Conclusions of foresters’ survey

Saturday, Sept. 30, 2000 | 9:09 a.m.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Principal findings of the National Association of State Foresters' Forest Fire Protection Committee's Fire Resources Utilization subcommittee:

- Citizens and decision-makers are dangerously unaware of the raw power of wildland fire, particularly where residential, commercial or industrial development coexists with wildland conditions. To fire, fuel is fuel, whether it is a tree or a house.

- Fire managers are held accountable for the safety of their personnel and in recent years have increasingly been held accountable for the impact of fire suppression efforts on land management issues and environmental concerns. The concept of accountability in fire suppression rarely extends to the costs incurred in suppressing fires. The containment of costs of suppression should be second only to firefighter safety.

- A corporate will to change appears to be lacking throughout the national organization. Strong leadership in containing costs is essential and must be accompanied by the allocation of accountability for cost containment throughout the organization.

- A series of factors have combined to create an environment that fosters increases in the cost of suppressing large fires. The least expensive fire is the one that never starts. Prevention dollars are the least expensive suppression dollars - and the most effective.

- Extreme levels of fuel loading present a staggering threat to public safety and ecological integrity. Once ignited, fires in many areas will be so intense as to be unstoppable. Action must be taken to develop and implement a comprehensive national policy affecting federal, state and private lands.

- When an incident management team arrives to take control of the fire, too often line officers turn the fire over and assume a hands-off stance leaving the incident management team to operate with minimal guidance from the host agency. The overall responsibility for the fire remains with the host agency and it is that agency's obligation to remain closely involved.

- As government budgets have become leaner and as federal and state workforces have aged, the preparedness level of federal and state firefighting forces has slipped. Fire management planning thus becomes more important to ensure that resources are positioned and expended in the most effective and efficient manner possible.