Use incident typing

Requests for fire and rescue service assistance broadly fall into two categories:

• Incidents, which require urgent attendance
• Non-emergency events, which require less urgent attendance

Incident typing is a process for selecting a class or category for the different incidents or events a fire and rescue service receive calls about. Incident types that have been predefined and entered in the mobilising system should be used by fire control personnel when managing emergency calls and mobilising resources.

The incident type is usually based on a hierarchical structure that may have multiple levels or subsets. As the fire and rescue service attends a broad range of incident types, fire control personnel should be provided with incident type descriptors. This will help to ensure the most appropriate incident type is selected based on the information gathered from callers.

A range of information can be linked to incident types in mobilising systems, such as:

• Call prompts, helping fire control personnel to gather specific information and provide advice to callers
• Action plans, to assist fire control personnel to carry out specific tasks, such as informing other agencies
• Supplementary information, such as aides-memoire
• Information about predetermined attendance and specialist equipment that may be mobilised

Using incident typing enables consistent and sound decision-making when deploying resources to incidents. It also provides operational personnel with a description of the incident they are attending and the type and location of resources sent.

Predetermined attendance

Fire and rescue services will decide on the appropriate level of response for the types of call they receive. A task analysis or similar methodology may be used to determine the number and type of resources that will be needed for the safe resolution of incidents and will inform the basis for the predetermined attendance that fire control personnel will mobilise.

Dynamic mobilising

Dynamic mobilising is the ability to achieve the best match between incident need and resources available at the earliest opportunity to ensure those in need receive a safe and appropriate service. It enables fire control personnel to use all available information at the point of call to select the most appropriate response according to the hazards and risks identified.

When applying dynamic mobilising principles, it is essential that fire control personnel have an awareness of the methodology used to define predetermined attendances based on incident type, and that they select the most appropriate incident type based on the type of call and information gathered. Further information about dynamic mobilising can be found in Fire control command – Decision-making: Fire control command.

Dynamic risk assessments

A dynamic risk assessment should be carried out for each call received, taking into account:

• Any requirement to redeploy resources from one incident to another
• Validation of resource proposals
• Any available risk information or pre-planning arrangements
• Relay of any relevant information to operational personnel attending the incident
• The need for any resource movements to maintain availability of operational resources
• Re-evaluation of the initial risk assessment and updating other emergency responders as necessary