Wildfire Today

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Tag: area command

12 Questions for Edy Rhodes

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , , , 1 Comment on 12 Questions for Edy Rhodes

Today we have the ninth article of our series in which we ask current and retired leaders in the wildland fire service to answer 12 questions.

We appreciate everyone who is cooperating with this project. Some of their responses may add to the knowledge base of our new firefighters coming up through the ranks. If you would like to nominate someone who would be a good candidate for these questions, drop us a line through our Contact Us page. And their contact information would be appreciated.

Below we hear from Edy Rhodes, a former Area Commander. She worked for the U. S. Forest Service for 25 years before transferring to the National Park Service, retiring as their Division Chief of Fire, Aviation and Structural Fire.

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When you think of an excellent leader in the fire service, who comes to mind first?
Too many to mention, but here are a few:

  • Steve Pedigo, Dick Cox, Rex Mann, and Bobby Kitchens who promoted incident management teams in the South resulting in involvement in the national Type 1 rotation.
  • Rick Gale and Mike Edrington, in their roles Fire Directors, as Area Commanders and as leaders of the 520/620 Steering Committee and cadre. They mentored countless individuals in their careers over the years.
  • Also, the Forestry Technicians who taught me the basics and kept me safe while giving me room to make mistakes during my early career years. Junior Gay, Daniel Boone NF and Bruce Harvey, NF’s in FL, come to mind!

What is one piece of advice you would give to someone before their first assignment as an Incident Commander?
In general, “Before you get on the horse, be ready to ride!” Specific to large incident management, provide strategic leadership and all it entails from being proactive, confident, decisive and a good communicator with your team and all stakeholders involved.

Edy Rhodes
Edy Rhodes

If someone is planning a prescribed fire, what is one thing that you hope they will pay particular attention to?
An approved plan, appropriate weather conditions, adequate resources, and good communication by all.

One of the more common errors in judgment you have seen on fires?
Assuming that everyone is on the same page; Failing to “connect the dots” and “close the loop” with those that need critical information that may affect them.

One thing that you know now that you wish you had known early in your career?
What a rewarding career that fire management would be! The opportunities to travel, see remarkable places, and work with extraordinary people has enriched my life tremendously.

The stupidest mistake you have seen on a fire?
It was on a RX burn, when the fire jumped the line on our section, setting off a huge, grassy field next to the municipal sewage treatment plant, which was adjacent to the regional airport. Thank goodness, we were able to get the treatment plant personnel to turn on the effluent sprinklers, which extinguished the fire, before the smoke completely shut down airport operations. We got a lot of phone calls on that one!

Your most memorable fire?
The Yellowstone Fires of 1988.

The funniest thing you have seen on a fire?
A couple of mules got loose from their pack string and went bucking down the mountain scattering their load everywhere!

The first very large fire you were on?
The Hog Fire, Klamath NF, 1977.

Your favorite book about fire or firefighting?
Young Men and Fire

The first job you had within the fire service?
Forester Trainee and firefighter on a local crew on the Daniel Boone National Forest, KY.

What gadgets, electronic or otherwise, can’t you live without?
Laptop, iPhone and iPad. Love my Google maps!

 

12 Questions for Jim Stumpf

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags ,

Today we have the eighth article of our series in which we ask current and retired leaders in the wildland fire service to answer 12 questions.

We appreciate everyone who is cooperating with this project. Some of their responses may add to the knowledge base of our new firefighters coming up through the ranks. If you have a suggestion of someone who would be a good candidate for these questions, drop us a line through our Contact Us page. And their contact information would be appreciated.

Below we hear from Jim Stumpf. In 1975 Jim was a Type 1 Incident Commander on the Pacoima fire on the Angeles National Forest, the first fire that was run under the Firescope system, which evolved into the Incident Command System. Later he was an Area Commander. When he retired from the federal government he was with the Bureau of Land Management’s National Fire Program and Budget Office.

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Jim Stumpf
Jim Stumpf

When you think of an excellent leader in the fire service, who comes to mind first?

  • Dick Montague provided guidance when I worked for him on the Angeles National Forest and with his support and direction he was one of the first to lead the way for the development of Firescope (Incident Command System).
  • Dick Millar- Provided Regional and National leadership, support and encouragement to many upcoming fire personnel (including myself).

What is one piece of advice you would give to someone before their first assignment as an Incident Commander?
Know your job and allow your staff to do their jobs. Insist on accountability from your staffs.

If someone is planning a prescribed fire, what is one thing that you hope they will pay particular attention to?
The written prescription and the guidance in that prescription.

One of the more common errors in judgment you have seen on fires?
Ignoring the obvious in the basics.

One thing that you know now that you wish you had known early in your career?
How rewarding the job could be.

The stupidest mistake you have seen on a fire?
Backfiring the wrong side of the line.

Your most memorable fire?
Every one of them.

The funniest thing you have seen on a fire?
Snow

The first very large fire you were on?
Think it was the Monkey Fire on the San Bernardino NF.

