Find It Here First

Chuck Bushey

Welcome to Wildfire magazine's annual Buyers' Guide issue. In this issue you will find listings for a variety of wildland fire products, services and suppliers that can assist you with your suppression, fire use and research needs. I hope you will find this magazine valuable enough to keep within reach as your directory to find equipment, parts and jobbers. No other resource in this industry offers such a comprehensive international directory for the business of wildland fire. This issue really serves two purposes: it provides the user with a useful directory and it helps private industry get the word out about their products and services.

Having been in the wildland fire business both with government and private industry, I find the perspectives found on both sides of the fireline interesting. Let's face it, fire can be a very big business. Prevailing attitudes differ around the globe. When it comes to wildland fire, however, government agencies like to consider themselves the primary wildland fire suppressing and fire-use organizations, while private industry is the source of supplies for getting that job accomplished. This is a relatively recent development, and in fact, government has a minimal role in some locations.

Historically, local residents were responsible for structural protection, which was accomplished in most cases by relatively small volunteer organizations and in some cases, private fire companies using good old sweat, water and dirt. This approach was fine for small incidents, but was both insufficient and inefficient for fighting larger fires. Growing and expanding populations of settlers in fire-prone communities forced the fire-protection issue. The belief developed that only larger organizations could assume the responsibilities for greater geographic areas and successfully tackle larger fires that moved across the landscape. The then-logical choice was the move to large government agencies with a greater tax base to finance large fire suppression. As the need grew, mostly over the last 150 years, so did the technology to accomplish the job — and the industry of supplying equipment and consulting expertise developed accordingly.

This buyers' guide reveals how technology has grow with need. Just look at the many categories that companies have registered under.

In many respects, the last quarter century has seen a return to greater training and involvement of smaller, local fire resources for wildland fire suppression and fire use. Gradually we are witnessing a trend toward increased use of local resources. Gradually we are realizing that large government organizations can't accomplish the job all by themselves. This has included the return of private fire companies providing both equipment, expertise and consulting. Where there was a fire niche, private enterprise has found a way to germinate and grow in spite of frequently being in a hostile environment. This is a good thing; diversity of resources is as important in fire as within your retirement account. With that thought in mind I hope you will look to this issue of Wildfire magazine as an equally diverse buyers' guide that better serves your wildland fire business needs.

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