Managing Aerial Firefighting Activities on Airports (2012)

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5 Background In the world of aerial wildland firefighting there are few generalities that always apply; there are exceptions to nearly every scenario. For example, the USFS is the lead agency for wildland fire suppression in the United States except in Alaska, where BLM is the designated lead agency. There are practices and principles that are commonly accepted; how- ever, the management/suppression of wildland fire is a coop- erative arrangement that evolves because of various factors including financial and political relationships between local, regional, state, and federal agencies. Understanding from a historical perspective how these various arrangements and practices came into existence is often interesting and useful for airport operators as they deal with these entities. It is not possible within the bud- get of this project to examine the nuances of these rela- tionships, as each agency has its own characteristics and practices. For airport operators new to the aerial wildland firefighting suppression “game” wanting to know more about how things work, the local USFS (or BLM) supervi- sor’s office and fellow airport operators is always a good starting point. Other good starting points are state forestry, natural resources, or land agencies such as the Texas For- est Service or the North Carolina Department of Environ- mental and Natural Resources. The agency responsible for fire management in each state is usually a member of the National Association of State Foresters (NASF) and its contact information is available through the association’s website (NASF 2011). Determining which agency is in charge of aerial wild- land fire suppression efforts, at any given time or in any given situation, is not easy. Responsibility for leading a wildland suppression effort is a process that by its very nature is usually in some state of flux. One of the reasons for this condition is that there are multiple agencies—local, state, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), USFS, BLM—with varying responsibilities for wildland fire suppression, depending on the status and location of the fire. Because wildland fires are not static situations, changing with weather and fuel conditions, the “who is in charge” question will also change. During large fires of national significance, the USFS will be “in charge” in the 48 contiguous states and Hawaii, while BLM will be in charge in Alaska. Federal agencies national interagency Fire center The primary national wildland firefighting resource is the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) located adjacent to the Boise (Idaho) Airport. As the name indicates, the NIFC is the “nation’s support center for wildland firefighting” (NIFC 2011). The NIFC began as a joint venture between the USFS, BLM, and the National Weather Service (NWS) in 1965. In the mid-1970s, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the National Park Service (NPS) also joined with the other services in the center. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) joined NIFC in 1979. In 2003, the U.S. Fire Admin- istration (USFA), an agency within FEMA, joined NIFC, forming the center as it is known today. The primary focus of the NIFC is to promote interagency cooperation, reduce the duplication of services, cut costs, and coordinate planning and operations on a national level. The following is a list of web links for each of the NIFC agencies: • National Interagency Fire Center Website—http://www. nifc.gov/ • Bureau of Land Management—http://www.blm.gov/ nifc/st/en/prog/fire.1.html • Bureau of Indian Affairs—http://www.bia.gov/index. htm • National Park Service—http://www.nps.gov/fire/ • U.S. Fish & Wildlife—http://fws.gov/fire/ • U.S. Forest Service—http://www.fs.fed.us/fire/ • National Association of State Foresters—http://www. stateforesters.org/ • National Business Center (U.S. Department of Interior)— http://www.nbc.gov/ • National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration— http://radar.srh.noaa.gov/fire/ • Federal Emergency Management Agency—http://www. fema.gov/. To manage the massive amount of information and the details related to “national” wildland fire management, NIFC has developed the following management mechanism. The United States and Alaska are divided into 11 Geographic Areas for the purpose of incident management and mobiliza- tion of resources (people, aircraft, ground equipment). Within each Area, an interagency Geographic Area Coordinating Group (GACG), made up of Fire Directors from each of the Federal and State land management agencies from within the Area, is chapter two airport and aerial FireFighting suppression agencies—a review

