Page 18 - InCommand Volume 36

Emergency Response System
Retired Chief Bill Houk, OFE, OFC
Author Bio
Retired Chief Bill Houk, OFE, OFC
Retired Chief Bill Houk served 37 years in fire service and as Fire Chief for the Jefferson Township, Ohio
Fire Department for the last 16
years before retiring in 2017. Ret. Chief Houk was elected to multiple positions in the Ohio Fire Chiefs’ Association, including President from 2017-2018. Ret. Chief Houk has supported the Ohio Emergency Response System (ERS) in multiple capacities since its inception in 2002, currently serving as the ERS State Coordinator. He regularly works in the State Emergency Operations Center mainly assisting Emergency Support Function 4 – Firefighting, and directly supports the State Fire Marshal’s Office during large-scale exercises or real world events.
As of the writing of this article, summer is winding down,
school is starting back up and unfortunately, we are seeing an increase in positive COVID-19 cases in Ohio’s population once again. Know that
your Emergency Response System (ERS) coordinators stay engaged and ready to assist when needed. We will continue to monitor this ever-changing situation and if a need is identified,
we will work in conjunction with the Ohio Division of EMS and the State Fire Marshal’s Office to distribute our Personnel Needs Survey again. If you see the request, please take the time
to complete the simple survey. Since we have the ability to deploy large amounts of fire/EMS resources, the Ohio Emergency Management Agency has tasked us with tracking these
types of resources throughout Ohio. We know everyone is tired of hearing about COVID-19 and that this all sounds like a broken record, but your completion of this survey is a good
tool as it gives us a quick snapshot of personnel impacts throughout the state. It provides an early warning that would allow us to help identify personnel from non-impacted agencies that could potentially be utilized in impacted agencies.
In previous articles, we discussed the OFCA’s Line of Duty Death (LODD) team and let everyone know that the ERS is now a method to notify them
if there is a need. As a reminder, the team can assist with resources after
the unfortunate event of a death of
a member of the emergency services. Even if the death is not considered a line of duty death, they can still assist an agency. Approximately six months ago, this notification method went into effect, and we had our first LODD team notification. As usual, the team immediately went into action after the
notification and contacted the agency. The team can provide assistance with funeral arrangements, filing necessary paperwork (if a line of duty death)
for survivors to receive Public Safety Officer Benefits, and they can help to identify peer support resources for the agency. To obtain more information on the OFCA’s LODD team, you
can access the LODD section of the OFCA’s website at http://ohiofirechiefs. com/aws/OFCA/pt/sp/olddr. If you have specific questions about the team or would like to set up training, you can contact the LODD Chairperson, Jack Guyton, at piperguyton340@ gmail.com.
Lastly, we attended the 2021 OFCA’s Ohio Fire & Rescue Officers Development Conference, which was nice to see so many people in person again. During the Conference, we offered two sessions covering the previous two years activations, and they generated good conversations about capabilities and possible areas of improvement. Ohio’s fire service has been resilient and there are many people making positive impacts for their communities. We are proud to be a small part of that by supporting fire/EMS agencies along with other stakeholders.
For more information on the ERS or to obtain contact information
for the coordinators to request a presentation, you can access the ERS section of the OFCA’s website and look at the most current ERS brochure at http://ohiofirechiefs.com/aws/OFCA/ pt/sp/emergency_response.
As always, thank you for all that you continue to do for Ohio and it is our hopes that you remain healthy and safe!
18 InCommand OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021 • www.ohiofirechiefs.org