Your favorite book about fire or firefighting?
Young Men and Fire

The first job you had within the fire service?
Firefighter on the Del Rosa Hot Shots.

What gadgets, electronic or otherwise, can’t you live without?
Lap top and cork screw.

12 Questions for Mike Edrington

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags ,

Today we have the sixth article of our series in which we ask current and retired leaders in the wildland fire service to answer 12 questions.

We appreciate everyone who is cooperating with this project. Some of their responses may add to the knowledge base of our new firefighters coming up through the ranks.

Below we hear from Mike Edrington, who retired from the U. S. Forest Service as an Area Commander, with his last position being the Regional Fire and Aviation Director for the combined Pacific Northwest Regional and State offices of the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service. Presently he is an associate with OQA, Inc. (an emergency services consulting corporation) and is an Assistant Area Commander on Area Command Team 3.

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Mike Edrington
Mike Edrington

When you think of an excellent leader in the fire service, who comes to mind first?
Rick Gale, NPS (retired)

What is one piece of advice you would give to someone before their first assignment as an Incident Commander?
Allow your Command and General Staff to fulfill their roles and responsibilities and spend your time and energy concentrating on the responsibilities of the IC!!!!

If someone is planning a prescribed fire, what is one thing that you hope they will pay particular attention to?
“one of the things” Make sure that all cooperating agencies and other land owners adjacent to your project understand and support the objectives of the project and are part of the contingency planning.

One of the more common errors in judgment you have seen on fires?
Assuming that all communications in operations flow from the OSC to the DIVS to the STL/TFL to the single resource leader without loss of information.

One thing that you know now that you wish you had known early in your career?
One does not need to know everything about a position to be successful (delegation and trusting the knowledge of those working for you).

The stupidest mistake you have seen on a fire?
Burning out in heavy oak brush on the wrong side of the line for ¼ mile.

Your most memorable fire?
The Bitterroot fires of 2000

The funniest thing you have seen on a fire?
Hundreds of yards of copy paper and forms and records and tents floating above the ICP and base after a small “tornado” went through camp. (had to be there)

The first very large fire you were on?
Laramie Peak Fire, 1964, Medicine Bow NF

Your favorite book about fire or firefighting?
The Big Burn

The first job you had within the fire service?
Seasonal crew member, Medicine Bow National Forest, 1964

What gadgets, electronic or otherwise, can’t you live without?
Smart phone and lap top.

Idaho’s three megafires

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , , , , 6 Comments on Idaho’s three megafires
Halstead fire
Halstead fire as seen from Yankee Fork Rd near SunBeam, August 30, 2012, Photo by Crig Daughtry

There are currently three uncontained wildfires that are larger than 100,000 acres. For purposes of this discussion, we will call 100,000 the minimum size for a megafire.

All three of these fires are in Idaho, and two are on the Salmon-Challis National Forest. Those two are the Mustang Complex and the Halstead Fire and are under the direction of Jim Loach’s Area Command Team. The third fire is the Trinity Ridge Fire on the Boise National Forest.

map of Mustang, Halstead, Trinity fires
Map showing the location of the Halstead, Mustang, and Trinity fires, September 5, 2012. (click to enlarge)

Here are some stats we compiled from InciWeb and the National Situation Report about these three megafires:

Megafire stats - September 5, 2012

The cost to date for these three fires totals over $73,000,000. They are tieing up 2,653 firefighting personnel. We don’t know what the weather and fuel conditions were when the fires were first reported, or what the commitment was to an aggressive initial attack strategy. Maybe there was no chance in hell of catching them early. But if initial attack had been successful on these three fires, over $71,000,000 could have been saved and 2,653 firefighting personnel could be doing something else. In some cases a significant investment in initial attack resources, both ground and air, can save large sums of taxpayer dollars later.

It is not likely that any of these fires are going to be contained or controlled anytime soon. Now that we are into the month of September, I imagine the Incident Management Teams are looking carefully at the fire and weather history of the area, hoping to have a weather related fire season ending event in the near future.

Predicted containment dates on large fires, especially megafires, are frequently picked out of the air (or some other more intimate location) and are relatively meaningless if they are farther out than a few days. In this case, the predicted containment dates for the three fires range from September 30 to October 16. In case you’re wondering which year, they all selected 2012.  Whew!

The IMTeam on the Mustang Complex dashed hopes for a quick containment with this statement on their InciWeb page:

Containment [of 16%] will not change in the near term future due to current point protection strategies.

Abandoning containment for point protection may or may not be temporary, and is usually due to extreme weather and/or fire behavior, extreme topography, a shortage of firefighting resources, management direction to be less aggressive in suppressing the spread of the fire, or a combination of some of these.

Area Command Team activated for Colorado fires

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags ,

An Area Command Team (ACTeam) has been activated to assist in managing the wildfires in Colorado and the Rocky Mountain Geographic Area. There are three ACTeams in the nation, and this one, Team 2, is headed by Bob Anderson, the “Area Commander”. For this assignment they are designated “Front Range Area Command”.

