The Incident Support Unit will respond to a request from the Incident Commander at any incident within Metrofire. The mission of the ISU is to be deployed to support the local command structure with specialized resources necessary to coordinate the repsonse of multiple agencies to significant events within Metrofire. The goal is to promote and deliver exceptional operational support to the operations of the fire service by providing professional, efficient, high quality support services to the local incident commander in a timely and proactive manner. The unit is available to respond for support at major fires, searches for missing person, manmade and natural disasters, large-scale public events, multiple fatalities, long-term duration events, as well as any incident where multiple agencies are operating.

ACTIVATION PROCEDURE:
The activation of this resource will be initiated by the Chief of Department, or his designee. The unit will be delivered and operated by a support team, trained in its operation by the DFS.

All requests will be made to the METROFIRE CONTROL CENTER who will activate the delivery of the INCIDENT RESPONSE UNIT through established procedures with the Department of Fire Services. Requests to the Metrofire Control Center will require the following information from the requesting community:

1. Location of Incident
2. Requesting Department and a callback number
3. Incident Commander
4. Nature/Extent of the incident
5. Staging area for the Incident Response Unit

SUPPORT TEAM
A team which supports the operations of the unit, will respond to the incident to provide wide-ranging support and coordination of many functions as well as provide numerous resources. The team is made up of the following:< /p>

1. A Liaison Chief from a Metrofire Community, to serve as a link between the ISU and the local Incident Commander
2. An Operations Chief, to coordinate the on scene operations of the incident support team and vehicle
3. A team of firefighters who make up the vehicle operations staff

COMMUNICATIONS:
The unit's radio call sign will be "Incident Response Unit" and will operate on the METROFIRE "RED" CHANNEL when it is operating at a METROFIRE Incident.< /p>