We’re trying something new here on Wildfire Today called Open Mic. If you have something on your mind, let us know in a reply or comment below this post. Feel free to discuss anything related to wildland fire. The same rules apply — no politics or advertising, and be nice to one another.
I work as a graduate student in a fire research group that has been working on wildland and grassland fire problems in detail for a couple of years now. Most recently, we have been working to characterize grassland fuels and fire spread from a fundamental perspective using some various fire modeling tools. Most of this work has been internally funded by our group.
While we have collaborated with various local agencies at some level, we are having a hard time forming a strong relationship with others on issues that we think are important in the future of wildland fires, such as WUI risk assessment at the community scale, physics-based wildland fire modeling, and tactical decision making based on various risk/modeling tools.
We’ve been successful in working closely partners in the fire service and other agencies (NIST, NFPA) in fire research to collaborate on other issues, but wildland fire is one we are having a difficult time connecting with. In your (or your reader’s) opinion, what more can we do to get involved with interested parties in the wildland fire community?
See my earlier post re: the IAWF 4th Fire Behavior and Fuels conference; many of the most important people in wildland fire and fuels are there now. Here’s the link to the conference program page where you can download a listing of the speakers and presentations- http://www.iawfonline.org/2013FuelsConference/index.php.
Kristopher, I agree with Robert, above. To “to get involved with interested parties in the wildland fire community”, one of the best tactics is to be in the same place at the same time as other members of the wildland fire community. If you attend meetings and conferences you can be with hundreds of others with similar interests. Some of the most important information at conferences is shared during breaks, in the halls between presentations, or at meals.
Don’t expect them to come to you. The famous bank robber Willy Sutton allegedly said that he robbed banks “because that’s where the money is.”
Thank you both for your feedback; it is much appreciated!
For the short ammount of time that i have been involved in wildland fire i have taken quite a few NWCG courses. I guess that i have the bug. My favorite classes have been S-290, S-131, and S-200. They were real eye openers. Does anyone else have a class or classes that really hit home and maybe changed the course of your career?
Any of the L classes L-180 is generally a guard school class, but L-280 and especially L-380 taught by a good cadre are great classes. I took L-380 in Missoula and it has stayed with me my entire career. I’m not a big fan of NWCG courses taught right out of the book. The leadership (L series) classes are generally a good mix of field and class time.
thanks for the reply Lee. I was telling an engine boss friend of mine (who is going for STEN) about how much I liked the S-290 and he said wait untill you start taking L classes. He said 380 was a blast and he cant wait to take 480.
M-410, is the best course I have taken in the NWCG cirriculum. I had been teaching classes for a couple of years as a unit instructor, and left the week confident in my ability to manage a classroom and utilize some non lecture/death by powerpoint instruction methods.
It’s a must have IMHO
How has social media affected your information gathering? What available resources do you use to get information and stay connected? What is missing? What could be better? What under utilized tools should be incorporated into our SA when responding to incidents?
I like to look at the northern rockies GACC every morning. The NAtional weather service fire weather page is good as well. Those two resources are under utilized in my dept. We are a vol. dept. by the way. I went to a fire last year with a captian on the dept. It was a small fire that was a 360 degree backing fire with all the smoke going to the center and forming a whirl. My captain thought that was weird and said so. I said the Haines index for the day was six and he looked at me with a blank stare.
The IAWF 4th Fire Behavior and Fuels conference is opening today in Raleigh, NC. I know some of the presenters and wish I were there.
Perhaps an attendee can share some insight they have gained from the gathering, either ongoing or after it’s over.
Hello all, I have applied to gs3 fire positions and received about 45 interest emails and replied to all. One asked for supervisors names and phone numbers from my resume and another said my application is being reviewed by an SFEO. Does anyone know a general time frame as far as hiring goes? Im hoping to start hearing good things in march.