Hello hello!
So much for easing back into things. I’ve been back in Flagstaff for like, two whole weeks now following my work assignment in California and I’m already like… BACK at work back at work.
I spent all last week down in Prescott at the annual Arizona Wildfire Academy.
A little over a year ago, I wrote about my experience taking basic wildland firefighter training. This is kind of along those same lines.
Working on large-scale wildfires is a whole complicated bureaucratic mess, so bear with me. I could honestly write an entire post about how the whole incident qualification system works, but I’ll just try to keep it short for now.
Here’s a quick summary: Wildfires are a type of incident… like floods, earthquakes and other natural disasters. The higher complexity an incident is, the more resources it needs. The really, really complex incidents require what are called Incident Management Teams — IMTs in government jargon — to manage. In order to work with an IMT, in individual needs to be qualified.
There are people who work as part of an actual IMT, and they travel around to various incidents as part of said team, and there are people who work as a “single resource,” which means that an IMT can request them for a larger incident.
I know, this is so confusing.
So, say, there’s a large and complex wildfire in California. It’s rapidly growing and there are several “values at risk,” such as ranches, gated communities and a historic winery. Several federal, state and local agencies — like the State of California, U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, counties, cities, etc. — are now involved. It becomes deemed what’s called a “Type 1 Incident,” which means a Type 1 IMT comes in to manage the whole thing. That Type 1 team typically includes a Public Information Officer (PIO) and a Deputy PIO, but they need dozens more PIOs to answer phones, write press releases, take photos and videos, run trap lines, coordinate and participate in media interviews, escort photographers to the fire line, make social media posts, edit videos and graphics, organize and host community meetings, etc. So, that Type 1 IMT will request more “resources” — i.e., qualified PIOs — to come out on an assignment.
As a qualified PIO, I can join an IMT for a 14-day assignment and help out as part of the public information team.
Got it? Phew, OK.
To be qualified as a PIO, you basically have to take a bunch of classes and complete a bunch of tasks.
This details it a little bit. You’re allowed to work on your home unit (so, for me, the Coconino National Forest) without the PIO qualifications, but if you want to take assignments with a team, you either have to be qualified or in trainee status, which means you’re working to complete those classes and tasks on a timeline.
S-203 is one of the first classes you need to take to qualify as a Type 1, 2 or 3 PIO.
Luckily, The Arizona Wildfire and Incident Management Academy runs for one week every year on Embry-Riddle’s campus down in Prescott, and offers most of the classes I need to take.
I’m working to get my qualifications knocked out so I can go out on a few 14-day fire assignments per season. Not only are they great money (14 straight days of 16-hour work days, time and a half after 40 hours/ week), they’re also fun.
I’m lucky to love my job.
S-203 is “Introduction to Incident Information.” I’m lucky to work full-time as a Public Affairs Officer for U.S. Forest Service, so I was fortunate to already have a pretty good base of information to work off of.
Because the course is designed as an introduction, the class (there were about 25 of us) went over everything from writing press releases to conducting media interviews to hosting community meetings and knowing who to ask for incident information.
While I already knew things like the inverted pyramid writing style and bridging statements, I did learn quite a bit about things like incident mobilization and PIO “kits.”
A PIO “kit” is a large case that basically serves as a mobile office for PIOs. Because most wildfires happen out in the middle of nowhere, PIOs are encouraged to carry all the tools they need for their jobs. Often, you’ll end up on an incident before supply orders can be filled. Therefore, most PIOs carry large Pelican cases filled with everything from pens to tripods to power strips to industrial staplers to literal mobile printers. One of our instructors said she carries a battery-powered generator with solar panels in her kit, and another PIO said he carries fresh coffee in his.
The first three days of S-203 were all sit-down lecture-style classes. We took notes, worked in teams to write press releases and develop solutions for various PIO scenarios and asked a ton of questions.
(If you’re curious about the syllabus, here’s a copy of the S-203 handbook.)
The last day was the most fun. We had an incident simulation, where we were put into small teams, given the details of an “emerging incident” and then left to figure out how to manage that incident on our own over the course of three hours.
The academy brought in volunteers to help, so a lot of other PIOs (like, my boss, and the woman who previously held my job before she retired) got to participate. They wandered in and out of our mock Incident Command Post and repeatedly called our ICP’s landline pretending to be concerned citizens and nosy journalists. Some of them got REALLY into it, which was so fun.
Again, I’m super lucky that I’ve worked in public information on real Type 1 incidents in the past, so this wasn’t too outside of my comfort zone. The three hours FLEW by.
And, that was that! We wrapped up our incident simulation, received some feedback, took our test, received our certificates and passed around phone numbers and email addresses.
This class made me really excited to get out on an off-forest incident this coming summer — and I’m sure I’ll report back when I do!
