By Robert Carter & Matthew Roach

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has recently released guidance to the Private Sector encouraging them to adopt the National Incident Management System-Incident Command System (NIMS-ICS). While the Private Sector has always been encouraged to participate, this recent announcement is indicative of the government’s strategy to formalize the Private Sector’s role as a buffer to local resources during an incident.
Originally developed in the early 1970s as a means to better manage wildfires in the western United States, today’s enhanced NIMS-ICS was developed by the DHS and issued in March 2004 under Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD)-5. Since then, the Private Sector has played a valuable role in numerous local and regional incidents, and their formal acceptance of NIMS-ICS is critical to the success of future incidents.

By Tim Kern

As new terror plots were uncovered in mid-August, awareness of our collective vulnerabilities again heightened. What if the plots had not been discovered in time? Could future terror acts result in large-scale disasters in highly-populated sites? How prepared are we to deal with manmade disasters?

ETC Simulation recently announced the installation of their latest Advanced Disaster Management Simulator (ADMS) system in Bucks County, Pennsylvania for the Southeast Region Counter Terrorism Task Force. It is a multi-station, immersion-training system that interacts in real time with emergency team leaders, reacting to the participants’ inputs and changing as they adapt to the unfolding scenario. For the past twelve years, authentic simulation training with ADMS has proven to successfully bridge the gap between tabletop training and live experience; however, a dedicated simulation system may be too ambitious a budget item for many responder organizations.

ADMS Training Services were developed to address the limitations and drawbacks in both the current methodology for first responder training and the cost of ownership of a full-scale high-fidelity simulation system...

By Adam McCard

Serving Asia Pacific & the Middle East, the staff at DMT Asia Co. Ltd. have been in the Fire Training business for many years and have always sought to provide the most valuable service to their customers. They were quick to realise that almost everybody in the fire & rescue business wants and needs simulation-based Disaster Management Training but few organizations could afford the outright purchase of a system in a time frame that suited their training needs.

DMT set about to resolve the problem and their aim was to offer their customers a unique, high-value, low-cost, on-site training service.

Numerous systems were considered and companies worldwide were invited to demonstrate their products to the DMT team and their customers.

“For me the choice was easy,” comments Paul G. Barker, DMT’s Managing Director. “The ADMS system is so much more versatile and with so many proven years and training evolutions in the field I was totally reassured that with ADMS, I would get what it said on the packet and not be waiting for the R&D guys to complete the system that I had been sold. I make promises to my customers about our products and services every day and I need a system that will deliver what we sell – on time - every time.”

By Kathy Peck

The Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program (AFG) will open for application acceptance in early March. The AFG program can provide funding to obtain the Advanced Disaster Management Simulator (ADMS) either by purchase or through ADMS Training Services. AFG eligible applicants are Fire Departments and nonaffiliated EMS organizations. In order to assist eligible applicants, ETC is offering help in the preparation of applications.

The ADMS Modeling Team has overhauled all people models to include higher fidelity graphics, animations, and overall realism. Every entity now has an individual and unique face. Incident victims can be visually inspected for individual assessment. Vitals can be taken on scene and treatment can be applied. Click the picture to the right to see the new high fidelity models.