MANAGING A WILDLAND FIRE, Donald G. Perry, 1989
The management of wildland fires has changed tremendously in the last 30-plus years. The first real aid to the incident commander came in 1957 with the development of the "Ten Standard Fire Orders." These 10 orders have stood the test of time and have reduced firefighter fatalities and injuries while helping stress safety first.
During the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s, fires were managed under the "fire boss" type of organization. During a developing incident, little time was spent developing the equivalent of today's incident action plan. The primary focus was on operations.
Then the tragic 1970 wildland fire season in Southern California taxed all California wildland fire agencies to the limit, as fires destroyed over 700 structures, killing 16 persons and burning over 500,000 acres. Damages were estimated to be over $233 million for the 13 day fire siege.
From this tragedy, out of the ashes, came the FIRESCOPE project.
The acronym stands for "Firefighting Resources of Southern California Organized for Potential Emergencies."
In 1988, after years of systems development and actual testing, FIRESCOPE's definition was changed to Firefighting Resources California to reflect statewide adoption by the California fire service.
This project has produced a tool recognized nationally as the Incident Command System (ICS). Together with the multiagency coordination system (MACS), FIRESCOPE gave incident commanders a standardized decision-making process, a standard fire organization and common terminology and support systems to manage even multiple, simultaneous wildland fire complexes.
The FIRESCOPE project enabled incident commanders in the western United States to meet the tremendous challenges of 1985, 1987 and 1988, three record-setting fire seasons.
Incident commanders of the 1990s and the 21st century will be faced with even greater challenges as urban growth continues to impact wildland firefighting efforts. Wildland/urban interface fires will increase in every state, with a trend of small-acreage fires (under 100 acres) causing large-loss property damage. Incident commanders will be faced with the need to develop additional skills in the areas of politics, legal concerns, the environment, personnel welfare, media relations, mutual aid and fiscal management. Managing a Wildland Fire was written to give the incident commander a comprehensive overview of these issues.
5 1/2" x 8 5/8", 141 pages, B&W illustrations, softcover BM1990 / $14.95