Federal Wildfire Operations

[zerg901]

National Incident Radio Support Cache Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference - NIRSC

National Interagency Fire Center Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference - NIFC

I think these pages can be merged. AFAIK there is just 1 office in Boise that is responsible for all of these radio channels. They ship out the radio kits to forest fires, major disasters, and probably the big security events.

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Federal wildfires - a listening guide

Initial dispatch and response will be on the Forest Net (USFS), Fire Net, Refuge Net (FWS), District Net (BLM or NPS), Park Net (NPS) or Agency Net (BIA). These nets are typically repeaterized and offer wide area coverage between field units and dispatchers.

The first arriving units will probably switch to a Tac Net or SOA Net (Scene of Action - BLM). This will usually be a simplex channel used by portables and mobiles. There is usually no direct contact with dispatchers available on these channels. (Tac Nets listed above are for USFS units typically). BLM has their own channels for SOA. BIA, FWS, and NPS sometimes use direct channels or separate Tac nets.

Also used are - Crew Nets for handcrews - Air to Ground - Air to Air FM - Air to Air FM ("Air Tactics"). (these are listed above)

If the fire grows in size and additional units are dispatched to the scene, then portable repeaters will be deployed. The portable repeaters will operate on the NIFC Command channels listed above.

If a fire camp is established, the Logistics channels will be used at the fire camp.

Sometimes UHF channels are used to link Command repeaters together. UHF channels are also used sometimes to link the fire camp to AM base stations to communicate with aircraft.

123.975 is commonly used at air tanker bases.

168.55 is used by smokejumpers.

(The NIFC Air to Air channels that are listed might be considered spare channels).

Sometimes AM channels are used for air to air communications. it depends on local needs.

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What am I forgetting?

 

[nd5y]

What am I forgetting?

We have a lot of good wiki pages.
There are many USFS, FWS, BLM and BIA wiki articles with frequency lists indexed at:
Category:US Federal Government - The RadioReference Wiki
I don't know how much of that is in the database.

I recently updated this page:
National Incident Radio Support Cache - The RadioReference Wiki

Check for federal agency listings on your state database page. They are usually in the drop-down lists under Areawide or Federal.

Check your state forestry/conservation agency database pages for any frequencies used locally for joint operations with the federal agencies.

Click the Wiki tab on federal, state and local database pages to see if anybody added additional information.

These are good web sites for general wildland fire info:
Wildland Fire: Home of the Wildland Firefighter
InciWeb the Incident Information System: Current Incidents

 

[zerg901]

A couple of more important items.

1. The NIFC Command freqs are usually only used at the largest fires. Same for the Logistics channels.

2. Typical portable radios have 16 channels per Zone (bank). Each bank usually contains - Local Repeater Net - Fire Repeater Net - nearby Repeater Nets - Tac 1 - Tac 2 - Tac 3 - 168.625 - two air to ground freqs

3. Most initial attack (first alarm) dispatching is now done from regional interagency dispatch centers that dispatch both federal and state level wildfirefighters.

4. Basically what we are trying to do here is to explain forest fire ops and radio channels to city slickers

 

[nd5y]

Search the whole 136-174 and 400-470 range and there is no telling what you might find.

Last year Texas had a bad fire season. We had lots of federal, state and local fire crews from other states and other parts of Texas in my area for long periods of time. Apparently some of them were using their normal home frequencies without knowing or caring that they could cause interference to others.

I heard what sounded like bulldozer operators on what was probably their tac channel in some other state. The only problem was the frequency and PL they were using was the input to the local Texas Forest Service repeater. They tied it up for about 1/2 hour or so and had no clue. I guess somebody finally figured out who they were and ran them off.

I also heard some of them on non-standard frequencies in between the normal FCC public safety allocations. In one case they were 5 kHz from one of the heavily used state frequencies.

