Fire Management 2022 Program Guide
• Use local resources as much as possible. Include qualified resources from local fire departments and counties. • Whenever possible, use local Type 3 Overhead teams to manage fires beyond initial attack. • Where applicable, build fireline at night—hold during day. • Develop Cost-Share Agreements to support county and state strategic and tactical policies. Write a Cost-Share Agreement as specific as possible to identify cost to the counties and state. • Use aerial resources in a judicial manner. Consider other less costly resources that could safely accomplish the same objectives. • Provide financial oversight to Overhead Teams. Request assistance from the Fire Management Work Unit as needed. • Review Fire Resource Orders to determine effective use of suppression and support resources. • As the fire progresses, evaluate county and/or the State responsibilities and values at risk. • End the county and/or state financial involvement as soon as reasonably possible. • When the fire is controlled, declare it controlled. • Manage the resources, including the overhead team. Release them as soon as possible to reduce cost. Do not allow the cost of resources held for other purposes other than the needs of the fire to be billed to the county or state. • Aggressively pursue cost recovery on human caused fires.
WILDLAND FIRE INVESTIGATION GENERAL The Division is committed to determining the cause of all human-caused fires and to recovering suppression costs and pursuing criminal action when appropriate. As such, it is critical that a thorough “long-form” investigation be completed for all human-caused fires where the responsible party may be located. For all other fires, a “short form” investigation should be completed. Both the “short” and “long” form can be found on the FFSL Enterprise Forms page under Fire, (https://ffsl.link/EnterpriseForms) - for QR code see 7.5 on page 192. Although initial attack personnel may not possess the skills to conduct investigations, they may complete short forms and may also play a very important role in establishing patterns. Successful pursuit of criminal and civil actions based upon a wildland fire investigation is often commensurate with information received by eyewitnesses and initial attack personnel. Successfully solving serial or spree arson cases is only possible if there is thorough data collection on the fires involved. Recognizing that initial attack personnel are primarily concerned with suppression actions, they need to also be aware of things that will be helpful to subsequent fire investigations. The following is a list of items that must be recognized and observed by initial attack personnel which will greatly assist with investigation efforts.
190 – Chapter 7 Suppression
