Federal wildland fire agencies will be changing their strategies to battle wildfires and taking a few lessons from the Army’s Special Forces, especially on fighting “mega fires,” according to Jerry Williams, director of Fire and Aviation Management of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service.

In a recent interview with Wildfire magazine, Williams said the Forest Service is looking to develop strategies tailored to the unique demands of four kinds of wildfires:

• Small, “initial-attack” fires: “Ninety-five percent of the fires we confront each year are in this category. We attack aggressively and quickly contain and control it. It’s suppressed with relatively small effort and little notice.”
• Extended-attack fires: These have escaped initial attack efforts and require stronger attack and reinforcement to put out. Although they make up only about 4% of wildfires, 70% of wildland fatalities occur in these fires.
• Large fires: Fires that require Type 1 or Type 2 Incident Management Teams. “They’re going to manage this fire for several burn periods, but eventually they’re going to bring the forces to bear to put the fire to rest.”
• Mega fires: Less than .01% of all fires, these fires escape all above extinguishment efforts and require several Incident Management Teams and an Area Command to manage. They capture national media attention. “This is the kind of fire, where, owing to fuels or draught, we’re going to be there until we get a significant break in the weather,” said Williams.
  

Fire managers need to be able to recognize each type of fire and have specific strategies for each type. “Fundamentally, our strategies are flawed if we attempt to use the same tactics and strategies on every fire, except we try harder or throw more resources at it,” Williams said.

Williams said his agency is working with the JFK School of Government at Harvard and the Special Forces Command at Fort Bragg, N.C., to develop a ‘mega fire management model’ that “challenges the notion that more is better, the larger these fires become. We’re starting to look at different strategies and tactics that emphasize point protection over perimeter control, for example.”

Taking a cue from the Special Forces motto of “owning the night,” the new model may shift mega-fire operations to nighttime, Williams said.

“During daylight hours, in the middle of the burning period, we don’t have anything going for us. It’s the hottest part of the day; it’s usually the windiest part of the day; the relative humidities are the lowest. We are at every disadvantage,” said Williams.