Special Interest Articles:

• Tornado

Responses • Thank You from

Tom Lovejoy. • Full Scale

Exercise – Are You Signed Up?

Individual Highlights:

Tornados 2-4

Member News 5

Mtg & Events Cal. 6

Training Calendar 7

IMT Coins 6

Website Update. 10

This edition of the IL-IMT News is a bit longer than usual due to all the events since our October newsletter. Our immediate observation is to express the value of our training and teamwork as demonstrated during our recent tornado deployments. The “espirit de corps” of our team added greatly to our effectiveness. IL-IMT was able to contribute in many ways to lessen the pain experienced in the communities of Washington and Gifford. During this holiday season we have much to be thankful for. First is the support of our employers and families for our participation on this team. Next the support that each of you provide to your fellow members. Your mentoring, encouragement and camaraderie is outstanding. We wish you the membership, our fellow teams and the friends of IL-IMT a safe joyous holiday season and a great New Year!

Steve and Bob

ILLINOIS – IMT December 2013

NOTE Next team meeting will be 3/20-21/14

in Springfield.

A Message from the Chairs Steve Clarkson, Champaign Fire Department Bob Elliott, Illinois State Police

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Washington

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November Tornado Response IL IMT Deploys in Response to Tornados Tearing through the State. As many in the profession know, emergency managers as well as fellow first responders seem to 

have a sixth sense of risk in the air. The morning of November 17, 2013 was no different and it gave 

much unease to those in emergency preparedness.  

With that in mind, the co‐chairs of IL‐IMT sent out a “heads‐up” email to all members and inquired 

who might be available if we were deployed.  This pre‐assessment permitted the chairs as well as 

team ICs to ascertain team strengths and specific positions that would be available.  

The first call was for Gifford…  

Gifford Tornado Response 

Gifford was the first time IL‐IMT was a direct mutual–aid requested not predicated on a State 

request.  This meant that our response was personally funded by each member with no expectation 

for reimbursement (reimbursement was declared later since the State declared this a disaster 

response).  Upon arrival, the team found the Sheriff as IC and in good control of the situation.  IL‐IMT 

was able to supplement his resources, define objectives and assist in the planning, logistics and 

administration of the disaster.  After two operational periods we were able to transition the incident 

to the locals to handle.  Members that responded to Gifford were: Keith Frank, Bob Elliott, Mike 

Moos, Rich Mikel, John Tierney, Danielle Moore, Rich Utter, Mark Bridges, Lindsey May, Bob Doty, 

Stephen Clarkson and Gary Hanebrink.  

Washington Tornado Response Members from the IL‐IMT responded to Washington, Illinois after IEMA made a request for IMT 

assistance in the aftermath of an EF‐4 tornado that struck Washington on the morning of Sunday, 

November 17, 2013.  The initial response of team members Derek Carle; Jason Sartin and Dennis 

Bingheim was on the night of the 17th; with IMT members Eric Hodges, Tim Jones, Rick Scott, Steve 

Schultz and Ray Palczynski Jr. arriving on Monday the 18th.  The team initially was tasked to provide 

robust logistical and planning support and safety, as well as to assess the resources that were 

involved in the incident.  IAP’S were written for the operational periods the City of Washington 

established.   

 

Several additional IMT members were involved in the response throughout the next several days.  

The total number of days IMT deployed to Washington was eleven days.   In addition to the above 

listed members Bob Elliott, Joe Gasparich, Joe Jones, Keith Frank, Mike Moos, Gary Hanebrink, Bob 

Doty, Ralph Webster, Joe Kelly and Les Albert also responded to assist in the incident.   

 

IL-IMT NewsPage 5 of 10

October 29, 2013

Steve and All Members:

I want to thank you for the terrific gift. I have it proudly displayed inmy office for all to see.

This was, of course, a difficult decision for me, and seeing all of you last week brought home the finality of that decision. Again, letme say that I have been honored to serve with all of you on the Illinois IMT.

I wish you the best of luck in what will doubtlessly be a fruitful and productive future for the team. Feel free to call on me at any time.

Sincerely, Tom Lovejoy

A Thank You from Tom Lovejoy, Past Co-Chair

November 2, 2013 Journal Gazette & Times-Courier CHARLESTON — An Eastern Illinois University press release reported that the Illinois Fire Inspectors Association presented the university with a Corporate Award during the association’s recent Fire Prevention Week luncheon and meeting. Bob Morris, executive director of the association, said the group annually honors emergency personnel, children, young adults, adults and corporations who have greatly enhanced or contributed to local fire prevention efforts in their community. Eastern Illinois University was recognized for having been the first state university to achieve complete compliance of the Fire Sprinkler Dormitory Act. Enacted in January 2005, this act required all on-campus housing at post-secondary institutions to have fire sprinklers installed by 2013. In January 2011, the state further enacted the Greek Housing Fire Safety Act, requiring all Greek housing to install fire sprinkler systems by 2019. The university began its efforts in 2000 with Eastern Illinois University finished its work in summer 2012. The university spent more than $10.5 million dollars on the total multi-year project, which involved the installation of fire sprinkler systems and fire alarm systems in all 28 of the university’s residential buildings on campus. Gary Hanebrink, safety officer at EIU, along with William Weber, vice president for business affairs at EIU, accepted the association’s award on behalf of the university. “We’re grateful for the award and what it represents,” Hanebrink said. “It’s a validation of the efforts Eastern has made to provide a safe, secure environment for our students and visitors.”

