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Emergency Management Training

ICS 300 — Intermediate ICS for Expanding Incidents

For supervisors who may lead on an expanding incident or a Type 3 incident: Unified Command, incident objectives, the Planning Process, resource management, and demobilization — worked through one simulated incident from first report to closeout.

8 Units21 HoursIn-person classroom + applied activityGo Heroes Inc • 501(c)(3)

Course Outline Student Manual — FEMA (PDF, 202 pages) Applied Activity Handouts — FEMA, Student Version (PDF, 264 pages) Go Heroes Edition — Student Manual (PDF, 470 pages)

Before you start

Who this is for, and what you need first

Target audience: personnel who may assume a supervisory role in expanding incidents or Type 3 incidents — where some or all Command and General Staff positions, Division/Group Supervisors, and Unit Leaders may be activated, and the incident may extend into multiple operational periods.

Required prerequisites: IS-100.c, IS-200.c, IS-700.b, and IS-800. This course expands on ICS-100 and ICS-200; it does not re-teach basic ICS from scratch. If you have not completed those, complete them first and come back.

How the class works: this is an in-person classroom course — 21 hours, taught by a Go Heroes instructor with your team. Work the units in order, with the exercises in the Applied Activity handouts and the knowledge checks worked in class. The applied activity in Unit 5 is the capstone work, and the course closes with the summary in Unit 8.

Course materials — no separate Go Heroes workbook: use the FEMA materials already made for this course. The student handbook is the FEMA E/L/G 0300 Student Manual, April 2019, Version 1.0 (202 pages) — download the Student Manual (PDF, 13 MB). The handouts and exercises are the FEMA Applied Activity Materials, Student Version, April 2019 (264 pages) — download the Applied Activity handouts (PDF, 4 MB). The Go Heroes Edition brings the manual and the handouts together as a print-ready PDF (470 pages) — download the Go Heroes Edition (PDF, 18 MB).

About credit — read this before you enroll for a credential. This Go Heroes in-person course follows the E/L/G 0300 unit structure (April 2019) and the course objectives below. Completing it earns a Go Heroes course completion. FEMA EMI transcript credit, where an employer or agency requires it, is issued only through an authorized training sponsor. If you need EMI credit, tell us in the enrollment form and we will confirm the route before you rely on it for a credential.

Course objectives — by the end you will be able to:

Describe how the NIMS Command and Management component supports the management of expanding incidents.
Describe the incident/event management process for supervisors and expanding incidents as prescribed by ICS.
Implement the incident management process on a simulated Type 3 incident.
Develop an Incident Action Plan (IAP) for a simulated incident.

The simulated incident — used in every unit

Cedar Creek scenario (fictional). A wildland fire on the edge of Cedar Creek, Texas, expands in high wind toward a subdivision, a school, and a small hospital. What starts as a single-agency initial response grows into a multi-agency, multi-operational-period Type 3 incident with evacuations, a shelter, a hospital evacuation decision, and road closures. Every exercise in this course uses this one incident, so your decisions build on each other — just as they do on a real expanding incident.

The course

Units 1–8

Course outline — what the class covers, unit by unit, taught in person with your instructor. Knowledge checks and the applied activity in Unit 5 are worked in class; the applied activity is the graded-style work.

Unit 1 • 1 hour 30 minutes • Course Introduction

1. Course Introduction

Objectives: state the purpose of ICS 300, how it fits between ICS 200 and ICS 400, and what a Type 3 incident demands that an initial-response incident does not.

ICS 300 is for supervisors on expanding incidents, not first-arriving responders. The shift is from doing the work to directing, coordinating, and planning the work across operational periods.
A Type 3 incident may activate Command and General Staff, Divisions/Groups, and Units, and extend beyond one operational period. That is why organization, planning, and resource tracking — not just tactics — become the job.
The course is built around one simulated incident. Keep your Student Manual open: your incident objectives, organization chart, and IAP pieces from later units all refer back to Cedar Creek.

Exercise 1 — Student Manual, Unit 1: Write, in two sentences, the difference between your role on an initial response and your role as a supervisor on a second operational period. If you cannot name what changes, that is exactly what Units 2–4 are for.

Unit 2 • 3 hours • ICS Fundamentals Review

2. ICS Fundamentals Review

Objectives: apply the ICS organization, reporting relationships, information flow, and transfer of command to an expanding incident.

