The incident commander shall be the designated fire department officer responsible for all operations directed toward the containment and mitigation of the hazards at the scene of a hazardous materials incident. Upon arrival, the Incident Commander shall secure and maintain immediate control until the situation has been corrected or abated.

The Tupelo Fire Department shall accept and provide the position of Incident Commander for the scene of all hazardous materials incidents within the City of Tupelo in accordance with the "Memorandum of Understanding for Hazardous Materials Incidents" as signed by the Police Department and Fire Department. The Tupelo Fire Department shall coordinate and direct within its jurisdiction and responsibility to include, but not be limited to: rescue and first aid, product identification, scene stabilization and management, agency notification, scene isolation, personnel protection, safety, decontamination, evacuation, and enforcement of all applicable regulations, laws, and fire department procedures.

A Team Leader of the Tupelo Fire Department Special Operations Unit shall report to and function through the on-scene Incident Commander. A Team Leader shall not assume nor be given the responsibility of incident command of any hazardous materials incident. Only when first on the scene shall a Team Leader serve as Incident Commander. Immediately upon arrival of the next Fire Department Company, the Team Leader shall pass command of the incident to that fire officer.

The Incident Commander shall employ overall management and coordination of the hazardous materials incident. The Incident Commander shall be responsible for the identification of incident resources and needs, the procurement of these resources, and the coordination of the resources so as to abate the incident and protect life, property, and the environment.

The Incident Commander shall not be responsible for the detailed direction of technical or specialized procedures, but shall oversee that these procedures are followed and implemented when suggested. Incident Command decisions are to be made with assistance of expert and technical advisors and specialists, never to exclude the Team Leaders of the Special Operations Unit.

The Incident Commander shall coordinate and control all tasks and functions with the senior on-scene Police Department representative, who has been designated as Police Department Incident Commander.

Using the guidelines established and working closely with the Police Department Incident Commander, the Incident Commander will mange the command and control of all mitigation tasks and functions.

All mitigation and tactical operations will be managed by the Fire Department.

Specific tactical objectives will be carried out by Group/Sector Supervisors.

Other needs will be met by staffing ICS positions as required.

A Safety Officer will be designated by the Incident Commander. The incident level, size, duration, or other factors may require that a Safety Sector be established. The Safety Officer shall have the authority to stop temporarily any operations which is deemed to be potentially hazardous to emergency workers. Any "stop work order" should be immediately communicated to the Operations Chief.

A Level II incident may and a Level III incident require the activation of the Tupelo Emergency Management Team (TEMTeam) in order to provide for effective operations of a multiple agency response by City Departments. The activation of the TEMTeam will also provide for the appropriate City Officials to be notified in order to conduct certain emergency functions and/or involve multiple city resources.

For major or large scale incidents a unified command may be necessary, utilizing the TEMTeam Plan.