A few years ago, I attended a wildfire conference in Missoula, Mont. I fell hopelessly in love with Missoula, and the conference also opened me up to a totally different world of fire.

It was my first encounter with wildland management issues, and several things struck me as drastically different from structure fire department conferences. First, there were a lot of mustaches and even a few beards on the firefighters. Second, the vast majority of attendees appeared to be very fit physically. Now that's probably not much of a surprise to you, but it is with my experience of the other side of firefighting.

As the conference went on, more differences between the two branches of the fire service evolved. The wildland sector is quite advanced in a number of areas, even though it appears to employ a more casual attack.

On foot and with handheld tools — walking in or jumping in from the air — wildland firefighting appears from the outside to be very rudimentary, but when it comes to certain areas it's ahead of structure firefighting. The level of statistical reporting from the field, the management of large-scale incidents, and the emphasis on lessons learned and near misses is a phenomenon that the structure side still is trying to sell to many fire departments.

At the beginning of this year, I participated in a conference with a focus on preventable line-of-duty deaths. At one meeting was one of the most respected fire chiefs in the country, yet he said he'd never heard of the National Fire Plan. The 2003 wildfires devastated a large portion of his state, but he had not heard of the U.S. Fire Administration's efforts on wildland fuel management.

In the few years since Wildfire became part of Fire Chief Publications, the number and severity of wildland fires have increased, and it's our understanding they will continue to increase over the next several years. As new construction reaches into wildland areas and the fuel load grows, the interaction between wildland firefighters and structure firefighters will continue, and the gap in their experiences will narrow.

The Department of Homeland Security recently introduced the concept of a National Incident Management System. Wildland certainly has experience in these large-scale disasters. Wildland firefighters are transient, yet flexible to work anywhere that sparks, and can work within a unified command system. A couple years ago, wildland management leaders were called on to assist with the logistics for providing for the workers at Ground Zero. Teams also were called to help with the recovery of the Columbia shuttle disaster.

As the official publication of the International Association of Wildland Fire, the staff of Wildfire is committed to offering you the information you need to help you manage, lead or discover ways to conquer the devastation of wildfires.

The world of fire is changing, and your job isn't getting any easier. The job of Wildfire is to make you think, taking from the magazine growth, change or a renewed confidence. Tell me who you are. What is your role in wildland fires? What is the biggest area of concern in your job? What do you need to help you do your job better? How can we help you?

jwilmoth@primediabusiness.com

Contact the IAWF

International Assn. of Wildland Fire 4025 Fair Ridge Drive Fairfax, Va. 22033 ph: 785-423-1818 fax: 785-542-3511 iawf@iawfonline.org

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