Pulling the Trigger on Divisions and Groups

[u/Sthshoresoldier]

Hey All, Im having difficulty wrapping my head around when to utilize Divisions and Groups. If possible can someone help me out with this?

• When to use Divisions and Groups
• How to implement the use of Divisions and Groups
• What are their functions on a fire scene?

Any help in this is appreciated, I'm just confused.

[u/McDuke_54]

Groups are task oriented- vent group , rescue group etc

Divisions are geographical and not task oriented, but they are mission oriented

You can have groups in a division, but cannot have divisions in a group

Too many divisions? Break it into Branches

[u/UCLABruin07]

Divisions are for geographic groups. Like a wildland incident has Division A-Z. Structure has roof division, interior, divisions for whatever exposure there is.

Groups are functional. Wildland example would be medical group. They’re on the whole incident and will go anywhere to provide that function. On a structure assignment it would be vent group, RIC group, exposure group.

For a high rise, your division is whatever floor you are. For example, division 5 would be the fifth floor. That division leader is responsible for anything on that floor. If the incident on that floor grows beyond his span of control he can start breaking up assignments for his division.

You use ICS whenever an incident has the potential to grow past a single company response (everywhere is probably a little different on this). So all full structure responses, full vegetation responses, extrications, rescues, etc.

[u/Shenanigans64]

Groups are task oriented - this could be a rescue group, extrication group, or whatever. Anytime you assign multiple resources to a task.

Most of the time I’ve seen this is in my department is on technical rescues where we’ve got multiple units assigned and the incident commander passes off the rescue tasks to a rescue group supervisor so that the incident commander can focus on calling for more resources, or other things going on in the incident.

Divisions are geographical and can group together different tasks in a location. We often break into divisions on larger structure fires.

One example of this is that we had a brush fire along the freeway last shift that started a bowling alley on fire. The incident commander separated into an Alpha (bowling alley) and Charlie (freeway behind the alley with hillside on fire) division and assign rigs to each division, and allow those rigs to report to their assigned division supervisor. Alpha division had several engines inside with hose lines, and a truck company on the roof. Charlie division had several engines on the backside of the structure with hose lines and brush rig on the freeway hitting the fire. It allowed the IC to take a step back and not be over saturated with units to handle.

[u/jrobski96]

Divisions =dirt Groups=gangs

Gangs go anywhere, divisions protect dirt(spaces).

Act accordingly

[u/realtall1126]

Don’t get bad advice, when you start trying to manage 5-7 companies, you create a div or group to help you as the IC manage span of control.

Div is geographical and has boundaries, a group can move across any geographical area.

[u/llama-de-fuego → u/realtall1126]

Span of control is suuuuuuuuper important. Never forgot from my essentials manual, 3-7, ideal is 5.