AN EXAMPLE OF THE PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF THE RESPONSE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM DURING AN EVENT IN THE MUNICIPALITY OF LOGATEC

Abstract

An incident management system, as a standardized approach to command, control and coordination of the response to emergencies or natural and other disasters, which in the US is called an Incident Command System (ICS), was professionally developed in Slovenia through the research project ‘Design a Comprehensive Incident Command System for All Levels of the Disaster Management System in the Republic of Slovenia (ICS-URSZR)’. The system is not a innovation, as the Firefighters‘ Association of Slovenia had already introduced it to its response tools several years ago. Other stakeholders in the protection and rescue system, however, have not yet done so. In the protection and rescue system of the Municipality of Logatec, we began to implement elements and tools made possible by an ICS immediately after the 2014 blizzard. Planned and legal, the system is integrated and tries to avoid improvisation, although there are still many gaps in knowledge and experience. The management staff of the Disaster Management System of the municipality have internalized the organizational structure of the ICS and tried to upgrade it over the years to a satisfactory level of permeating all the main functions of managing the response to natural and other disasters where multi-agency coordination is present, in order to reduce the consequences.