A fire that is discovered and reported to a local jurisdiction will set in motion a complex series of planned and organized responses. Typically, a fire dispatcher familiar with the local terrain and values-at-risk will call upon appropriate suppression resources to respond to the incident.  An Incident Command System will be established.  A fire crew will be organized and mechanical resources will be acquired. If additional intelligence is needed, a trained observer may drive to or fly over the fire location to size up the local vegetation, burning conditions, and potential problem areas to augment dispatch decisions. Depending on the current fire behavior and projected levels of fire danger, the resources that might be dispatched include an initial attack crew, heavy equipment, and/or aerial support.   These resources are used during initial attack or extended attack activities when necessary.  Controlling a fire is greatly facilitated by the availability of water and chemical retardants to douse flames and hotspots.  As a fire spreads over the landscape, its behavior and the surrounding environment will provide additional clues about the appropriate suppression response.

Among the first duties of the IC are In every operation, firefighter safety is the IC?s #1 priority. The IC supervises the first firefighters to arrive on a scene who perform the initial attack. A fire that grows in size and complexity may cause the IC to delegate some of the fire management responsibilities to the staff under his command.

Major Functions of the Incident Command System

The Incident Command System (ICS) was developed in the 1970s to provide a standardized framework (including common terminology) that could be applied across multiple agencies for managing any fire of any size. The ICS organization focuses on 5 major functions that are required for managing an incident of any complexity: Command, Operations, Plans, Logistics, and Finance/Administration.

On most incidents a single Incident Commander (IC) manages the command structure. The IC is the leader of a fire control operation. The role of the IC is to size up the fire, determine incident objectives, choose the most appropriate attack strategy, define specific tactics and strategies, and immediate priorities, and establish the fire control organization. Incident tactical operations are managed by the Operations Section Chief. Based on reconnaissance information, the Planning Section Chief supervises the collection, evaluation, processing, and dissemination of incident action plans. The Logistics Section Chief supervises all incident support needs, e.g. transportations, food services, communications, and portable latrines in fire camp. The Finance/Administration Section Chief supervises all financial aspects of an incident, including purchases, time keeping, and cost sharing.

One of the aims of the ICS system is to create a unified command structure for fighting a fire, regardless of the number and type of agencies involved and suppression resources employed. The unified command concept reinforces the understanding that there is one boss and everyone else knows his or her area of responsibility. The IC for a complex fire will strive to create a seamless organization among federal, state, local, and private cooperators (including volunteer fire departments).

ICS was designed to handle any type of emergency incident, regardless of size or complexity, by adding support positions to each major functional activity. Thus, each major function may have a support staff that expands with the complexity of the incident. A more complex organizational structure might be appropriate for a project fire with significant air and ground resources serviced by a fire camp and off-site aerial bases.

The Structure of an Expanded Incident Command System Operation

On larger fires, the IC might use additional staff, such as an Information Officer, Liaison Officer, and Safety Officer. The Information Officer would be responsible to the IC for communications with the news media, to local publics, to incident personnel, and other agencies or organizations. For multi-jurisdictional fires that involve several agencies, multiple languages, or prison inmate crews, separate Liaison Officers might be required for communicating and overseeing activities that affect each entity. The Safety Officer is responsible for recommending to the IC measures for stressing personnel safety, for identifying potentially dangerous or unsafe situations, or for investigating accidents that might occur. Additional branches and units supports each staff position in ICS (Operations, Plans, Logistics, and Finance/Administration) on a complex incident.

ICS manages the many activities that go on ?behind the scenes? in a typical fire camp. For example, the daily Incident Action Plan detailing the operations to be carried out on the day and night shifts may be written as a collaborative effort between the Operations and Planning Section Chiefs. Also, the overhead team leaders may provide input to the Wildland Fire Situation Analysis (WFSA), a formal document describing the complexity of an incident and documenting the rationale used to arrive at a selected suppression alternative, from among the available options. On some complex incidents, a special team may be formed to work on the WFSA.

For larger fires, firefighters may come from federal agencies, native tribes, state forestry agencies, and low-security detention facilities.  Other labor sources include local volunteer, municipal or private fire departments or contractors. Seasonal employees with non-fire job responsibilities may be recruited and organized into Type II crews. The military, especially the Army or National Guard, may be mobilized on the more complex incidents. Although the strategies for fighting a fire may be similar as an incident grows in size and complexity, the tactics may differ considerably, relying on heavy equipment and interregional Hotshot crews for fireline construction on intense sectors of large fires, for example.

Particularly challenging fires may dictate the need for skilled and experienced Hotshot crews who build firelines under the most arduous conditions. In remote, mountainous terrain, smokejumpers may parachute down to a fire site or a Helitack crew may rappel down to a position close to the fire. If a road network is nearby, fire engines and hand crews may become part of the team. As a fire grows in size or if other ignitions occur, additional regional or national resources may be mobilized, including an administrative or supervisory team known as fire overhead. If the fire exceeds the capabilities of the local agency with jurisdiction over the fire, that agency can request additional resources through a regional Geographical Area Coordination Center (GACC) or from the National Interagency Coordination Center (NICC) in Boise, Idaho. As a fire grows in size and complexity, an increasingly sophisticated organization structure will be built. A Type II overhead team may be dispatched to assist local jurisdictions with the initial attack. Eventually a Type I team may be dispatched if fire complexity overwhelms the Type II team.

In the US, the federal government hires contractors to provide many of the resources used on fire incidents, including aerial control and support services, commissary goods, fire control chemicals, showers, and portable toilets. Other contracted services may include heavy equipment such as engine crews, bulldozers, water tenders, flatbed trucks, and chainsaws crews. The Federal Excess Personal Property (FEPP) program allows firefighting organizations to acquire title to equipment from other federal agencies that no longer need it, including trucks, aircraft, personal protective equipment, motor oil, nuts and bolts, and hoses. Many states have taken advantage of this program to develop sophisticated fleets of firefighting vehicles, most often equipped with slip-on water tanks and hydraulic pumps.

Repeated large fire seasons have spawned a huge market for support services, in areas as diverse as full-service kitchens, sanitation and waste-disposal, hand and power tools, aerial fire control, chemical retardants and foams, firefighting crew, and engine crew. The breadth of this market becomes evident especially on project and mega-fires, where personnel, equipment, and supplies are shipped to a fire camp and employed to manage the incident--in essence creating a small city with typical infrastructure needs. The service market for wildland fire use or prescribed fire programs is much less developed at this time, perhaps because these provide less lucrative opportunities for contractors.