ELLSWORTH -Local emergency responders joined with U.S. Coast Guard crews this week for special training in how to manage a wide variety of emergency situations, ranging from a terrorist attack to a ship grounding.

The “all-risk, all-hazard” training is based on the same response methods used in fighting wildfires, according to Lt. Eric Doucette, one of the Coast Guard instructors for the course. The response method involves a top-down “incident command” management style that also is used by a number of fire departments in fighting fires.

The three-day training session, which wraps up today, gives participants experience in assessing resource needs and allocating those resources in a number of different scenarios that would require cooperation among a number of different agencies, Doucette said. It follows a national incident-assessment, incident-management system process that stresses the management of all resources in responding to an emergency.

“We teach people how to set up a good organization for responding to an incident,” he said. “That includes an incident commander and section chiefs who can order the resources they need and also identify what is not needed for a response, and order them to stand down.”

Using different scenarios, the course helps the responders to consider a number of issues involved in dealing with an emergency. One scenario, for example, requires that they account for all the resources at an emergency scene.

“They have to consider all the response issues, not just the tactical response,” Doucette said.

That means considering factors such as a work-rest regime for the field responders and keeping track of the equipment available.

This is the system the Coast Guard will use in responding to emergencies, the instructor said, and can be adapted to all types of situations involving interagency cooperation.

“This is how the Coast Guard plans to manage homeland security responses,” Doucette said. “It can be used in a number of homeland security scenarios, including a weapons-of-mass-destruction incident, as well as in a plane crash or even planned events, such as a presidential visit or a major harbor event, that might involve coordinating different agencies.”

Although the majority of the 38 people taking the three-day course in Ellsworth were from the Coast Guard, other agencies represented included the Red Cross, National Park Service, Maine Warden Service and the U.S. Border Patrol. This is an intermediate course, one of several levels of courses offered by the Coast Guard

Doucette and Lt. Matt McCann, the other instructor for the training in Ellsworth, were first responders at the World Trade Center and at other emergency situations. They have taught the course in Portland and near the New Hampshire border. Coast Guard trainers also are offering similar courses at locations around the country.