In one of my Facebook groups they have been posting updates to the fire and a team has already been assigned to the fire.
"This fire is being managed under a unified command, which includes California Interagency Incident Management Team 2, a type-1 team, has arrived to help manage the fire."
Is that good or bad? It's been too smoggy down here in the southern Inland Empire although I do live on a hill it doesn't let me see for miles and miles like that. I'm not hearing as much as I was. I think the fire has burnt more to the east and San Jac is now in the way. I can still hear some of the tankers and the guy up there that seems to be in charge of all the planes. It's ironic because we were going to hike the San Jac this weekend but look to head at the weather and said he'll know! The temperatures did not look healthy.
I'm nestled nicely between the Cleveland and the San Bernardino and the San Jac down here. I can even hear Monte Vista down in San Diego. The fires that we have here where I live are usually Hot & fast. The yellow grass is just go up so fast and usually by the next day it's pretty much down to little activity. It's up near Idyllwild when the fire gets going that it kind of sinks its teeth in. Or over on the other side of Lake Elsinore up near the Ortega Highway.
This is a lot to learn real quick. I'm learning that there's the county fire department, Cal Fire, and then there's the forest service. And it seems like they all crossover and not just as Mutual Aid which I'm more than familiar with mutual Aid policies. It's like their service area is weave in and out of each other's. It seems like they all go there and figure out whose area it is and then they set up I guess it's called a comm plan so I have to keep straight Cal Fire from Forest Service. But it seems like Cal Fire stays on their own frequencies and Forest Service stays on their own and like the Chiefs in the middle relay back and forth. It seems about stupid.
They do the same thing up in the San Bernardino Mountains that I've only had a couple of chances to go hiking in. That's what got me started posting here was the Forest Falls area. They'd have a rescue and they would have multiple agencies there assisting. I used to LAPD. We almost never called CHP or County Sheriff for help.
So... I looked at the list you linked to me and then I looked at the list of Cal Fire and all the Tactical channels they have and it's like I'm blown away.
Having a national incident management team take over is what clears up a lot of the differences in interagency response. A communications plan is developed, portable command repeaters put in place, extended attack tacticals and air to ground frequencies assigned. Everyone gets their handhelds cloned to the same channel plan. That is why an incident commander (IC) is in place from the first unit arriving on scene. As the incident grows, there are measurable factors that are evaluated to have an incident grow from a Type 5, to a 4, then up through Types 3, 2 and 1. At every level people have to be qualified in their position to take jobs at that level. Some incidents start and within hours a Type 1 team is ordered start traveling and assemble on scene. My Daddy was watching the first YouTube video of this fire and said, order up the Type 1 people! Unified command sounds like decision by committee, the potential exists for the to happen. However, my Daddy and my late Hubby (volunteer firefighter) said every time they have seen a unified command, it works quite well and responds to the changing events quickly.
I would suggest you do a little research by starting at the "National Interagency Fire Center" website, Then click on the map the site has on the first page and go the GACC (Geographical Area Coordination Center) websites, especially "South Ops." There are 10 GACC's in the nation and California has two of them, the only state to have more than one GACC. That reflects the workload. Considering all wildland firefighting agencies in the state, California has a little more than 50% of the national workload (all 50 states) in wildland fire management. This is primarily climate and topography driven, The climate produces the type of vegetation native to the state. The worst is when the weather produces the "Devil Winds," as Santa Ana winds are sometimes called. At this time of year this event is not common. The Apple Fire seem to have strong southwest and west winds. It is also terrain driven, fires at the bottom of slopes pre-heat the fuels above and ignition and spread can be rapid. At the beginning of an incident the situation is very dynamic and information flow doesn't always keep up. That is when everybody may not be on the same page (frequency wise) and communicate on freqs that they use in daily work. Where I lived on the western slope of the Sierra, when a fire is first dispatched the command, tactical and aviation frequencies to be used are announced. If the fire was mostly on Cal Fire protection (SRA - State Responsibility Areas) then Cal Fire freqs were used. If not caught on SRA and moving up the slope onto federal protection (FRA) then everyone agrees to go to initial attack freqs assigned to the feds. The Apple Fire is burning on FRA, SRA and LRA (Local Responsibility Area). It should be noted that the Riverside County Fire Department is really Cal Fire. The county decided to contract Cal Fire to provide this department. That combines the LRA and SRA in the unincorporated portions of the county. However, some local incorporated cities have decided to contract the operation of their city fire department to the county, which is a Cal Fire operation. So you will see Cal Fire patches on the uniforms of people responding on a ladder truck in Indio. Cal Fire employees also qualify for and respond with ambulances as paramedics also.
The Apple Fire is burning on a patchwork of all three levels of protection. This is the very reason the Congress passed a law to establish FIRESCOPE in 1972. They directed the U.S. Forest Service to lead a collaborative effort to come up with one management system for everyone. Thus, with a lot of work, that included the USFS, Cal Fire; the counties of Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Fire Department, the Incident Command System was created. You would do well to do a search on ICS, there is a huge amount of information available. You should also do as search on "The Governor's Office of Emergency Services," OES. They provide a lot of information on mutual aid responses. In your research you should do a search on "NWCG Fire Terminology." This is the "National Wildfire Coordination Group." This group consists of federal agencies and the, I think, "The Association of State Foresters" or similar. They have issued a lot of national direction that standardizes many programs. YouTube videos are available with more information than one would think. Agency web pages help also.
Have at it I grew up as a "Forest Service brat." My Daddy worked for the U.S. Forest Service for 36+ plus years, as a seasonal when he came out of college and then a permanent from 1951 to 1987. I grew up on this stuff. Then my late Hubby was a volunteer firefighter for about 35 years and taught me a great deal more. They both have excellent computer bookmarks, notebooks and notes they took when at training sessions and interviewing/rag chewing with a whole range of public safety and land management people.
If you really want to understand what you are hearing you will love to do the research.
