NIFC: Five Calif. #USFS Hotshot Crews Deployed #Sandy

Thursday, November 1, 2012

NIFC: Five Calif. #USFS Hotshot Crews Deployed #Sandy

Southern California GACC is sending five Type I crews to the Eastern Area (New York and Pennsylvania) for hurricane relief.

VALLEJO, Calif., Oct. 31, 2012 – In the first major mobilization of fire resources from California to the federal Hurricane Sandy response effort, five U.S. Forest Service hotshot crews are on their way to the northeast this afternoon. The crews will be joining an agency contingent that is already several hundred strong that was mobilized in the days prior to the incident and since the storm came ashore Monday evening.

FIREFIGHTERS MOBILIZE TO ASSIST WITH HURRICANE SANDY RESPONSE
Wildfire suppression crews and incident management teams are being mobilized and sent to the East Coast to assist with response to Hurricane Sandy.

Currently, six incident management teams and eleven wildfire suppression crews, a total of more than 250 personnel, are staged in or en route to New York, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts.
This includes:
• Two interagency hotshot crews, three 20-person Type 2 wildfire suppression hand crew, five 2-person saw crews, one Type 2 incident management team, and two U.S. Forest Service National Incident Management Organization incident management teams staged at or en route to Republic Airport, Farmingdale, New York (Long Island).
• One Type 1 incident management team, two interagency hotshot crews, and two 20-person Type 2 wildfire suppression handcrews en route to Pennsylvania.
• Two 20-person Type 2 wildfire suppression hand crews and one Type 2 incident management team staged at Fort Deven, Massachusetts.

In responding to hurricanes, wildfire suppression crews and incident management teams typically perform tasks such as clearing downed trees from roads so that local responders can conduct search and rescue missions; assisting at Federal Emergency

Management Agency (FEMA) logistics facilities that provide water and other commodities needed to sustain life; providing communications equipment and support to local emergency response agencies; and command and control support for emergency response agencies.

Under the National Response Framework, the U.S. Forest Service coordinates providing firefighting assets to respond to hurricanes and other emergency incidents.
- more -
Source: www.nifc.gov/fireInfo/fireInfo_documents/HurricaneSandyResponse102912.pdf
Contact: Jennifer Jones
(208) 387-5437 – office
(208) 631-0406 – mobile
jejones@fs.fed.us - email
An audio interview with Steve Gage, Assistant Director, Operations, Fire and Aviation
Management, U.S. Forest Service, National Interagency Fire Center is available at
http://www.nifc.gov/fireInfo/fireInfo_podcasts.html

CFN - California Fire News 2012

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How fires get their names

Every year in California thousands of wildfires start throughout the state. In most cases, the dispatch center sending the initial resources to a wildland fire will designate a name for the fire, but the first on scene engine or fire official can also name the incident. Fires are usually named for the area in which they start – a geographical location, local landmark, street, lake, mountain, peak, etc. Quickly naming the fire provides responding fire resources with an additional locater, and allows fire officials to track and prioritize incidents by name. For example during the Southern California Fire Siege of 2003, the largest wildland fire in California history, the Cedar Fire in San Diego County, was named after the Cedar Creek Falls area where it started. The destructive Old Fire, which burned during the same time period in San Bernardino County, was named after the road along which it started - Old Waterman Canyon Road.

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CFN - CALIFORNIA FIRE NEWS - CAL FIRE NEWS

Thursday, November 1, 2012