Challenges of Major Incident Management When Excess Resources are Allocated: Experiences from a Mass Casualty Incident after Roof Collapse of a Military Command Center[1]
Summary
A case report of a March 2000 command-center roof collapse during a military exercise in northern Norway, with 76 people inside and 25 entrapped or buried under snow. There were three deaths, seven serious, three moderate, and 16 minor injuries. A nearby convalescence camp 125 m away was reorganized as a casualty clearing station; 417 people and abundant vehicles/aircraft were available, of which only a fraction were used. Because resources were ample, this was managed as a mass casualty rather than a disaster, and firm incident command prevented an influx of excess resources.
So what
Illustrates that firm incident command — deliberately capping the inflow of responders — is as important as mobilizing them; abundant resources under weak control create their own problem. The event stayed a "mass casualty," not a "disaster," because command held.
Key findings
- Roof collapse, 76 inside, 25 entrapped/buried; 3 deaths, 7 serious injuries.
- Nearby camp reconfigured as a casualty clearing station 125 m from scene.
- Firm incident command prevented influx of excess resources; managed as mass casualty, not disaster.
Read the paper
- Publisher (DOI) ↗may be paywalled