Almost anyone who has been deployed to the interface has been involved in the triage of structures threatened by wildfire. For some you have days and for some only hours, which can make for a stressful situation when you and your engine company have never been in the location. Sorting and prioritizing structures can be overwhelming when you haven't been given the tools or knowledge to complete this task.

Why triage structures? We need to know just what we're getting into — what hazards and resources are out there — to do our job safely and effectively. Of course, more time means better and more concise triage. When you're dealing with a limited number of structures on a small fire with few resources, your job can be done with good speed and accuracy. When dealing with a large number of structures over many acres, with heavy fire activity and hundreds of responding resources that have never been to that location, you'll wish that triage had been performed prior to an incident.

Triaging threatened areas helps to determine what type of resources and numbers are needed to take care of the structures. In addition, the safety factor for responders will be increased greatly when they're supplied with existing triage information. Too many firefighters are killed each year while protecting structures during wildland-urban interface operations.

FOUR PHASES

For a fire department in the wildland-urban interface, triaging structures is similar to a metro department preplanning for large buildings such as schools, hospitals and industrial plants. Both techniques provide responders with a plan of action. The four phases of structure triage include: threatened area identification, information gathering, action plan development and plan implementation.

1. Identify threatened areas

   To conduct an effective structure triage, you first need to identify those areas that are or may be threatened by WUI fires. If you're fortunate, early triage will be supported by a forward-thinking city council that understands this process is needed and will pay off ten-fold when a fire threatens the community. It always amazes me that cities can find the money to get the job done when only a day separates a fire from the doorsteps of million-dollar homes. The less time there is for triage, the more important it is to have the areas properly identified. This includes marking the areas on maps that are given to each crew performing triage operations.

2. Gather information

   This step can cause the most grief and raise the most questions. Who gathers the information? What information do we collect? Do we use paper and pen, or do we use handheld and laptop computers with software like RedZone or ESRI ArcPad. Who decides what format to use?

   All of these questions should be answered before the process begins. Information gathering can be performed by anyone, from the grunt on the engine to the contractor and right up to the command team. All information should be collected in the same manner, whether paper or electronic. The required information may be decided by the city of local fire department when there's no fire, or by a task force leader, structure protection group supervisor or command team when there is.

   The collected information can include but is not limited to:

   • Firefighter safety, such as clearly marked addresses, fire entrapment possibility, overhead hazards, steep or soft ground, and safety zones and escape routes.
   • Access to the structure, including engine mobility and road width.
   • Fuels around the structure, including type, density and proximity.
   • Hazards such as propane tanks, cluttered yards, animals, woodpiles and multiple structures on site.
   • Terrain, including aspect and degree of slope.
   • Structure components, such as construction type, siding, roofing, decks, eaves, gutters, wooden porches and windows.
   • Recommended actions, including gel and foam application, house wrapping, burning off, or fuel modification.

   Information gathered electronically can be transferred easily to a computer for placement within GIS mapping software, which will color-code structures to show which can be saved. This also can be done with paper, which is equally effective but more time-consuming. Crews need to classify the sheets in some manner to help sort them into order.

3. Develop action plan

   The action plan is developed by the planning section, which could be the same people who gathered the information. In some cases the action plan can be put together in 20 to 30 minutes, or it may take the better part of a day. It all depends on the fire's severity and its proximity to the threatened structures.

   Once the plan has been developed, the incident commander must sign off on it. Then it's time for the firefighters who will be performing structure protection duties to be briefed on what, where, when and how they are to do the job.

4. Implement action plan

   With a plan in their hands, firefighters know where they're going, what they're going to do, and when and how they're going to do it. All they need to do is protect the structures in their assigned areas. However, they should be sure that the briefing answers all their questions regarding communications, contingency plans, fire behavior, weather, escape routes and safety zones.

TRIAGE TYPES

Down and dirty triage is when the fire is an hour or less out and you need to know right now what's out there. This is the most uncomfortable situation to be placed in because you don't have a whole lot of time to put a detailed plan together. Triage may have to be done by the local fire department as the incident is unfolding.

