Acquiring Mechanical Resources

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.