IMT Member Gary Hanebrink Receives, on Behalf of EIU, a State Award

Pictured, from the left, are William Weber, vice president for business affairs at EIU, and Gary Hanebrink, safety officer at EIU, receiving the Corporate Award from Joey Jeraminas, a Homer Township Fire District firefighter who is president of the IFIA.

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Task Book Qualification Changes

This is a reminder that on February 26‐27, Illinois IMT will be involved as key players in an exercise. Since this is a management‐focused exercise, we will be critical players in the functions of the exercise. IMT members can count on working with other state groups who have realized that they have to be ready to manage their people in a large‐scale event. We will need to work well with folks who have heard of us, but never worked with us.  The exercise will be held in Champaign and we will meet on the afternoon of Feb. 25th. Several members signed up at the last meeting to participate. If you are interested, please email Keith Frank at keith.frank.mba@gmail.com. Also, if you are interested in participating, and your particular position is not open; please just let us know of your availability.  

STATE FULL SCALE EXERCISE will involve IL-IMT

Organizational Chart

Position Leads FASC Ed St. Louis OSC Mark Bridges LSC Eric Hodges PSC Matt Bryan

SOFR Leon Duncan LOFR Bob Elliott PIO Mike Moos

TNSP Gary Hanebrink

Joe Jones reported at the last meeting that the Incident Qualifications System for the State of Illinois is moving forward. During the past year ten individuals either received their first Red Card or had another position added to it. The All Hazard Incident Management Team Association (AHIMTA) Committee on Incident Qualifications submitted its initial draft that is currently going through adjudication.  To make comments on the draft you must be a member of the AHIMTA which cost $50.00 per year.  To join the AHIMTA,  go to the web site www.AHIMTA.org. The AHIMTA helps bring a voice to address issues that effect incident management teams.  The major change that the current draft brings about is a requirement that individuals have at least one incident deployment before receiving their Red Card. There are other changes that Illinois will most likely adopt that are too many to identify in this short paragraph.  I highly recommend becoming a member of the AHIMTA and reviewing and commenting during the adjudication process.  

IL-IMT Organization Chart

2/25-27/14 at IFSI

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“It is critical that team members attend meetings to keep up with new information and to remain qualified through training as required by IEMA.”

Event 2014 Date Location

Winter Fire School Jan. 25-26 Champaign (IFSI)

IMT Advisory Committee Jan. 27 Bloomington

ISA Feb. 2-4 Fairview Heights

MABAS Feb. 17-19 Springfield

State FSE Feb. 25-27 Champaign (IFSI)

ILEAS Mar. 2-4 Springfield

Quarterly Team Meeting Mar. 20-21 Springfield

IESMA May 1-3 Bloomington

Quarterly Team Meeting May 15-16 Bloomington

NIMO Exercise April 1-3 Collinsville

Fire College June 5-8 Champaign (IFSI)

Explorer-Cadet Fire School June 19-22 Champaign (IFSI)

IFPD June 19-22 Springfield

IACP June 20-22 Tinley Park

Quarterly Team Meeting July 17-18 Chicago

IEMA Sept. 3-5 Springfield

IML Sept. 18-20 Chicago

Quarterly Team Meeting Sept. 25-26 Champaign

IFCA Oct. 12-15 Peoria

AHIMTA Dec. 6-12 Fort Worth, TX

Quarterly Team Meeting Dec. 18-19 Springfield

IPWMAN TBD TBD

KEY

Team Meeting Color Tentative timetable of team meetings.

Conference Color

Exercise Color

Meetings and Events Calendar

A visor card has been authorized for use to help identify your role while deployed. Contact Mike

Moos (mmoos@shermanil.org) should you want one. The artwork will then be sent to you to print

and laminate on your own.

IL-IMT Visor ID Card IL-IMT

OFFICIAL BUSINESS

TIP

When posting any document from the team:

Indicate this as a IMT document through the use of the logo or member title,

Show the date the document was produced and,

Who wrote the document.

This will permit recognition of who produced the document, how current it is and if corrections or updates were needed, whom to contact to make the update.

