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Australasian Inter-Service Incident Management System
In Australia, the Australasian Inter-Service Incident Management System (AIIMS) is the nationally recognised system of incident management for the nation's fire and emergency service agencies. Organisational principles and structure are used to manage bushfires and other large emergencies (e.g. floods, storms, cyclones etc.) utilising the all agencies approach. AIIMS was first developed by the Forests Commission Victoria (FCV) in wake of the Ash Wednesday Bushfires in 1983 as a derivative of the United States’ NIMS, and is based on the principles of management by objectives, functional management, common terminology and limits to the span of control. AIIMS is a trademark of AFAC and the material in the AIIMS manual and training materials is copyright of AFAC.
AIIMS is based on five key principles:
The Forests Commission Victoria (FCV) had begun experimenting with new fire control arrangements from the mid-1970s based on shared experiences with the US Forest Service. Different arrangements had been trialled at Cann River and Warburton during the disastrous 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires. After the fires, the Forests Commission made major changes on approaching large fire suppression and control on State forest and National Parks. The Country Fire Authority (CFA) were responsible for fires on private land and operated independently on separate radio frequencies under a group structure. Cross agency issues sometimes arose within the “Marginal Mile”; so FCV and CFA liaison officers were often appointed in the event of large or complex bushfires.
During 1984, Kevin Monk from the FCV’s Fire Protection Branch travelled on a Churchill Fellowship to California to study the United States National Incident Management System (NIMS). He brought back the NIMS documentation and developed a Victorian version, which became known as the Large Fire Organisation (LFO). Importantly, the LFO was designed to be scalable; from Level 1 for simple local incidents, through to Level 3 for complex multi-agency and campaign bushfires.
By the summer of 1984-85 the LFO was being progressively adopted, with dedicated Incident Management Teams (IMTs) complete with Incident Controllers, Operations, Planning and Logistics units identified and trained within the new Conservation, Forests, and Lands (CFL) Regions. CFL replaced the Forests Commission in mid 1983.
Athol Hodgson was appointed CFL’s first Chief Fire Officer (1984-87) and was a strong advocate for new emergency arrangements. He led a high-level delegation of Australian bushfire controllers on a study tour to the USA and Canada in 1984. Brian Potter, Chief of the CFA (1985-91), was on the tour and also became an enthusiastic supporter.
The fires of January 1985 in the alps near Mt Buffalo were the first major test for the newly formed Department of CFL. It was also the largest deployment of firefighting aircraft in Australia up to that time, including 20 helicopters and 16 fixed-wing aircraft from the FCV, Australian Defence Force and NSCA. The LFO was given a thorough test run at these fires. Later Chief Fire Officers, Barry Johnston (1987-90), Rod Incoll (1990-96) and Gary Morgan (1996-2005) maintained the momentum for changes to command-and-control arrangements at large bushfires in Victoria.
Significantly, in 1986, the Victorian Emergency Management Act provided for a single controller to be appointed for each joint CFA/CFL bushfire. Later in 1988 the Australian Association of Rural Fire Authorities adopted the principals embodied in LFO and NIMS.
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Australasian Inter-Service Incident Management System
In Australia, the Australasian Inter-Service Incident Management System (AIIMS) is the nationally recognised system of incident management for the nation's fire and emergency service agencies. Organisational principles and structure are used to manage bushfires and other large emergencies (e.g. floods, storms, cyclones etc.) utilising the all agencies approach. AIIMS was first developed by the Forests Commission Victoria (FCV) in wake of the Ash Wednesday Bushfires in 1983 as a derivative of the United States’ NIMS, and is based on the principles of management by objectives, functional management, common terminology and limits to the span of control. AIIMS is a trademark of AFAC and the material in the AIIMS manual and training materials is copyright of AFAC.
AIIMS is based on five key principles:
The Forests Commission Victoria (FCV) had begun experimenting with new fire control arrangements from the mid-1970s based on shared experiences with the US Forest Service. Different arrangements had been trialled at Cann River and Warburton during the disastrous 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires. After the fires, the Forests Commission made major changes on approaching large fire suppression and control on State forest and National Parks. The Country Fire Authority (CFA) were responsible for fires on private land and operated independently on separate radio frequencies under a group structure. Cross agency issues sometimes arose within the “Marginal Mile”; so FCV and CFA liaison officers were often appointed in the event of large or complex bushfires.
During 1984, Kevin Monk from the FCV’s Fire Protection Branch travelled on a Churchill Fellowship to California to study the United States National Incident Management System (NIMS). He brought back the NIMS documentation and developed a Victorian version, which became known as the Large Fire Organisation (LFO). Importantly, the LFO was designed to be scalable; from Level 1 for simple local incidents, through to Level 3 for complex multi-agency and campaign bushfires.
By the summer of 1984-85 the LFO was being progressively adopted, with dedicated Incident Management Teams (IMTs) complete with Incident Controllers, Operations, Planning and Logistics units identified and trained within the new Conservation, Forests, and Lands (CFL) Regions. CFL replaced the Forests Commission in mid 1983.
Athol Hodgson was appointed CFL’s first Chief Fire Officer (1984-87) and was a strong advocate for new emergency arrangements. He led a high-level delegation of Australian bushfire controllers on a study tour to the USA and Canada in 1984. Brian Potter, Chief of the CFA (1985-91), was on the tour and also became an enthusiastic supporter.
The fires of January 1985 in the alps near Mt Buffalo were the first major test for the newly formed Department of CFL. It was also the largest deployment of firefighting aircraft in Australia up to that time, including 20 helicopters and 16 fixed-wing aircraft from the FCV, Australian Defence Force and NSCA. The LFO was given a thorough test run at these fires. Later Chief Fire Officers, Barry Johnston (1987-90), Rod Incoll (1990-96) and Gary Morgan (1996-2005) maintained the momentum for changes to command-and-control arrangements at large bushfires in Victoria.
Significantly, in 1986, the Victorian Emergency Management Act provided for a single controller to be appointed for each joint CFA/CFL bushfire. Later in 1988 the Australian Association of Rural Fire Authorities adopted the principals embodied in LFO and NIMS.