Applicants Sought for Regional Incident Survey Teams
The International Association of Fire Chiefs is seeking applicants for Regional Incident Survey Teams, which will be a crucial part of a National Hazardous Materials Fusion Center that is currently in development. The new center will collect and analyze hazmat incident response data in order to enhance first-responder safety, operations, policy, and training.
One of the key components of the project is the Regional Incident Survey Team (RIST), whose mission will me to gather information, which will be analyzed in order to help develop and disseminate best practices, lessons learned and improved curricula, and training materials for the hazmat response community.
During the initial phase of the project, pilot teams are being assembled in PHMSA’s central, southwest, and western regions. Ultimately, there will be two to three RISTs composed of five to seven members representing expertise in various response disciplines in each of the five PHMSA regions. Once assembled and trained, the teams will be available upon request to respond to significant hazmat incidents and begin the information- and data-collection phase of the project.
A RIST subcommittee is currently accepting applications for pilot teams in PHMSA’s, southwestern and western regions (application deadlines have not been set for PHMSA’s central region).
- Applications for RIST leader positions were due by May 12, 2008.
- Applications for RIST member positions are due by May 27, 2008.
- Applications and position descriptions for both are available online at www.iafc.org/hazmatfusion.