IL-IMT News Page 8 of 10

Training Calendar Offered by Fire Service Institute

CLASS DATE LOCATION

Command & General Staff Jan 6-10 Edwardsville

Command & General Staff Jan 13-17 Tremont

ICS 300 Jan. 11, 18-19 Highland

All Hazard Medical Unit Leader Jan. 29-31 Champaign

ICS 400 Feb. 8-9 Highland

Command & General Staff Mar 3-7 Carbondale

ICS 300 Mar 7-8 Carlinville

All Hazard Incident Commander (IC) Mar. 10-14 Plainfield

All Hazards IMT* Mar. 24-28 Springfield

ICS 300 Mar. 31 - Apr. 2 Downers Grove

ICS 400 April 3-4 Downers Grove

All Hazards Safety Officer (SOFR) April 8-11 Springfield

All Hazard Public Information Officer (PIO) Apr. 28 - May 2 Springfield

All Hazard Planning Section Chief (PSC) May 19-23 Springfield

All Hazards Situation Unit Leader (SITL) July? TBD TBD

All Hazards Logistics Section Chief (LSC) Aug. 18-22 Logan Co.

All Hazards Operations Section Chief (OSC) Oct. 20-24 STL Dwntwn Air

Status Check-In Recorder TBD TBD

* Prerequisite is C&GS or ICS 300 & ICS 400

This is a tentative schedule, for further info go to: http://www.fsi.illinois.edu/content/courses/schedule/ 

IMT Coin Available  The coin “proof” illustrates what a great item this has become. If you would like one or more, simply… 

Email Eric Hodges (ebhodge@ilstu.edu) or Ralph Webster (rwebster@wfrd.org), 

Indicate how many you want, 

Provide mailing address or tell us that you'll just take them when we next see each other, 

Send $5.00/coin or just pay us when we next see each other…if we do mail, please add a little bit for shipping. If you're going to mail a check, we will give you our mailing address at that time. 

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Missouri and Illinois IMT meet at the conference.

From Left: Keith Frank, Daniel Ellis, Bob Elliott, Ralph Webster and Joe Jones.

Members of the Illinois Incident Management Team (IL-IMT) attended the 2013 All Hazards Incident Management Team Association (AHIMTA) annual conference in Charleston, South Carolina November 19-21. The five team members represented Illinois police, fire service and emergency management agencies at both local and state levels. Conference attendees represented 45 states and the speakers provided unique perspectives on responses to several critical incidents of national significance. The Boston Marathon Bombing response was shared by Boston Fire IMT - Chief of Special Operations Dennis Costin. He suggested IMT’s participate in planned events to be better prepared for critical incident response. In addition, he stressed the value of building interagency relationships prior to incident occurrence. The value of training together with other response agencies, providing agency administrators the specific products an IMT can bring to the response effort and considerations toward emerging threats, not just historic threats, were among the many points made. Bill Miller, a National Type 1 Incident Commander with decades of experience shared his insight on “Organizing the Operations Section out of Chaos”. The key challenge of moving from an initial phase of reactive efforts to one of proactive response was elaborated on. Among the critical actions emphasized were having a Staging Area Manager and the use of an ICS 211. Dennis Byer of the Oklahoma State IMT shared experience from the 2012 Moore, Oklahoma Tornado response. Maximizing IMT use through planned events serves among other things as an effective marketing tool. In addition Dennis emphasized the need to reinforce the IMT works for an Agency Administrator and the importance of avoiding temptation to stay engaged beyond the point in which the objectives are achieved. Clearly identifying when response objectives have been achieved is essential to avoid involvement in recovery operations outside the scope of expectations. A best practice was the OK IMT involvement with many statewide organizations to educate others on IMT purpose and capabilities across the state to include; police, fire service, EMS, emergency management and others. More information on the conference and association can be found at AHIMTA.org to include membership application, conference presentations and 2014 conference information. While at the conference, IL-IMT members initiated a meeting with peers from seven area states [MN, IN, OH, MI, IA, MO and OK]. The collaboration resulted in ongoing communication between team leadership on best practices and lessons learned during deployments, training and policy. Anticipated future outcomes include joint training opportunities. During the conference two team members were recognized for their work on the Credentialing/ Qualification Committee. Mr. Bill Farnham and Mr. Joe Jones both contributed to ongoing efforts to establish national standards. The Illinois Credentialing/Qualification system utilized by IL-IMT provided a foundation for the current national draft proposal reflecting favorably on both the State of Illinois and IL-IMT.

All Hazards IMT Association Conference

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About Illinois IMT Illinois IMT is comprised of approximately 50 members of law enforcement, fire, emergency 

management and the private sector from throughout the state. We are trained to perform the 

various positions in the Incident Command System structure. Illinois IMT is self‐sufficient with our 

own supplies and equipment. We report to the local government requesting us.  

 

IMT can provide crucial assistance by: 

Providing a team made up of different emergency disciplines that looks at your situation from 

an “All Hazard” point‐of‐view. 

Providing a team with expertise to assist in managing the incident. 

Providing a team to contain and control costs related to the incident. 

Performing specific staff and command functions for which you need assistance. 

Aiding in the development of your Incident Action Plan (IAP). 

IL-IMT NEWS Mike Moos, Editor

c/o Village of Sherman 401 St. Johns Drive Sherman, IL 62684

PHONE:

(217) 306-1942

E-MAIL: mmoos@shermanil.org IL-IMT WEBSITE

The IL-IMT Website is still being researched as to where to have it hosted with an affordable cost. We have what items we want on the site for both public and member access. So continue to stay tuned for further updates.