Fire today ManagementVolume 74 • No. 1 • 2014 WWHAT HAVE WE LEARNED? United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service Fire Management Today is published by the Forest Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC. The Secretary of Agriculture has determined that the publication of this periodical is necessary in the transaction of the public business required by law of this Department. Fire Management Today is for sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, at: Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: 202-512-1800 Fax: 202-512-2250 Mail: Stop SSOP, Washington, DC 20402-0001 Fire Management Today is available on the World Wide Web at <http://www.fs.fed.us/fire/fmt/index.html>. Tom Vilsack, Secretary Melissa Frey U.S. Department of Agriculture General Manager Thomas L. Tidwell, Chief Mark Riffe Forest Service Editor Tom Harbour, Director Fire and Aviation Management The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, and where applicable, sex, marital status, familial status, parental status, religion, sexual orientation, genetic information, political beliefs, reprisal, or because all or part of an individual’s income is derived from any public assistance program. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print, audio­ tape, etc.) should contact USDA’s TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TDD). To file a complaint of discrimi­ nation, write USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20250-9410, or call (800) 795-3272 (voice) or (202) 720-6382 (TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer. September 2014 Trade Names (FMT) The use of trade, firm, or corporation names in this publication is for the information and convenience of the reader. Such use does not constitute an official endorsement of any product or service by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Individual authors are responsible for the technical accuracy of the material presented in Fire Management Today. Fire Management Today 2 Fire Management today Volume 74 • No. 1 • 2014 On the Cover: CONTENTS Anchor Point: The National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy: Together, We Can Do More! . 4 . Tom Harbour Burning To Learn: An Engine Burnover Project To Improve Firefighter Safety . 6 Ryan Myers Safety and the Agency, Part 1: Understanding Accident A fire-gutted vehicle is one result Mitigation . 11 of an intentional vehicle burnover Jim Barnett conducted by the Forest Service and CALFIRE to test safety equipment. Analyzing Size Distribution of Large Wildfires . 15 See the article in this issue for details. Photo by Ryan Myers. Lloyd C. Irland ArcFuels: An ArcMap Toolbar for Fuel Treatment Planning and Wildfire Risk Assessment . 21 . Nicole M. Vaillant and Alan A. Ager Providing Information During Disasters and Incidents . 24 . Karen Takai A New Truck for Avoca . 28 Martin Brammier Flipping Firefighting Training . 29 Mark Cantrell The USDA Forest Service’s Fire and Aviation Management Staff has adopted a logo reflecting three central principles of wildland Safety and the Agency, Part 2: External Influences fire management: on Fire and Aviation Management . 33 • Innovation: We will respect and value James K. Barnett thinking minds, voices, and thoughts of those that challenge the status quo while focusing on the greater good. Building a Spatial Database of Fire Occurrence in Hawaii . 37 • Execution: We will do what we say we Andrew D. Pierce and Elizabeth Pickett will do. Achieving program objectives, improving diversity, and accomplishing Fire Management Today Photo Contest Results . 43 targets are essential to our credibility. • Discipline: What we do, we will do well. Fiscal, managerial, and operational discipline are at the core of our ability to HORT EATURES fulfill our mission. S F Success Stories Wanted . 32 Contributors Wanted . 36 Firefighter and public safety is our first priority. Volume 74 • No. 1 • 2014 3 by Tom Harbour Anchor Director, Fire and Aviation Management Point Forest Service THE NATIONAL COHESIVE WILDLAND FIRE MANAGEMENT STRATEGY: TOGETHER, WE CAN DO MORE! ddressing wildfire in the conditions. Trends call for a broad- fuels management program that United States is not simply a based, cohesive response to address involves natural resource and land Afire management, fire opera­ the mounting challenges. This use program managers and plan­ tions, or wildland-urban interface national strategy allows stakehold­ ners; it must be a comprehensive challenge: it is a more complex ers systematically and thoroughly plan through which, together, we land management and societal to develop a dynamic approach to achieve the most difference on the issue. For the past 3 years, fire offi­ planning for, responding to, and ground. It is a program that works, cials from across the Nation have recovering from wildland fire in first, through managers within our been working together to create America. own organization and, then, looks a national cohesive strategy that for opportunities to work along constitutes a shared vision for pres­ Wildland fire managers know that, with our neighbors and partners to ent and future wildland fire and to be successful, we need to reach achieve its goals. There are good land management activities. The beyond Federal agencies. To be suc­ examples of works in progress in Forest Service, together with our cessful, we need an approach that several States that are outside of partners at the U.S. Department of builds on past efforts—including but still supported by the Forest the Interior, National Association of the National Fire Plan, the 10-Year Service. State Foresters, National League of Comprehensive Strategy, and the Cities, and State Governors, has led corresponding Implementation The Montana Cohesive this interagency initiative. Plan. Past efforts were most suc­ Strategy Pilot Program cessful when they were most inclu­ The primary factors identified that sive, extending across the entire A Forest Service grant provided present both the greatest chal­ fire community and including a means for the Montana Department lenges and greatest opportunities wide range of Federal, tribal, State, of Natural Resource Conservation for making a positive difference in local, and nongovernmental stake­ (DNRC) to: addressing America’s wildland fire holders. In April 2014, we com­ problems include restoring and pleted and released the final phase • Allocate funding for fuels miti­ maintaining resilient landscapes, of the National Cohesive Wildland gation cost-share assistance to creating fire-adapted communi­ Fire Management Strategy. treat 100 acres of family-owned ties, and responding to wildfire. forest lands in the wildland­ Building upon the foundation of Does that mean we are finished? urban interface near West previous efforts to address wildland No: we are far from finished with Yellowstone, MT. This work is fire management across America, our work. I’d like to focus here on scheduled to begin this field the key to this strategy’s success the restoration and maintenance season. Currently, the local fire is its inclusiveness across all land of resilient landscapes through an district is conducting hazard ownerships. active fuels management program. assessments on all properties in the project area. The past two decades have seen When we think of a fuels manage­ • Use a new computer model a rapid escalation of severe fire ment program, we can no longer developed by the Forest behavior, home and property loss, afford to think only in terms of a Service’s Fire Lab to conduct an higher costs, increased threats to wildland fire management program. assessment on the effectiveness communities, and worsening land The program must be an integrated of past DNRC fuels mitigation Fire Management Today 4 grants on reducing fire behavior ing Montana wood products, education workshop on biomass and protecting firefighters and forest management, and the heat technologies and opportu­ structures. The DNRC has hired link among healthy forests, nities in La Grande, OR. More a technician to apply the model, productive mills, vibrant than 45 participants—including and the agency will complete communities, and other ben­ local landowners, facility man­ the subsequent analysis and efits. agers, elected officials, timber report by the end of the 2014 – Development of a “Cohesive industry representatives, con­ field season. Wildfire and Forest sultants, and local citizens— • Provide funding and support Management Strategy” attended the workshop. for eligible wood and biomass appendix to Montana Forest • Received seven applications for projects and business develop­ Action Plan for Southern biomass grant funding. ment. This summer, the DNRC and Southeastern Montana. • Reviewed and provided support will advertise a request for The areas of southern and for grant-funded opportunities proposals in concert with the southeastern Montana have for two joint Forest Service–pri­ Forest Service’s Woody Biomass experienced extreme fire vate lands fuel-treatment proj­ Utilization Grant Program. behavior in the past several ects (Cove II and Mt. Howard). • Fund a forest products promo­ years. The strategy addresses • Provided input and consulted tion and support specialist and significant issues related on a wildfire simulation host­