 

[zerg901]

I should probably change this

2. Typical portable radios have 16 channels per Zone (bank). Each bank usually contains - Local Repeater Net - Fire Repeater Net - nearby Repeater Nets - Tac 1 - Tac 2 - Tac 3 - 168.625 - two air to ground freqs

to this

2. Typical portable radios have 16 channels per Radio Zone (bank). Each bank usually contains - nearby repeaters - two simplex air to ground freqs - 168.625 - and 2 or 3 simplex "tactical" or "work" freqs

 

[zerg901]

"and 2 or 3 simplex "tactical" or "work" freqs "

To further clarify this -

Some Forests seem to have the NIFC Tac channels as their simplex channels - some Forests have Nationwide Common Channels (like 168.35 - 168.6125 - 163.7125 - etc) - I think that some USFS Regions have Regional Tac channels also (Region 8 - South USA - 166.90) (Region 2 - 168.675)(Region 5 Tac ?5?6?7)

Bureau of Indian Affairs might have some Statewide Tac channels also - BLM seems to have different SOA freqs for each State - Fish Wildlife Service might have 1 nationwide tac channel - NPS seems to use 168.35 or 163.10

Bottom line - the "fireground channel" (AKA "scene of action" "tactical" "crew" "work" channel) at a federal wildfire incident can be one of many channels

 

[SCPD]

Here are a couple of tac channels: R5 Project, 166.6625 and USFWS nationwide fire 162.2375. The title of the former is the official name of the frequency. It is not used for fire alone, other resource functions can use it as well. In California 168.025 and 166.125 are used in southern California for law enforcement purposes with a few repeaters in place. 168.025 is the output and 166.125 is the input. 168.025 is the Forest Service National Law Enforcement Tac.

The four new federal common frequencies can be used by any federal agency. They are not reserved exclusively for national crew nets. They can be used by all the resource functions in the Forest Service.

The forest level frequencies you have called "tac" above are not called "forest tac." They have official names of "Work Net," or "Work Channels" in the western Forest Service regions, such as the Pacific Northwest, Northern Rockies and Rocky Mountain. I'm not sure if the Intermountain Region, the Southwestern Region and the Eastern Region have work channels allocated. My information for the Alaska Region is pretty sparse so I can't tell if a work channel is employed there.

NPS used to use 168.350 for tacs in nearly every park and some used 163.100 also. Now they are using one or more of the new nationwide commons. Some parks have unique tac frequency assignments.

The use of the NIFC tac and command frequencies are for fire suppression only. This is a change made in the last 5 - 10 years. When I worked for the FS we used to use Tac 2 for everything simplex, including recreation, range, etc. Now their use is assigned by dispatch. I don't think fire suppression is allowed to use Project Net.

In the Pacific Northwest Region forest's have more than one work channel assigned, sometimes one for each Ranger District, with some forests having two assigned for the forest at large. It seems as if Region 5 (most of California, formally called the "California Region) has a hard time getting frequencies so their project net is region wide and until recently they only had one air to ground.

 

[SCPD]

A couple of more important items.

3. Most initial attack (first alarm) dispatching is now done from regional interagency dispatch centers that dispatch both federal and state level wildfirefighters.

4. Basically what we are trying to do here is to explain forest fire ops and radio channels to city slickers

Not all federal interagency dispatch centers handle state forestry traffic. In Arizona there is one state level dispatch center in Phoenix that handles state forestry statewide. The BLM's Phoenix and Colorado River Districts dispatching is now co-located with that center. The Tonto National Forest's interagency dispatch center handles the Indian Reservations around Phoenix and Globe as well as the large San Carlos Reservation. Both the Tonto's and state dispatch center (along with BLM) have "Phoenix" as designators, something I don't think happens anywhere else. I think they should use the old (still present on a few forests) designator method in R5 where the dispatch center was the National Forest name, e.g. "Inyo" and "Angeles." The Tonto's designator could then be changed from "Phoenix" to "Tonto" and the confusion would end.

zerg, your eastern and urban understanding of wildland fire shows.

 

[SCPD]

National Incident Radio Support Cache Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference - NIRSC

National Interagency Fire Center Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference - NIFC

I think these pages can be merged. AFAIK there is just 1 office in Boise that is responsible for all of these radio channels. They ship out the radio kits to forest fires, major disasters, and probably the big security events.

