Last year in northern California the smoke from the hundreds of fires started by lightning had a major impact on communities for many weeks. This year the National Incident Management Organization (NIMO) team assigned to the Backbone fire says they have made some changes in the way they are managing this fire.
Here are examples of the changes in an excerpt from an long article in the Record Searchlight.
- Stepped-up air-monitoring efforts, including working closer with local air-quality management districts to put monitors in many communities that have never had them before as well as communicating with residents about any potential dangers caused by smoke.
- Aggressively fighting the fire. “We’re working at minimizing the duration of fires, keeping the size and the cost and the negative impacts down to local communities,” said Robin Cole, the Backbone Fire’s spokeswoman. Thanks to those efforts (and relatively mild weather), the Backbone Fire may be contained within the week. In years past, such a fire would be allowed to burn for months.
- Appointing community liaisons – including residents, retired longtime firefighters and community leaders – to meet daily with fire commanders to hear updates and give input and advice on firefighting strategies.
- A National Incident Management Organization, or NIMO, has been in the area since before the fire started, learning the terrain and meeting with residents. The team will be on site for the duration of the fire, a noticeable shift from last summer when fire-leadership teams, some from as far away as Alaska, were swapped every few weeks.
In this video, NIMO Incident Commander George Custer elaborates on what the team is doing this year, compared to last year.
(THE VIDEO IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE)