These teams are not used very often, typically one to three times a year, and this is the first time one has been used in 2012.

Area Command Team organization

An ACTeam does not directly manage fires or other types of incidents, but they supervise IMTeams assigned to individual fires, or they can oversee the management of a very large incident that has multiple IMTeams engaged.The ACTeam works for the Agency Administrator where the incident is occurring. They will receive a written delegation of authority and will in turn issue one to each IMTeam they supervise.

The primary functions of an ACTeam include:

  • Reduction of the workload for the agency administrator on whose jurisdiction the incident occurs. This can be especially helpful if one agency has multiple large incidents.
  • Coordination and priority-setting of limited resources among incidents, including the the demobilization, reassignment, or sharing of resources between incidents.

These teams are much smaller than a Type 1 or Type 2 IMTeam and usually consist of 7 people when first assigned, but can grow to around 15.

Area Command Team

New model for Incident Management Teams

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , , , 5 Comments on New model for Incident Management Teams
Big Elk Fire, Wyoming, July, 2009
Big Elk Fire, Wyoming, July, 1999. Photo: Bill Gabbert

The National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) has released a new organizational model for Incident Management Teams (IMT), titled Evolving Incident Management: A Recommendation for the Future.

(Apparently they decided not to make a recommendation for the past.)

In light of smaller federal work forces, more state and local IMTs, and longer fire seasons, the NWCG recognized that the current workforce management and succession planning for wildfire response is not sustainable. The new plan, which refers to a “decrease in Federal capacity”, admits that one of the primary purposes of the new model is to help find a solution to the difficulty in filling positions on IMTs, in part due to the smaller work forces. This, in spite of the fact that the U.S. Forest Service routinely assures congressional panels and the public that the federal government has plenty of wildland fire suppression capability and the budgets proposed by the Administration for the land management agencies are sufficient for protecting the public lands.

Some of the recommended changes are very significant, such as combining the Type 1 and Type 2 IMTs into just one type of team, and reducing the total number of federally sponsored teams from 55 to 40.

The entire 51-page document can be found HERE. Below, in the bullets, are some of the highlights of the new system:

  • Number of Teams. The target number of federally sponsored IMTs is 40.
  • Typing of Teams. Merge all federally sponsored type 1 and type 2 teams into one type of IMT.
  • NIMO teams.There [would continue to] be four National Incident Management Organization (NIMO) teams supervised and managed by the USDA Forest Service.
  • Incident Complexity and Scalability. There are three response levels: Initial attack (type 4 and 5 incidents), extended attack (type 3 incidents managed by type 3 IMTs) and complex incidents managed by IMTs.
  • State teams. IMTs sponsored by states would provide surge capacity at elevated geographic area and national preparedness levels under the recommended model.
  • Team Management and Dispatching. Geographic area coordination centers would manage IMT rotations for their geographic area until the national preparedness level reaches 3. At preparedness level 3 and above the National Interagency Coordination Center coordinates the IMT rotation in consultation with the geographic area coordination centers.
  • Team Funding. Each IMT would receive an established amount of support funding provided by the agencies in their home geographic area. Teams are provided with administrative staff support to support ICs with management of their team rosters and other logistical needs.
  • Team Size and Configuration. IMTs are composed of 27 members and 14 trainees in the recommended organizational model. The IMTs are available in short team and long team configurations.
  • Area Command. Short-term recommendations (2012–2015) include (1) maintaining four area command teams, and (2) formalizing the current management of the four area command teams as a pool of interchangeable personnel sufficient to staff four teams. Long-term recommendations (2016 and beyond) include transitioning area command teams to strategic management teams. This would more accurately reflect the changing demands for an oversight group to provide strategic planning, risk management, command, control, coordination, information management, and preparedness support. This transition would also be the source for innovative processes, procedures, and technology to support incident objectives.
  • Performance and Accountability. All agency administrators in units with wildland fire programs would have a performance standard or element for fire management. Expectations for each agency’s level of participation should be developed based on their percent of wildland fire workload.
  • Incentives. Incentives for participation should be a part of the implementation plan for the recommended organizational model. Disincentives should be identified and reduced or eliminated.
  • Workforce Development. Develop a robust and coordinated succession planning system linking workforce development to staffing of IMTs.

The NWCG expects to implement the new model over the next five to ten years.

Several interesting facts showed up in the document, such as on page 22:

Although the number of IMTs has remained relatively stable since 2004, the composition of teams has changed. The Federal workforce has shrunk, especially in some parts of the country. For example, the USDA Forest Service workforce in Oregon and Washington has gone from 7,893 employees in 1990 to 3,630 employees in 2010. IMT make-up has shifted from Federal militia to a higher percentage of state, local government, and retired Federal (second career and AD) participation.

And these three charts:
Continue reading “New model for Incident Management Teams”