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Wildland fire suppression

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Part of a series on Wildland Firefighting

Main articles
Wildfire · Bushfire Wildland fire suppression
Agencies
National Interagency Fire Center USFS · BLM CALFIRE · CALFIRE Aviation New South Wales Rural Fire Service · Country Fire Authority, Victoria · Country Fire Service, South Australia
Tactics & Equipment
Incident Command System Hotshots Controlled burn Firebreak · Fire trail Fire lookout tower Fire retardant · MAFFS Bambi bucket · Driptorch
Aerial firefighting
Aerial firefighting Helitack · Smokejumper
Lists
List of wildfires Glossary of wildland fire terms This box: • • edit

The 2003 Okanagan Mountain Park Fire was a large forest fire that took place in British Columbia, Canada in 2003.

William Cervera, a wildland firefighter from the Angeles National Forest responding to a fire in Altadena, California on July 9, 2006. The tool William is holding is a Pulaski.

Engine ANF 13, from the USDA U.S. Forest Service, Angeles National Forest in the San Gabriel Mountains of the Southern California, Los Angeles Area. This Type III Engine is staffed by a captain and 4 crew members.

Water Tender ANF 10, from the USDA U.S. Forest Service, Angeles National Forest in the San Gabriel Mountains of the Southern California, Los Angeles Area. This Type II Tender is staffed by a 2 crew members

Crew transport vehicle known as a "buggy" unit 1A and 1B from the Bear Divide Hotshot crew at the Angeles National Forest in the San Gabriel Mountains of the Southern California, Los Angeles Area.

Masticator, which chews through brush and small trees, on the Zaca Fire

Wildland fire suppression is a unique aspect of firefighting. Wildland firefighting requires different tactics, equipment, and training from the normal structure fire fighting found in populated areas. Working in conjunction with specially designed firefighting aircraft, these wildfire trained crews knock down flames, construct a fireline, and mop up hot spots to protect watershed, wildlands, and the populated areas within the wilds. Wildland fire suppression also addresses the issues of the "urban interface" where populated areas border wildland areas. During the winter months, they are hard at work removing hazardous fuels to reduce fire hazard.

Equipment and people

Ground suppression

Command and control

Incident Management Team - The incident commander and appropriate general or command staff personnel assigned to manage an incident. These teams are national resources and maybe be flown in for large incidents.
Incident Commander - Individual responsible for the management of all incident operations at the incident site.
Division Chief - The Division Chief is also known as the District Fire Management Officer. On a fire the Division Chief will usually serve as the "Incident Commander" and help direct fire crews and order more equipment if needed.
Battalion Chief - The Battalion Chief is also known as the Assistant District Fire Management Officer. The Engine Crews, Hotshot Crews and Fire Prevention units report to the Battalion Chief. They will respond to all fires and coordinate the fire fighting efforts during the initial attack.
Fire Information Officer - The Fire Information Officer (FIO) responds to the fire, to make sure that members of the community are informed of important information about the fire. The FIO often uses the media such as TV and the radio to let the community know what is going on.
Fire Prevention Officer - Fire Prevention units patrol the forest, and teach fire prevention at public events and in schools.

Hand crews

Type 1 Interagency Hotshot crew
Type 1 Crew
Type 2 Initial Attack (IA) Crew
Type 2 Crew
Type 3 Crew

Helitack crews

The use of helitack can vary from forest to forest. In the Kootenai National Forest helitack [1] crews often perform similar duties as typical initial attack crews. Two or three firefighters are dispatched to small (usually) lightning caused fires ranging in size from a small spot to a half an acre. Helitack crews are flown to fires less accessible to typical initial attack crews via helicopter where they will usually spend one to three days (although sometimes much longer) putting the fire out before they hike back to a road for pickup. In addition to this crew members are often used to support the helicopter as a resource used by all other types of fire crews for such operations as sling loading supplies, bucket dropping water on hot spots, crew transport and reconnaissance. Some helitack crews use rappelling as a common tactic for getting to fires with no place for a helicopter to land. The use of helitack can vary greatly from forest to forest.

Rappellers

A highly effective way to fight wilderness fire when roads are not available is to rappell in 2 -16 highly trained wildland firefighters. These fire crew then take suppressive action on the fire or cut a helispot to fly in hotshot crew if the fire is too large. Rappellers usually carry 30 lbs. personal gear plus up to 300 lbs of fire gear which is lowered down to them from their heli in a cargo letdown bag. The rappellers will rappel anywhere from 30 to 250 ft. in to a fire. When not rappeling the crew works as a normal helitack crew and can fly and land or hike to any regular fires. When rappelled fires are out the crew either cuts a helispot and flys out or hikes out, up to 2-7 miles to the nearest road carrying all their gear with them, usually weighing 45-98 lbs. These crews carry chain saws, hand tools, radios, and can even have 75 gallon water bags flown in to help fight the fire.

Smokejumpers

Smokejumper Crews

Vehicles

Engines

Wildland fire engine

Crew transport

The "Buggy" crew transport vehicle (Image provided here)
Crew bus
Helicopter "Helitack"

Tankers

When water is required to refill an empty fire engine, water delivery is vital. The typical water tender carries 1200 gallons of water to support the fire engines. Water tenders can be used to fill water dropping helicopters when a lake or reservoir is not nearby.

Wildland fire tender

Heavy Equipment

Heavy Equipment's primary function of wildland fire suppression is through the application of heavy construction style equipment to move large amounts or earth, or remove vegetation. This application can also be used as pre-fire suppression to clear fuel breaks, or provide access to areas that maybe previously inaccessible. Heavy equipment is often used to mitigate storm, flood, earthquake and other emergency incidents requiring this type of equipment.

Wildland fire bulldozer
Wildland fire loader
Wildland fire motor graders
Masticator

Auxiliary Equipment

Wildland fire heli-tender
Wildland fire fuel tender
Wildland fire dozer tender

Air suppression

Fixed wing airplanes

Airtankers
Air Attack
Lead Aircraft
Modular Airborne FireFighting System (MAFFS)
Infrared Aircraft
Smokejumper Transport Aircraft
Airlift Aircraft

Rotary wing helicopters

Water Dropping Helicopters
Helitack
Helicopter Rappell

Hand tools

Australia

Wildland fire and wildland firefighting play a major role in Australia due to arid conditions, similar to those in the western U.S. The preferred term for wildfire in Australia is bushfire. Notable fire services tasked with wildland fire suppression include: