NIC recommends NFPA 1600 standard

A recently published NIMS Alert states that the NIMS Integration Center (NIC) has conducted a review of incident and emergency management related standards through a multi-disciplinary Practitioner Working Group (PWG) to determine which standards provide the essential guidance for successful NIMS implementation. As a result of the review NIC recommends that US State and local governments voluntary adopt the following National Fire Protection Association standards:

* NFPA 1600: Standard on Disaster/Emergency Management and Business Continuity Programs;
* NFPA 1561: Standard on Emergency Services Incident Management System.

The NIC will conduct another standards review cycle in Fiscal Year 2007 to evaluate additional standards and begin to identify areas of NIMS where there are no current programmatic, technical or operational standards. Likewise, the review will identify where existing standards do not meet the intent of NIMS.

The NIMS Alert also points out that it should be noted that the adoption of NPFA 1600 and 1561 are not NIMS compliance requirements, but ‘are a voluntary effort that is not tied to receipt of DHS grant funds’.

A Fact Sheet on NIMS Recommended Standards containing additional information can be downloaded from the NIMS Integration Center website at http://www.fema.gov/emergency/nims/fact_sheet_standards.shtm

•Date: 12th January 2007 • Region: US •Type: Article •Topic: Public sector
Rate this article or make a comment - click here