Oregon Department of Forestry staff had the opportunity to take part in teaching the Complex Incident Management Course (CIMC) in San Diego last month, and provided experienced incident management team members the training they needed to take on top leadership roles on their team. ODF prides itself on sharing more than a century of wildland firefighting expertise with tomorrow’s incident management leaders.
The CIMC is required for firefighters looking to take on roles like Incident Commander, Section Chief, Safety Officer, and other vital leadership positions. The course puts trainees through days-long simulations of Type 1 incidents to get a sense of all the factors at play during a complex incident, preparing them for real-world scenarios they are likely to face.
“For CIMC to be successful, it takes a village. We are fortunate to have a robust cadre (group of teachers) representing quite a few states across the U.S.,” said Kristin Dodd, ODF Unit Forester and member of the CIMC cadre since 2018.
With the support of the National Association of State Foresters, the course has been in place since 2000, with constant updates to maintain relevancy and active coordination with federal partners, who have a similar course that they put on (S-520). The variety of experience and diverse backgrounds in the cadre, who have responded collectively to not only wildfires but other all-hazard events like hurricane relief out of state, allows students to learn from a team with expansive incident management knowledge.
Dodd compared the responsibility of teaching upcoming IMT leaders to coaching, which means accurately accessing the student’s abilities and preparedness to make decisions that can have major ramifications.
“A coach’s responsibility is to provide a great amount of support, assistance, course correction and sometimes participate in difficult conversations regarding the student’s readiness, experience and capabilities to perform at this high level.” Dodd said. “Not all students who attend pass the class. But it is my job as a coach to guide them and to make the final assessment.”
The CIMC and the cadre teaching it are incredibly important to the future of incident and succession management across the country, and ODF is happy to share its expertise.
“It’s our responsibility to share the firefighting knowledge that we’ve accumulated as an agency, and through our own careers, to ensure the future of wildland firefighting across Oregon and the United States.” said Ron Graham, Deputy Chief of Operations for the Protection Division at ODF.