to the community, and what the SES is doing.
It might seem a bit much when you look at the above people and what they do, but when you are faced with a substantial floods and storms that have occurred in the Upper Hunter. It is too big for one person to manage, and you definitely need people to handle various components of the operation.
If you have skills in any of these fields, there could be a position for you within the SES Units. Contact the SES by ringing 1800 201 000. For flood and storm response, ring 132 500.