===========================================

Federal wildfires - a listening guide

Initial dispatch and response will be on the Forest Net (USFS), Fire Net, Refuge Net (FWS), District Net (BLM or NPS), Park Net (NPS) or Agency Net (BIA). These nets are typically repeaterized and offer wide area coverage between field units and dispatchers.

The first arriving units will probably switch to a Tac Net or SOA Net (Scene of Action - BLM). This will usually be a simplex channel used by portables and mobiles. There is usually no direct contact with dispatchers available on these channels. (Tac Nets listed above are for USFS units typically). BLM has their own channels for SOA. BIA, FWS, and NPS sometimes use direct channels or separate Tac nets.

Also used are - Crew Nets for handcrews - Air to Ground - Air to Air FM - Air to Air FM ("Air Tactics"). (these are listed above)

If the fire grows in size and additional units are dispatched to the scene, then portable repeaters will be deployed. The portable repeaters will operate on the NIFC Command channels listed above.

If a fire camp is established, the Logistics channels will be used at the fire camp.

Sometimes UHF channels are used to link Command repeaters together. UHF channels are also used sometimes to link the fire camp to AM base stations to communicate with aircraft.

123.975 is commonly used at air tanker bases.

168.55 is used by smokejumpers.

(The NIFC Air to Air channels that are listed might be considered spare channels).

Sometimes AM channels are used for air to air communications. it depends on local needs.

===========================

What am I forgetting?

When fires get larger the use of NIFC frequencies is governed by the size of the fire. The incident management organization has "Types" based on the size, number resources assigned and complexity of a fire. There are five types and typically NIFC frequencies (except for use of one or two tac channels) are not used on Types III through V. V is the least complex incident. The command and logistical NIFC frequencies are most often used on Type II and Type I incidents. Fire camps on Type III and below are not usually large enough to require a camp frequency. On forests with a service net logistical and resource status communications will be moved over to it. Sometimes the service net is used for command purposes to free up the forest net for initial attack dispatch and for regular use by other functions, i.e. recreation, timber, etc.

Air to air, including FM and AM, are not used unless two or more aircraft are assigned to a fire. Sometimes a single airtanker will be used, sometimes with several sorties. In this case they communicate on local forest, command and service nets. Once a lead plane is assigned with a tanker then air to air frequencies are used. If this be the case this is usually when an air attack supervisor aircraft is employed. If a forest has a local helo, use of an airtanker as well triggers the use of air to air frequencies. The pre-assigned air to air frequencies are for initial attack. Once a fire moves past initial attack then NIFC and FAA assigned AM frequencies are used.

You need to realize that most fires are handled locally and stay in initial attack. Sometimes initial attack fires turn into multi-day situations, but still have a Type IV or V organization. The number and size of fires on the same local unit will often dictate what local frequencies are used.

The protocol for federal dispatching is to automatically assign a tac and command channel at the time of the dispatch. This is usually done by dispatch unless there is a need for the incident commander to change these assignments. There is a specific protocol for assigning these frequencies and when they change as well as changes in incident commanders. Now zerg, self admittedly a city boy, you need to travel west during an active fire season and listen a lot. You will then be able to understand all of this procedure and protocols very well. I have 108 fires on my career fire log as well as other non-fire incidents I've been assigned to. This stuff is hard wired in my head, but sometimes it is difficult to communicate all that experience to people who don't have such a background. It is neat that you are so interested.

 

[SCPD]

You do a lot of searching finding great documents. You can do additional searching to gain knowledge of fire suppression, fire management and fire ecology. All these topics have fascinated me since high school. While I'm not a city boy, at least since I left L.A. in 1973 for the final time, I fully admit that my pyrotechnic tendencies are stronger than most arsonists. I have channeled those tendencies into positive applications. For me having a drip torch in my hand is the most fun you can have when you are vertical. The difference in me, unlike most arsonists, is that the fun I have vertically and horizontally are mutually exclusive.