Today's generation of firefighters may take it for granted that incident command systems (ICS) are a given that everyone understands, acknowledging how important effective command and control is for safety on the incident ground. But it was not always this way and it is surprising just how recently it has been formally introduced to the UK Fire and Rescue Service. That is not to say that command and control never existed on the incident ground before the advent of the current ICS. Indeed, it could be argued that the previous systems of fireground control (because the majority of incidents then attended were fires) had been effective for the vast majority of incidents in the century prior to the ICS introduction in the late 1990s. Further back in history, even the Great Fire of London was eventually brought under control using a multi-agency approach with members of the community and the military making firebreaks using gunpowder, saws and axes!
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