Outside Help

By Chris White Anchor Point, Boulder, Colo.

The fire service has come to expect the availability of a map book or pre-attack plan to be used en route and at the scene of structure fires. These plans help to identify hazards, utility infrastructure and other available resources. They help the incident commander or first-in company extrapolate best strategy and tactics for the incident. Why then are so many departments content to respond blindly to a wildland-urban interface fire?

An officer expects the plan on a commercial property to reveal hazardous conditions such as the location of hazmat storage or the use of lightweight truss construction. In most cases, however, that same officer would be willing to respond to a subdivision threatened by a wildfire without the knowledge and identification of other equally lethal conditions.

Over the last few years there has been a definitive trend for fire departments to outsource wildland-urban interface work to contractors. The availability of substantial grant monies, in combination with the increased time demands on fire districts, has made the decision easier.

While many fire departments have the in-house expertise to complete a comprehensive interface assessment, this expertise is often dispersed among several people with other duties and priorities. The day-to-day operations occupy much time with little discretionary availability for expansion into new projects. Also, a district may not have the equipment or resources to complete the job properly, such as a GIS lab or staff forester.

Strategy and tactics on every incident revolve around the basic principles of life safety, incident stabilization and property conservation. A professional and comprehensive WUI hazard and risk assessment plan can provide the same level of preplanning and firefighter safety that the fire service has become accustom to in structural firefighting. If firefighter safety is of primary importance, then there is no justifiable rationale to not preplan the more rural, non-commercial areas of a jurisdiction.

When a fire district has a significant wildland fire incident, its local resources will be tapped out quickly, and a national incident management team will be ordered to assist. A critical time in the incident comes during this transitional period, when the local department's preplanning, if any, will be evaluated and used. A comprehensive plan will help facilitate a smooth transition to the incoming team and establish the local fire agency as a valued resource.

“It's really the district's choice” says Marc Mullenix, a Type-2 incident commander and wildland division chief for the Boulder (Colo.) Fire Department. “My team can come in blind to the incident and spend significant time evaluating the interface areas, or the district can provide us with their pre-plan information and we can get to work protecting structures. It's really a firefighter safety issue. I'm not going to commit my people to a subdivision that has not been sized up.”

Size-up in an interface fire is not as simple as walking around a building. The process can take hours for the initial size-up and days for a comprehensive evaluation. Unfortunately, time is of the essence when a wildfire is rapidly advancing.

When responding to an interface incident, several conditions need to be noted. Ideally a triage officer or structure protection specialist will enter the area and conduct a size-up. Several of the factors which need to be assessed include:

• Fuels, including type, arrangement and general condition.
• Weather, both current and predicted.
• Topography, such as chimneys, ridges and slopes that might increase fire behavior.
• Access and egress, noting dead ends and narrow mid-slope roads.
• Structures and improvements, including construction type and density, overhead power lines, and water supplies.

Evaluating these elements can be done in a triage process, but the analysis is never as accurate or comprehensive as conducting the same process before the fire threatens. For resource-strapped departments, the expertise, technology and methodology for a comprehensive wildland-urban interface analysis can come from the private sector. The plans developed can meet or exceed traditional pre-attack plan standards for quality and comprehensiveness.

It's not uncommon for devastating interface fires to surround the Platte Canyon Fire Protection District. Most recently the Hayman Fire of 2002 burned 137,760 acres and 600 structures adjacent to the district. In an effort to be proactive, the Platte Canyon Fire Protection District, a combination fire department in Colorado, contracted with Anchor Point Group to conduct a comprehensive wildland-urban interface project, including an analysis and pre-attack plan.

The objectives of the project were to quantify the wildland urban interface threat and to provide useful pre-planning tools and recommendations for future actions. The project had three distinct phases:

• Phase 1, district-wide analysis and community-level planning.
• Phase 2, individual home assessments and community education.
• Phase 3, planning and implementation of fuel reduction and other landscape scale recommendations.

Phase 1. With the cooperation and assistance of the fire district, the consulting company conducted a comprehensive analysis. The initial goal was to provide the district with an overview of the hazards and risks within their jurisdiction.

The analysis was conducted using FlamMap, a fire behavior mapping and analysis program that computes potential fire behavior characteristics such as rate of spread, flame length and crown fire potential over an entire GIS-defined landscape. Weather for the analysis was extrapolated from a local remote-access weather station. A historic mean was established to generate weather and fuel moisture conditions. Selecting various weather parameters allowed the district to see fire behavior displayed during average and or extreme weather scenarios.

Next, 20 distinct communities were defined and evaluated for interface hazards and conditions. A plan then was created to include recommendations for reducing wildfire hazards within each community. Action items included fuels reduction along access and egress routes, establishment of safety zones, enhancing water supplies and road improvements.

Phase 2. This phase consisted of the analysis of about 4,300 individual homes to provide each homeowner with a written plan to reduce their home's susceptibility to wildfire. This endeavor helped to educate the community and foster ownership in the interface fire problem.

Using 10 two-person crews, the field portion of the assessment took just under 11 days to complete. The final product assisted the fire department by providing a state-of-the-art pre-attack fire plan, with every home and commercial structure in the jurisdiction identified and rated for fire hazard.