Organization expands by function, not by adding people to one supervisor. Command, Operations, Planning, Logistics, and Finance/Administration each grow only as the incident requires, and span of control stays manageable — typically 3 to 7 subordinates, 5 as a target.
Information flows up, down, and across — on purpose. The Incident Commander sets objectives; Section Chiefs turn them into work; Unit Leaders report status back up. When that loop breaks, the incident organization is guessing.
Transfer of command is a formal handoff, not a hallway conversation. It includes a briefing on incident status, objectives, resources, constraints, and safety — and it is documented. A sloppy transfer is how an expanding incident loses a whole operational period.
Common terminology, modular organization, and integrated communications are what let agencies that have never worked together function as one organization.

Exercise 2 — Cedar Creek: Draw the ICS organization for Cedar Creek at hour 6: IC, Operations with two Divisions (fire, evacuation), Planning, Logistics, and a Liaison Officer for the school district and hospital. Who reports to whom? Who is missing that you will need by hour 12?

Unit 3 • 2 hours 15 minutes • Initial Actions for Unified Command

3. Initial Actions for Unified Command

Objectives: describe the features, organization, and functions of Unified Command, and the roles and reporting relationships in single- and multi-jurisdictional incidents.

Unified Command is for incidents with multiple jurisdictions or agencies with legal authority. At Cedar Creek that is the county fire service, the city, the school district, and the hospital — each brings authority no other agency can exercise for it.
One incident, one set of objectives, one IAP. Unified Command does not mean each agency runs its own incident side by side. The Unified Commanders jointly approve objectives, strategies, and the IAP.
Staffing follows the agreement, not the org chart of one agency. A single Operations Section Chief may serve the Unified Command, with Deputy Operations Chiefs from the other agencies — or Operations may be organized by agency. Either way, the reporting line must be unambiguous on paper before the next operational period.
Agency Representatives and Liaison Officers are different jobs. An Agency Rep speaks for one agency to the incident; the Liaison Officer is the incident's point of contact for all assisting and cooperating agencies.

Exercise 3 — Cedar Creek: The city wants a road closure the county opposes, and the hospital wants an evacuation order the school district says will gridlock the shelter route. Write the Unified Command decision for each: who decides, what objective it serves, and what you will tell the public. If the Unified Command cannot agree, what is your fallback — and who breaks the tie?

Unit 4 • 2 hours 15 minutes • Implementing an Operational Planning Process

4. Implementing an Operational Planning Process

Objectives: assess incident/event complexity, establish incident objectives, and develop strategies and tactics — the thinking that happens before the Planning Process meeting in Unit 5.

Assess complexity first. Size, location, threat to life and property, political and media sensitivity, number of agencies, and resource scarcity all push an incident up the complexity scale. Cedar Creek is not complex because it is big; it is complex because fire, evacuation, a hospital, and a school are competing for the same roads at the same time.
Objectives come before strategies, and strategies before tactics. "Protect life, stabilize the incident, protect property and the environment" is a priority order, not a slogan — it is how you choose when you cannot do everything at once.
Incident objectives must be specific enough to assign. "Keep people safe" cannot be assigned. "Complete evacuation of the Cedar Creek subdivision by 1800, using Route 9 only, with shelter capacity for 400 at the high school" can be assigned, resourced, and checked.
Agency policies and guidelines constrain objectives. Evacuation authority, hospital evacuation triggers, and mutual-aid agreements are decided before the incident, not invented during it. Know yours before you need them.

Exercise 4 — Cedar Creek: Write three incident objectives for the next operational period, in priority order, each with a measurable outcome and a deadline. Then write one strategy and two tactics for each. Cross out any objective you cannot resource — that is a resource request, not an objective.

Unit 5 • 5 hours • Planning Process, IAP, and Operations Brief

5. Planning Process, IAP, and Operations Brief

Objectives: run the Planning Process, produce an Incident Action Plan for one operational period, and deliver an Operations Brief that supervisors can actually execute from.

The Planning Process is a cycle, not a meeting. Understand the situation → establish objectives and strategy → develop the plan → prepare and disseminate the plan → execute, evaluate, and revise. The Planning Meeting is one step in that cycle, and it only works if the tactics meeting and the preparation work happened first.
The IAP is the incident's contract for one operational period. It states objectives, the organization, assignments, and the safety message — in writing, approved by the IC/Unified Command, and briefed to everyone who has to execute it. An IAP nobody was briefed on is a document, not a plan.
Key ICS forms, and what each one is for:

Form	Used for
ICS 201 — Incident Briefing	Initial briefing, situation summary, and first objectives
ICS 202 — Incident Objectives	The objectives for the operational period
ICS 203 — Organization Assignment List	Who fills each ICS position
ICS 204 — Assignment List	What each Division/Group is assigned, and its resources
ICS 205 — Radio Communications Plan	Frequencies and channels by assignment
ICS 205A — Communications List	Contact information for incident personnel
ICS 206 — Medical Plan	Medical aid stations, hospitals, and transport
ICS 207 — Incident Organization Chart	Visual organization for the operational period
ICS 208 — Safety Message/Plan	Hazards and safety controls for the period
ICS 215 / 215A — Operational Planning Worksheet / Risk Analysis	Work assignments, resources, and hazard analysis
ICS 214 — Activity Log	Unit-level record of actions and decisions

