Here why this is now a NIFC Fire 27,930 acres - 5% contained
they have made no progress in three days the fire just keeps moving alone
I understand what you mean with the expression "this is now a NIFC Fire . . ." The actual situation is command of the fire is now a unified command between Cal Fire and a federal Type I interagency incident management team (known as CIIMT #5 - California Interagency Incident Command Team #5 - IC Jim Giachino). Unified command is when the IC's of two or more agencies form a type of committee and make group decisions considering the needs of all the agencies in unified command. The incident does not have two or more incident commanders as the "committee" speaks as one incident commander, as a single voice. I have often said that this committee approach may seem like a formula for failure, but this component of the ICS (Incident Command System) is successful and time tested.
Federal interagency incident management teams are truly interagency now. In the past, prior to the use of the ICS, they included federal employees only, way back when during the beginning years of my career. The Forest Service had teams, the BLM had teams, the National Park Service had teams, CDF had teams and country and municipal fire departments had teams also. The command system, positions, qualifications and training varied significantly with each agency. It was a huge mess when large and dynamic incidents needed to use mutual aid resources. It was a mass effort to put square pegs into round holes because the different systems did not mesh. The Forest Service had a system called "LFO" or the "Large Fire Organization" that didn't mesh well with other federal agencies, let alone state and local agencies. The ICS is a universally applied system of incident organization, terminology, training, qualifications, forms and procedures. This has allowed interagency incident management teams made up of people of diverse agencies. Now there are members from the Forest Service, BLM, National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, other federal agencies such as FEMA, as well as country and municipal fire departments on teams. Fire departments and agencies have become one big service entity. Now the term "fire service" includes departments and agencies at all government levels nationwide. Rivalries between agencies still exist, but animosity has been significantly reduced. The members of the fire service have comradery and more friendships across agency lines have resulted.
I began my career more than 10 years before the development and use of the ICS. I've watched the positive changes evolve in ways I don't think the interagency organization that developed this system could foresee.
The incident management teams are not part of the NIFC organization, but are dispatched and work under guidelines developed by NIFC.
The King Fire started in a state responsibility area of direct protection, but quickly moved onto National Forest land (Eldorado NF) and now the bulk of the land involved on this fire is on the Eldorado. That is why the fire had a Cal Fire incident management team to begin with and then just a day or two later was in Unified Command.
I hope this information is helpful.