Additionally, the home-level analysis provided crucial updates for inclusion in the emergency dispatch database. The information was graphically displayed in a GIS-based mapping application that allows firefighting resources and responding incident management teams to access maps of home locations, roads and evacuation routes, safety zones, and fire behavior predictions.

“The pre-attack plan is simple to use and helps us understand the wildfire threat to our district,” says John Pawlik, wildfire mitigation officer for the Platte Canyon Fire District. “We plan on installing laptops loaded with this information in each of our engines so that home and fire behavior information is available to firefighters out in the field.”

Phase 3. The study attracted state and federal agencies and their funding into the jurisdiction. Several cross-boundary projects are now in the planning phase that will benefit both the communities and the surrounding state and federal lands. Specific fuels treatment recommendations at the landscape level are under development to help protect the at-risk communities as defined in Phase 1.

A fire department may decide to outsource for several reasons. Numerous hours from volunteer or career staff are needed to complete a comprehensive analysis. District-wide projects can take a focused three- to five-month effort. The endeavor can take much longer to complete if done in-house, as most staff have other duties and responsibilities.

Additionally, the depth of knowledge necessary for a wildland-urban interface analysis is not always available within a jurisdiction. Necessary disciplines include:

• Fire behavior computer modeling,
• Geographic information systems usage,
• Wildland-urban interface expertise and
• Professional forestry.

Chief Brett Gibson, Four Mile Fire Protection District, Boulder County, Colo., notes some other advantages that fire departments gain by partnering with the private sector. With a similar project completed for his jurisdiction, Gibson cites the following values in outsourcing his district's interface analysis:

• Short turnaround time for the final product.
• Unbiased eyes with a new perspective for the district.
• Assessment practices provide a good template for future efforts.

Gibson says that the project enhanced his firefighter's safety: “If my citizens know where evacuation routes are and how to utilize them, then my firefighters don't necessarily have to go in and help evacuate. Through public education, this effort has leveraged our work force from 30 volunteer firefighters to over 500 of my citizens helping to mitigate our WUI threat.”

The concept of analyzing and pre-planning the interface at the fire district level is not new. Throughout the United States, many jurisdictions have been working diligently for over a decade. The Boulder Fire Department initiated its fire mitigation program more than 10 years ago. Their in-house wildfire mitigation coordinator conducted more than 800 individual home evaluations in an effort to quantify the extent of their interface and to launch a public education and information program. Currently, the department is contracting to re-evaluate their interface area. This followup project will help to define the efforts of the homeowners over the last decade and update the old database.

As with all dynamic environments, any pre-plan or analysis needs to be updated. The International Fire Code Institute's Urban Wildland Interface Code recommends a three-year review rotation. Significant fires or other landscape-changing events would dictate a shorter review period. Several consecutive severe fire seasons, and the ever-increasing interface threat, led to the development of the National Fire Plan and the subsequent federal funding.

The National Fire Plan and the 10-Year Comprehensive Strategy were developed in partnership among all interested stakeholders, including fire departments and the private sector. The elements listed in the 10-year comprehensive strategy are all elements where the private sector can assist fire departments:

• Improving prevention and suppression,
• Restoring fire-adapted ecosystems,
• Reducing hazardous fuels, and
• Promoting community assistance

The National Fire Plan has provided some of the funding necessary to make progress in addressing the issues of the interface. Unfortunately, there are many consulting companies that are entering the wildland fire business without the necessary experience to serve a fire department well.

There's also a lack of standardization for interface planning. Several national guidelines are available, but each must be specifically tailored to the particular needs of the jurisdiction, this takes experience and sound judgment. When selecting a company to partner with, an effort must be made to ensure that the company is qualified and has the necessarily diverse staffing to guarantee the highest level of service.

The use of quality, private-sector companies can assist a jurisdiction in meeting their interface planning needs. A private firm is capable of delivering a wide range of services. The experienced contractor has worked in numerous districts and can bring new ideas to every project. These companies can operate across political and jurisdictional boundaries, providing consistency for mutual aid agencies. Economies of scale may play a significant role in cost reduction, and working seamlessly with other jurisdictions facilitates mutual aid efficiencies.

The fact that the contractor is not part of the daily work force allows a fresh and objective perspective that is sometimes obscured from within the department. An unfortunate reality is that internal politics and public perception issues may not allow the fire department to be as aggressive or as efficient in achieving its wildland-urban interface goals.

Too often a department's plan, particularly when new equipment or expansion is proposed, is perceived as being self-serving. Sometimes the outside source, an unbiased third party, can make recommendations for the district that are more palatable to the public.

When a jurisdiction decides to contract interface work, the best outcomes are when there is a true open and honest partnership between the contractor and the fire department. Clear goals and final product expectations are essential. Continuous dialogues throughout the project provides the department with ownership and understanding of the tools and results produced. The true value in partnering with the private sector is in the results and the time saved, through the experience of the focused professional team.

Chris White is the co-owner and founder of Anchor Point, a Colorado-based wildfire management consulting firm. He has numerous state and national certifications in wildland, structural and prescribed fire management, and holds a bachelor's degree in environmental resource management and park management.