Incident management team

Incident Management Team (IMT) is a term used in the United States of America to refer to a group of trained personnel that responds to an emergency. Incident Management Teams are rostered personnel trained in the Incident Command System who are deployed to emergency or disaster situations to staff or augment an Emergency Operations Center or Incident Command.

Although the incident management team concept was originally developed for wildfire response, use has been expanded into what is now known as "All-Hazards Incident Management Team”.^[1] An AHIMT can respond to a wide range of emergencies, including fires, floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunami, riots, spilling of hazardous materials, and other natural or human-caused incidents.

In the United States, there are predominantly five types of incident management teams (IMTs). An incident such as a wildland fire is initially managed by local fire departments or fire agencies, but if the fire becomes complex additional resources are called in to address the emergency over the larger geographic area or greater level of impact.^[2] IMTs are "typed" according to the size, scope and complexity of incidents they are capable of managing and are part of an incident command system.^[3]

There is an incident typing system that is based on the complexity and duration of an incident. From simplest and smallest to largest and most complex they are:

Type 5 - An incident that is simple and of short duration such as a automobile collision. Usually an IMT is not required for this type of event.

Type 4 - An incident that is relatively simple but may last up to 24-48 hours. Usually does not require an IMT.

Type 3 - An incident that that is more complex and/or of a longer duration and will last longer than a few operational periods. Resources from outside the incident area may be needed. IMTs are often used in this type of response to provide additional expertise or relief as local emergency managers become exhausted.

Type 2 - An incident that is complex and longer lasting. The response may take weeks and resources will be required from state and national entities. IMTs are used on this type of incident because of duration and because of the advanced training required to staff a complex incident.

Type 1 - The most complex type of incident and usually weeks or months in duration. This type of incident requires resources from state and national entities. As in Type 2 incidents, IMTs are used in this type of incident because of the duration and the advanced skillset required.

Incident management starts as the smallest unit and escalates according to the size, scope and complexity of the emergency. The five types of IMTs are as follows, according to the US Fire Administration:^[3]

• Type 5: Local Village and Township Level – a "pool" of primarily fire officers from several neighboring departments trained to serve in Command and General Staff positions during the first 6–12 hours of an incident.
• Type 4: City, County or Fire District Level – a designated team of fire, EMS, and possibly law enforcement officers from a larger and generally more populated area, typically within a single jurisdiction (city or county), activated when necessary to manage an incident during the first 6–12 hours and possibly transition to a Type 3 IMT.
• Type 3: State or Metropolitan Area Level - comprising several entities within a state or DHS Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) region, activated to support incident management at incidents that extend beyond one operational period. Type 3 IMTs will respond throughout the state or large portions of the state, depending upon State-specific laws, policies, and regulations.
• Type 2: National and State Level – a federally or state-certified team; has less training, staffing and experience than Type 1 IMTs, and is typically used on smaller scale national or state incidents. There are thirty-five Type 2 IMTs currently in existence, and operate through interagency cooperation of federal, state and local land and emergency management agencies.
• Type 1: National and State Level – a federally or state-certified team; is the most robust IMT with the most training and experience. Sixteen Type 1 IMTs are now in existence, and operate through interagency cooperation of federal, state and local land and emergency management agencies.

In 2024, the National Multi-Agency Coordinating Group (NMAC) transitioned all Type 1 and Type 2 IMTs to Complex IMTs (CIMTs).^[4]

Incident Management Teams may be government or private sector personnel with incident management training and certifications. They usually fill the following roles^[5]:

• Incident Commander
• Public Information Officer
• Safety Officer
• Operations Section Chief
• Planning Section Chief
• Logistics Section Chief
• additional support staff as needed

An incident management team consists of five subsystems as follows:

• Incident Command System (ICS) – an on-scene structure of management-level positions suitable for managing any incident;
• Training – including needs identification, development, and delivery of training courses;
• Qualifications and certification – the United States has national standards for qualifications and certification for ICS positions;
• Publications management – the development, control, sourcing, and distribution of National Incident Management System (NIMS) publications provided by the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG); and
• Supporting technology and systems – technology and materials used to support an emergency response, such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS), orthophoto mapping, National Fire Danger Rating System, remote automatic weather stations, automatic lightning detection systems, infrared technology, and communications.

• National Incident Management System Consortium
• California Interagency National Incident Management Team #1