The FPAAC annual Marine Fire Command Exercise was held on October 29, 2019 at the Clean Rivers Cooperative Training Facility, Portland, Oregon. Thirty participants attended the one day training event which began with a presentation by MSTC Ian Johnson, USCG, MSU Portland, on the roles and responsibilities of the USCG and how they will interact with fire agency’s Incident Commanders during an incident involving a vessel.

LT Don Doyle, Longview Fire presented on ships commonalities; firefighting capabilities of a ship and its crew; basics of laws and regulations that govern the maritime industry; and a Safety and Fire Control Plan. This final piece included a participation scenario of search of a break-bulk vessel showing the complexity of these plans to the participants and how Technicians are practiced at utilizing them.

LT Sean Fogarty, Portland Fire, Station 24, presented Incident Command hierarchy charts similar to the ICS Form 207, detailing how PF&R would staff for the beginning of an incident, and transitioning into a large scale incident.

BC Jamie Klum and CPT Brian Cummings, both with PF&R St 24, walked the participants through an example scenario involving a ship incident at a nearby Ship Yard. The objective of this presentation was to give an example of how an Incident Command System can be built from the beginning of an incident and avoiding some common incident mistakes.

In the afternoon tabletop exercises involved scenarios for participants to practice managing an incident based on the content presented that morning.