After a few years of working in wildfire response, I’ve become a bit of an Incident Command System (ICS) nerd.
I found out two weeks ago that I’ve been rostered for my second official year as the Northern Arizona Type 3 Incident Management Team (IMT)’s lead Public Information Officer (PIO), and I’m really excited to spend another season doing good work that I’m passionate about.
Assuming, yunno, my federal agency hasn’t been disbanded and I don’t get fired before our wildfire season here in northern Arizona.
Write to your senators and Congress representatives and secure funding and staffing for your favorite land management agencies if you enjoy recreating and/or not watching your house burn down, thank you! ðŸ«
I’ve written a little bit about what I do in the past, but the short story is that every time we get a wildfire here in northern Arizona, a team is stood up to manage that fire: developing objectives and tactics, coordinating response logistics, documenting the incident, and communicating everything happening on the fire with the public.
That last part is my job, btw.
While a few of my trainings have been wildfire-specific, a bulk of my training is composed of FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) classes focused on general disaster response, since so much of what I do is a very niche type of disaster response.
Even though I mainly work on wildfires due to my location here in the Southwest — and, therefore, that’s usually what I refer to — an “all-hazards incident” could be anything from a hurricane to a terrorist attack to an oil spill to a pandemic. I’m technically formally qualified to handle any kind of incident at the Type 3 level.
While I’ve been fully qualified as a Type 3 PIO for a while now, I’m hoping to further my training and pursue a higher-level qualification as a Complex-level PIO. This qualification would let me lead public information efforts on higher-complexity incidents.
This most recent training, O-305: Type 3 All-Hazards Incident Management Team, was the next step in pursuing those qualifications.
I spent all of last week at the City of Flagstaff’s Public Works building attending that O-305 training, and I actually learned quite a bit via a combination of PowerPoint-led classroom work and simulation exercises.
I always get a little bit nervous about the simulation-heavy trainings. Pretty much every incident response training has a simulation day (or simulation days, plural) so attendees get a feel for the real-world complexities of incident management.
O-305 had three lecture days followed by two full simulation days, in which we responded to a mock tornado, and then a mock stadium explosion.
While I would have been completely confident in playing the role of a Type 3 PIO for this class, I actually wasn’t allowed to focus on the role I usually play because, well… the whole point of training is learning.
Instead… I got to play the role of a Logistics Section Chief (LSC) for my two simulation days, which was crazy challenging since it’s so far outside the realm of what I usually do.
Rather than working to create mock news releases, answer public phone hotlines and conduct mock media interviews — the things I’m good at doing after doing them for so long — I had to develop a mock medical plan and a communication plan, and coordinate the delivery of imaginary food, tents, supplies, ambulances, etc. for our simulation incidents.
If you end up taking O-305, prepare to be pulled way outside of your comfort zone, but prepare to learn a good amount as well.
O-305 concluded with a three-page final exam, much like my ICS 300 and ICS 400 classes did.
While I had a fun time and learned a lot, I’m definitely relieved to be done with O-305 because that means I’m one step closer to my Complex PIO qualification! My next step in the journey is opening up my task book and then getting some real-world experience on Complex-level incidents.
Wish me luck?
