State of Colorado Emergency Resource Inventory Website

The State of Colorado Emergency Resource Inventory website was developed to support the Colorado State Emergency Resource Mobilization Plan (CSERMP). CSERMP is an all-risk system for the allocation, mobilization, and deployment of resources in the event of a disaster or local incident that requires more resources than those available under any existing inter jurisdictional or mutual aid agreement. This plan will only be utilized after all local and mutual aid resources have been depleted or will be imminently depleted.

Website Serves Multiple Purposes

There are two major components to the Colorado Emergency Resource Inventory Website. The first is an on-line directory of fire, law enforcement, EMS, emergency management, and public works agencies in the State. The agency directory provides key contact information for the agency and some basic demographic information, such as size of jurisdiction, and population served.

In addition to providing contact information that is needed during an emergency, it replaces the need for the multitude of agency directories that were previously published in paper, and were out of date as soon as they were printed. Anyone with computer access can go to: www.co-mobilization.org and find out how to contact their local fire chief, police chief, sheriff, emergency manager, or EMS agency director. Additionally, the Division of Fire Safety and other authorized agencies and organizations utilize the mailing addresses, phone numbers, and E-mail addresses to distribute information and stay in contact with fire departments and other first responder agencies in the state.

The second component of the Emergency Resource Inventory Website is the inventory function. This secured site provides agencies with the means to identify the resources they own or manage in accordance with the Colorado Resource Typing Standards. The Colorado Resource Typing Standards were developed by the Colorado Resource Mobilization Working Group based on those developed by the Department of Homeland Security through the NIMS Integration Center (NIC).

These typing standards, when used in conjunction with the Colorado State Emergency Resource Mobilization Plan and the Resource Ordering and Status System (ROSS) allow emergency management, fire and law enforcement personnel to identify, locate, request, order and track outside resources quickly and effectively.

In addition to identifying the particular equipment and teams the agency owns or manages, it allows the agency to identify at what level the resource will generally be made available in support of a major emergency or disaster: local and local mutual aid; statewide; or nationwide.

The resource information collected through this website is then used to populate the Resource Ordering and Status System (ROSS) database which, in turn, is used by the State for the allocation, mobilization, and deployment of resources.

A side benefit of the Emergency Resource Inventory Website is it replaces the need for each county emergency manager to manage their own inventory database. County emergency managers have access to all the resource information entered for their respective county, and can download this information into a local database if they so desire.

Need to Update Information

In order for the Emergency Resource Inventory Website to continue to be of value to all users, the data must be maintained current. Thus, the Division asks the individual agencies to log onto the website and update their information whenever contact or resource changes are made, and at least annually. At the present time, two-thirds of the fire department records have not been updated in over a year, and nearly 25% these records haven’t been updated since they were initially entered three years ago.

The CSERMP, the State of Colorado Resource Typing Standards, and the Resource Inventory website are the product of the Colorado Resource Mobilization System Working Group, and are administered by the Colorado Division of Fire Safety. The Working Group is a broad coalition of individuals representing the fire service, law enforcement, emergency management, pre-hospital care, and other affected state agencies who came together for this common purpose.   The Colorado State Fire Chiefs’ Association has been a member of the Colorado Resource Mobilization System Working Group since its inception.

For more information about the Colorado Emergency Resource Inventory Website or to obtain or replace a user name or password, contact Matt Coldwell at the Colorado Division of Fire Safety at: matt.coldwell@cdps.state.co.us or 720-852-6744.

Posted 04-30-07