In January 2012 the NWCG issued an All-Hazards Intent Document defining wildland fire agencies support to all-hazards incidents. The document stated, “The National Incident Management System (NIMS) is the foundation of all response. NWCG principles, procedures, and publications will comply with and support NIMS. NWCG expects that all local, State, and Federal response agencies and organizations will comply with NIMS.” The document further stated that, “NWCG supports the ongoing development and maintenance of wildland fire systems to be adaptable for all-hazards response.” (See NWCG's Role.)
In part to meet the new NIMS standards, as well as other mandated requirements, in 2012 the Situation Report / ICS-209 (Sit/209) application underwent a significant redesign. The primary goals of the redesign are to meet more stringent federal agency IT and security requirements, as well as to provide users of the application a more functional and robust reporting system. New features have been added to the 209 program, including the following:
- Implement a design refresh as part of the Software Development Lifecycle Cycle (SDLC) process.
- Meet new and on-going technical and mandated security requirements (i.e., user and password management through the NESS integrated LDAP, C&A Self-Assessment, secure coding). Also, Implement F&AM single sign-on in conjunction with the NESS common user authentication project.
- Replace the existing “canned” Sit/209 reports with the Cognos reporting software package required by the Forest Service (similar functionality to the ROSS reports software package).
- Incorporate the NIMS 209 form into the 209 program. This will allow incident management teams and others to better report all-hazard incidents. Additional data fields within the program will allow non-fire incidents to be more accurately reported.
- Enhance the application’s capability to integrate with other existing or emerging systems of record, such as IRWIN, WFDSS and other programs.
In order to ensure that the information submitted is as complete as possible, please follow the guidelines in this User’s Guide when completing or reviewing a SIT Report or ICS-209s for submission into this database.