It’s that time of year!
Ryan and I both just wrapped up a stint on the Wolf Fire, a roughly-10,000 acre forest fire down on his district.
While I was (luckily) able to get right back to my normal life — working 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at my day job, teaching (and taking) yoga classes at my studio, making healthy dinners away from fire camp, train running and hiking with Ochi — after I demobilized, Ryan actually hopped right into a fire assignment with his former Hotshot crew, Blue Ridge. He’s down in Phoenix right now working on the Wildcat fire.
My assignment on the Wolf Fire lasted for about nine days. This is my fourth season working as a Public Information Officer (PIO) on wildfires, and while I’ve worked as a PIO on about a dozen wildfires at this point in my career — everything from a Complex wildfire to a Type 3 wildfire to initial attack! — this fire assignment was pretty cool for a few reasons.
First, it was my first fully-qualified assignment as a Type 3 PIO!
Second, it was my first fire assignment as a rostered member of an Incident Management Team (IMT).
(Before we get too far into it… here’s a blog post talking about some of those incident response acronyms and what they mean, if you’d like to open it for reference.)
A few years ago, the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) — the organization that oversees wildfire management processes and qualifications — decided to overhaul IMT designations.
Previously, IMTs were categorized as Type 1, Type 2 or Type 3, with Type 1 teams managing complex wildfires (like the California megafires you hear about on the news) and Type 3 teams managing smaller wildfires (like remote wildfires that are used to benefit forest health — you usually don’t hear about these on the news). Type 2 teams either handled Type 1 or Type 3 fires when all the Type 1 or Type 3 teams were unavailable, or worked to transition fires from Type 3 to Type 1 and vice-versa.
But, this season, teams are now either Complex IMTs or Type 3 IMTs.
There were a few reasons that change was made, and I’m happy to get a little more into it if you’re interested, but for the sake of brevity, I’ll just say it’s a good change.
That change meant that qualifications — including those of PIOs — needed to change as well.
Previously, PIOs were categorized as PIO1, PIO2 or PIOF, to align with the Type 1/2/3 system. Now, PIOs are categorized as PIOC, PIO3 or PIOT, meaning PIOs are qualified at a Complex incident level, Type 3 incident level, or “technician” level.
This transition was pretty poorly-timed for me, to be honest. I had previously finished my PIOF task book, but before I could submit it for qualification, it was eliminated and I had to open up a new PIO3 task book, which was about twice as long and required some training (like an off-forest fire assignment) that was a little difficult for me to attain.
The changes were definitely necessary, though. The previous PIOF task book qualified a PIO to work as part of a Type 3 team, and the new PIO3 task book qualifies a PIO to lead a Type 3 team. So overall, it’s a way higher standard, which is a good thing.
Anyway! After jumping more hurdles than most, I finished my task book and all my classes and submitted all of my documentation, training certificates and experience over to the local board that approves qualifications, and during this past off-season, I was granted full qualification as a Type 3 PIO!
YAY!
And, as a fully qualified Type 3 PIO, I was eligible to apply to work on Type 3 IMT as the lead PIO. Which I also did during the off-season!
My application was accepted and I was designated as the lead PIO on the Northern Arizona Type 3 Incident Management Team.
YAY NO. 2!
The team I work on is local, which means we primarily accept orders to fires in the northern Arizona area. This means I’ll mostly be working on fires on my home forest, as well as on neighboring forests and other nearby land units.
I like working locally for a few reasons. First, it’s kind of my day job. If I wasn’t doing fire information as part of this team, I’d still be doing it as part of my day job. Doing it as part of a team just means I’m able to remain a little more in-the-loop with things, and to develop those relationships with other IMT members I wouldn’t develop otherwise.
I also love working locally because it means I get to stick close to home (which means I get to keep teaching my evening yoga classes, come home to Ochi every night and maintain some semblance of work-life balance) and I get to serve the community I live in and love.
Which leads us to my most recent fire… the Wolf Fire!
This was another managed fire on my forest’s Mogollon Rim Ranger District (MRRD). I’ve worked on a few similar fires in the past, like the Wilbur Fire last year, and they’re always nice because I love the MRRD and the people who work on it.
This fire assignment was pretty standard: I coordinated a fire line visit for Phoenix-area media, fielded a radio interview myself, sent half a dozen news releases, updated online information sources like InciWeb, answered public phone calls and undertook a few other projects: like making thank you certificates for partner agencies and cooperators.
I didn’t get a chance to head out on the fire line to collect photos and media, which is my favorite thing to do, but I did get to learn a little bit more about how an IMT functions, which was cool.
So far, I really like working as a rostered part of an IMT. It’s nice to have the level of camaraderie that I don’t really get otherwise, and it’s nice to develop relationships with both my forest coworkers and the other folks who work on this team that work full-time for other agencies and organizations.
I’m excited to see what the rest of this summer brings!
My views are mine alone and don’t represent those of my employer, agency or the United States government. All photos were taken by me and/or credited photographer unless otherwise noted. You can read more on my disclosure and privacy policy page.