6 established. Working collaboratively, the GACG’s mission is to provide leadership and support not only for wildland fire emer- gencies, but to other emergency incidents (i.e., earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, etc.), as necessary. Authority for establishment of the GACG is through departmental policy and interagency agreements. Additional agreements are established with cooperators and other organizations in order to facilitate efficient fire management activities within and adjacent to the Area. A cost-effective sharing of resources among public agen- cies is a key component of the GACG mission and is expected by the public, Congress, and States. All agencies and geographic areas work together under the auspices and direction of the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC). The Geographic Area Coordination Centers (GACC) is a result of an interagency agreement established by the respec- tive Geographic Area Coordinating Group. The primary mis- sion of the GACC is to serve Federal and State wildland fire agencies through logistical coordination and mobilization of resources (people, aircraft, ground equipment) throughout the geographical area, and with other geographic areas, as neces- sary. This is generally done through coordinating the move- ment of resources between the many Dispatch Centers within the geographic area and, as necessary, with the National Inter- agency Coordination Center (NICC) when resources are unavail- able within the Area or when mobilization support is needed in other geographic areas. Although the primary mission of the GACC is logistical coordination, the Center also has support programs in Predictive Services, Intelligence, and in several Centers’ Fire Information. Predictive Services consists primarily of professional meteorolo- gists who monitor weather and fuel conditions, conduct briefings, produce fire weather related products, liaison with the National Weather Service, and oversee all aspects of the Remote Auto- mated Weather System (RAWS). The Intelligence Section is primarily responsible for collecting and disseminating wild- land fire and prescribed fire activity information, monitoring the status of national firefighting resources, maintaining year- to-date and historical fire occurrence data, and managing the Site Report and ICS-209 programs. In some GACCs, the Pre- dictive Services and Intelligence sections work as one unit called the Predictive Services Group. The Predictive Services and Intelligence Sections, whether separated or combined, work collaboratively producing Weekly, Monthly, and Seasonal Fire Weather/Fire Danger Outlooks. Each Coordination Center provides additional support to their respective geographic area’s wildland fire community through training, workshops, special projects, and other tasks. Except for dispatch of air tankers and lead planes based outside the dispatch center responsibility the fire is located in, the GACC does not have initial-attack dispatch responsibilities (GACC 2011). Figure 2 is from the Geographic Area Coordination Cen- ters (GACC) portal at http://gacc.nifc.gov/ and identifies the centers according to geographic regions. The GACC website provides an excellent starting point and resources for airports by providing specific information about wildland fires within each geographic region. Web page links to each GACC follow: • Alaska Interagency Coordination Center—http://fire.ak. blm.gov/ • Eastern Area Coordination Center—http://gacc.nifc. gov/eacc/ • Eastern Great Basin Coordination Center—http://gacc. nifc.gov/egbc/ • Northern California Geographic Area Coordination Center—http://gacc.nifc.gov/oncc/ • Northern Rockies Coordination Center—http://gacc. nifc.gov/nrcc/ • Northwest Interagency Coordination Center—http:// www.nwccweb.us/index.aspx • Rocky Mountain Area Coordination Center—http:// gacc.nifc.gov/rmcc/ • Southern Area Coordination Center—http://gacc.nifc. gov/sacc/ • Southern California Geographic Area Coordination Center—http://gacc.nifc.gov/oscc/ • Southwest Coordination Center—http://gacc.nifc.gov/ swcc/ FIGURE 2 Geographic Area Coordination Centers according to geographic region (GACC 2011).

7 • Western Great Basin Coordination Center—http://gacc. nifc.gov/wgbc/. Also within the NIFC is the National Interagency Coor- dination Center (NICC), which is the agency responsible for mobilizing “resources for wildland fire and other incidents throughout the United States,” including the following four functions: • Equipment and supply dispatching • Overhead and crew dispatching • Aircraft dispatching • Intelligence and predictive services. According to the NICC’s mission statement: The principal mission of the National Interagency Coordination Center (NICC) is the cost effective and timely coordination of land management agency emergency response to wildland fire inci- dents. This is accomplished through planning, situation monitor- ing, and expediting resource mobilization between the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Area, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) states, National Association of State Foresters (NASF), Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) Regions, Forest Service (FS) Regions, National Park Service (NPS) Regions, National Weather Ser- vice (NWS) Regions, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Regions, through the United States Fire Administration (USFA) and other cooperating agencies (Detailers Guide 2011). Information about the U.S. Department of the Interior agen- cies, NWS, FEMA, NASF, regional associations, and state agencies, is in Appendix C—Additional Resources. airports Airports are identified by various government agencies in various ways; the FAA uses a “hub” classification system (large-hub, medium-hub, small-hub, and non-hub) while the TSA uses a “category” system. More information on the FAA system of categorizing airports is available at: http://www.faa. gov/airports/planning_capacity/passenger_allcargo_stats/ categories/. In the USFS-centric world, airports are classified using the following definitions and descriptions. Category 1. These are major airports that have paved, lighted, multiple runways served by FAA-approved instrument approach procedure(s). These runways are generally limited by their weight-bearing capacity. Category 2. These airports generally serve small com- munities. They are equipped with at least one paved, lighted runway and services vary. Category 3. These are airfields with limited or no ser- vices. They may be unpaved, unlighted, or season- ally maintained. They may be located on federal, state, county, municipal, or private land. Approval must be obtained from the appropriate National For- est dispatch office. Category 4. These are mountain/remote airstrips and are restricted by the Forest Service to day Visual Flight Rules Service. Use must be authorized by the appropri- ate NF dispatch office. Pilots must have an endorsement on the Pilot Qualification Card and meet specific cur- rency requirements (Airfield/Airstrip Directory 2000).