Applied Activity — Cedar Creek (the course capstone): Build an IAP for the next Cedar Creek operational period (0600–1800). Your IAP must include: ICS 202 objectives (from Unit 4, revised), ICS 203/207 organization, at least three ICS 204 assignments, an ICS 206 medical plan covering the shelter and the hospital evacuation route, and an ICS 208 safety message addressing wind shift, fatigue, and road traffic. Use the Applied Activity handout templates. This is the work you complete in class — keep a copy.

Unit 6 • 3 hours • Incident Resource Management

6. Incident Resource Management

Objectives: apply the principles and steps of resource management, and use ICS forms to order, track, and account for resources on an expanding incident.

Resource management is a cycle: identify requirements → order and acquire → mobilize → track and report → demobilize. A resource that is not tracked is a resource you will order twice — or lose.
Kind, type, and capability matter more than headcount. "Send engines" is not an order. Kind (engine), type (Type 1 vs. Type 6), and capability (crew size, water capacity, off-road ability) are what determine whether the resource can do the assignment.
Ordering goes through one channel. On an expanding incident, resources are ordered through the established ordering process (Operations → Logistics → ordering point), not by direct calls from the field to home agencies. Side ordering is how an incident ends up with three of one thing and none of another.
Status matters: assigned, available, and out of service are not interchangeable. The Resources Unit tracks status; the Situation Unit tracks what the incident is doing. Both feed the IAP for the next period.

Exercise 6 — Cedar Creek: Your Division Supervisor requests two additional engines and a shelter support team. Write the order with kind, type, and capability, the assignment each resource fills, and how you will track it from order to demobilization. What do you do when only one engine is available?

Unit 7 • 2 hours • Demobilization, Transfer of Command, Closeout, and Transition to Recovery

7. Demobilization, Transfer of Command, Closeout, and Transition to Recovery

Objectives: plan demobilization, execute a transfer of command, close out the incident, and hand off cleanly to recovery.

Demobilization is planned early, not at the end. The Demobilization Plan (ICS 221) is built while the incident is still active, so resources are released in the right order, checked out properly, and returned in usable condition — not all at once in a traffic jam at the incident base.
Release order follows need, not arrival. Resources no longer needed go first; resources that support demobilization itself go last. Every release is documented, including time, condition, and destination.
Transfer of command at closeout is as formal as at the start. The outgoing IC briefs the incoming authority on remaining hazards, open actions, and unresolved issues — and the transfer is announced so nobody is still taking orders from the wrong person.
Closeout is not the same as recovery. The incident organization closes out its operations, finance, and documentation; recovery — housing, infrastructure, health follow-up — continues under a different organization, with a deliberate handoff of information, not just a "we're done."
After-action matters. What worked, what did not, and what changes before the next incident are captured while memory is fresh, not reconstructed months later.

Exercise 7 — Cedar Creek: The fire is 80% contained and the subdivision evacuation is lifting in phases. Write the demobilization order: which resources release first, what checkout each one needs, and what remains open for recovery (road repair, hospital re-entry, shelter closure). Who owns each open item after the incident organization stands down?

Unit 8 • 2 hours • Course Summary

8. Course Summary

Objectives: integrate the full incident management process and identify what you will do differently on your next expanding incident.

Trace Cedar Creek from first report to closeout: where did organization, objectives, planning, resources, and demobilization each make the difference — and where would a gap have cost a period?
The through-line of ICS 300: supervision is a system. Objectives, a written IAP, tracked resources, and a planned demobilization are not bureaucracy; they are how a supervisor keeps a growing incident under control when the incident outgrows any one person.
Your next step is not "know ICS" — it is to practice it: run a tabletop on your own agency's most likely expanding incident, using the Applied Activity handouts, before you need it for real.

Final exercise — Student Manual, Unit 8: Write your personal after-action: three things you will do differently as a supervisor on an expanding incident, and one gap in your own agency's planning you will raise this month. Then bring it to class.

In-person class

Enrollment

Use this form to enroll your team in the in-person class. Tell us your organization, group size, and preferred dates — Go Heroes will follow up to confirm the class and, if you asked about EMI credit, the credential route.

Price: $2,995 per 20-person class (non-AHJ-funded courses; AHJ-funded courses are free through that route).

Questions? Use the enrollment form on this page • 550 County Road 1308, Canton, TX 75103