When assigning teams to perform triage, an IC needs to consider the skill level of crews, number of structures and fire activity. You're limited by the limitations of available crews. You may need to work on a plan to hold the line until more resources arrive, or you may only need a quick and simple plan to protect a handful of threatened structures. You may only have time to take a digital photo of the house and site. Remember to look at the big picture, including fire behavior, time of year, time of day and the predicted weather.

Rapid triage is a possibility when there's a window of four to six hours before the fire comes knocking on the doors. You may be able to triage more homes and gather more information, which will give you a better idea of what you might need for resources, even over more than one or two operational periods. Rapid triage also offers time to prepare a more detailed plan, which should create a more effective and safer deployment.

Of course, it's only four to six hours and there's still a fire to be put out. Some resources may be fighting the fire while only a few crews are performing triage. As more resources arrive, more crews may be placed into a triage role to help expedite the process. An engine or crew boss could take a digital picture of the structure and site with a few notes, such as address and access.

Detailed triage can be performed when there are eight hours or more — even a few days — before the fire's arrival. This type of triage may be performed by the structure protection group supervisor or even a triage team. Now we have time at each site to gather detailed data that will not only help for this incident but could be used for public information when the threat of fire is over. For example, this information can help homeowners take their houses from full losers to winners that can be saved. Detailed triage also allows firefighters to offer homeowners advice on prepping their homes prior to evacuation, if it's safe to have the owner to do so.

Full triage is done when there's no threat of fire and you have the time and resources to conduct a detailed triage. The local forest service, fire department or even a private contract crew may do this. This is a fully planned triage that you want to conduct under conditions uninfluenced by any fire activity.

This is a great time to involve residents and developers in areas that are threatened by wildfire. Educating the public about what they can do and what the local government is going to do with the information gathered will only help to gain their support. Once you have gathered the information from your triage operations, you need to present the residents with a report for each assessed property. The report should show your findings as of the date of triage, how each property is ranked, and what homeowners can do for a better ranking.

TOOLS FOR TRIAGING HOMES

Once you have decided to triage one or more homes, it's important to follow either an existing protocol or one that's been created for the situation. Once you have decided on what information you want collected, you'll need to decide what medium to use. Whether you decide on electronic or paper, it's important to make sure that the crews understand how to collect the information.

The easier you make it for the triage teams, the better. Don't give them the opportunity to make a judgment call when collecting the data. Instead, set up the triage data collection forms or software with yes or no answers and 1 through 5 ratings. When crews can make judgment calls and fill out forms with a lot of text, you not only will have to spend more time filling out the triage assessment, you also will have more information to decipher.

Software can be helpful in reducing the number of judgment calls, because most programs are simple, easy to use and have a very short training time. They have quick and easy questions and answers that interpret collected data based on the user's criteria. Once out of the field, data can be merged with GIS maps to create a full working document that can be used for fire operations or public education.

Other triage tools include a digital camera to help document structures, GPS units to pinpoint location, pad and paper, prepared forms, software and a computer to organize the collected data, and even a PDA for data collection. You should use whatever the triage team and crews are most comfortable with. This can change with the urgency of the situation. If you have only one hour and six people to triage 50 homes, it's not a good time to introduce the great software program that the local government just purchased two days ago.

Education is another great tool. Courses from the National Wildfire Coordinating Group, such as P-110: Inspecting Fire-Prone Properties and S-215: Fire Operations in the Urban Interface, are a good start to prepare crews prior to conducting a triage.

Structure triage is a very important part of WUI firefighting, but it's also the part most often left for the last minute. It's our responsibility to educate the public and politicians who live in the world of the wildland-urban interface. It's amazing that fire departments spend time and money preparing preplans for large hazards in their districts, but the same importance isn't attached to triaging structures threatened by wildfire. Preparing for an incident before the big day only helps everyone involved.

Darren Hutchinson is with Quintech Fire Services, a firefighting, consulting and training firm. He has experience as a structural firefighter, industrial firefighter and wildland firefighter.