Unified command and shifting priorities

For decades, we have been exposed to emergency management concepts with the bedrock being the incident command system (ICS). This term is familiar to the fire service, and most fire departments use this system to one degree or another. The early pioneers of the ICS need to be commended in their thinking in that as improvements are made to the system (i.e., rapid intervention teams), they neatly fit into the structure. It is truly modular and expandable. Over recent years, some agencies or organizations have changed the name from incident command system to incident management system (IMS), yet the basic structure, concepts, and principles have remained the same and relatively unchanged.