Well. Fire season came earlier than expected this year on my forest.
I know it’s not really a surprise. Most of the Southwest is in a 1,200-year drought, and we’ve been discussing preparedness levels (basically how many resources we have and how adequately those resources can support the number/scale/type of wildfires we’re dealing with) internally for the last several weeks, now.
On April 19, I got the call from our dispatch team that the Tunnel Fire — located about 14 miles northeast of Flagstaff — had rapidly expanded due to wind.
The fire went from a few acres to a few hundred acres to a few thousand acres in the span of a few hours, prompting rapid evacuations and the assembly of a full team of incident-qualified personnel.
The Tunnel Fire ended up as a Type 1 incident, which means we had to pull out all the stops and pull in a specialized Type 1 Incident Management Team trained to respond to large-scale and complex wildfires.
(If you’re not as familiar with the incident management world as I am, last year’s post about my first fire season kind of delves a little bit into “types” of “incidents” and expands a little on the jargon and terminology I’ll be using here.)
When I first got word that the Tunnel Fire was expanding, I put out a press release, started answering phone calls from the public and media and started asking around internally for updates.
A few hours later, our fire staff requested a Public Information Officer (PIO: my job!) arrive on-scene, so I scrambled to get things together, slide into my Nomex pants, pick up a government car, drop Yukon off at doggy daycare and head out to the Incident Command Post (ICP).
My boss — who had been out sick that morning — quickly logged on and we sent out resource orders for local PIOs, who are mostly Forest Service retirees who maintained their qualifications and like to hop onto incidents like this when they happen.
I got to the ICP which was a local fire station, only to find out that the fire was expanding SO rapidly that we were being evacuated and needed to move to a new location.
We relocated down the road to a different fire station and started digging in. We scheduled and planned a media briefing, put together another press release, ordered more PIOs, kicked out social media updates, started putting together talking points, created an InciWeb page, etc.
The next few days were a blur. My boss made me the lead PIO for the Tunnel Fire until the Type 1 team arrived, which means I coordinated the group of about eight PIOs. We broke into segments, so some of us handled media interviews and coordinated pools, some of us handled web and social media updates, some of us handled community questions and meetings, etc. I handled the Command and General Staff (C&G) meetings and did a lot of delegating.
Large-scale wildfires are ALL-day endeavors, so I would wake up at 5 a.m. so I could make it out to ICP at 6:30 a.m. to prepare for the 7 a.m. briefing, and I would work until about 10 p.m., which is when our last meeting concluded.
Luckily, large-scale incidents like this come with caterers, so I mostly didn’t have to worry about food. The vegetarian options usually do suck, though.
The Tunnel Fire was unique in that it was SO early in the season that resources hadn’t really mobilized yet. Ryan’s crew had just gotten on for the season and was still partway through “Critical 80,” which is their two-week training period before the crew is listed as nationally-available.
In fact, Ryan had driven down to the station Tuesday for what was supposed to be an eight-hour workday, only to get pulled onto the fire a few hours later. He drove the crew up in the buggies to start suppression efforts, and — because his personal truck was down at the station 90 minutes south of us — I ended up having to drive him to-and-from his crew’s staging every single morning of the fire.
I never take enough photos of incidents because it’s really that busy.
Once the Type 1 team arrived a few days later, they assumed control of the Tunnel Fire and I got to resume normal job duties.
I also got to take a few hours off to do laundry and take care of Yukon, who spent most of the week at doggy daycare.
Because I’m still new-ish to incident management, I got to use the Type 1 team’s control as a learning experience. I went to my first community meeting and spent a little bit of time just observing the team working in the yurt (Type 1 teams bring all the infrastructure they’ll need) and soaking in what I could soak in.
After a few days of the Type 1 team’s presence, once the containment percentage was sufficiently upped and resources started getting pulled, the Tunnel Fire was transferred back to us at the forest level, and we’ve been managing it ever since.
It’s slowed down quite a bit, but it is still an active wildfire and has been smoldering and smoking, so we’re still actively managing it.
And, as an added bonus? I got my red card! Yay!
A “red card” — formally called an “incident qualification card” details what jobs you are qualified to perform on an incident. National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) determines what roles need to be filled on wildfires, and what classes, certifications and physical fitness requirements need to be met to fill that role.
I’m qualified as a PIO Technician, which means I can serve as a general PIO on any type and size of IMT, and I’m a PIOF/3 trainee, which means I’m in the process of obtaining my certification to work as lead PIO on a Type 3 IMT.
(The more complex the incident, the lower the number.)
Anyway, the Tunnel Fire still isn’t fully contained, and with the strong winds we’ve been experiencing in northern Arizona, it likely won’t be contained for a while.
I just wanted to give a little update as to how work has been and what I’ve been up to lately… and why I kind of dropped off the face of the earth over here.
It’s still early summer, so I’m sure there will be more wildfires within the coming weeks. If there aren’t any on the Coconino (fingers crossed!) I’ll definitely be heading out on fire assignments now that I have my red card and am able.
Til next time!
