gonna try to explain how radio comms are used on major wildfires in the USA
Wildfires in the USA are tackled by federal, state, local, and private agencies. They primarily use pumper trucks, hand crews, helicopters, and airtankers. The local government units are typically in service 365 days per year. The state and private units are typically staffed only in the summer - (except in the eastern USA the state forestry agencies often have 1 person yearround in each county). The federal wildfire agencies are typically staffed only in daytimes during the summer - except when a major fire is in progress. At the peak of wildfire season approx 20,000 firefighters are in use. Federal agencies have approx 2,000 wildfire pumpers, 200 helos, and 100 airtankers. There are approx 30,000 local ("structural") fire departments in the USA. (99.99% of them also have wildfire vehicles)
Response to wildfires is coordinated by private, local, state, and federal dispatch centers. 911 calls reporting wildfires are received by local 911 centers. The 911 centers will pass the report to state or federal dispatch centers if the fire is located on federal or "state" lands. Typically - just the local fire agencies have structural firefighting equipment. Federal, state, and private fire agencies usually have just wildland fire equipment. A prime exception to this is CalFire which operates 350 combines structural / wildfire pumpers.
Wildfire pumpers are required to have a minimum of 1 programmable mobile radio and 1 programmable handheld radio. Wildland Fire Engines (U.S. National Park Service)
Typically each fire agency has 1 primary radio channel and 1 onscene radio channel. Local units operate primarily on local channels. State units operate primarily on state channels. Federal units operate on federal radio channels. Private units operate on business radio channels. Repeater stations and trunked systems are used across the USA. In addition, there are approx 100 radio channels used for interagency comms. They are spread across multiple radio bands. The vast majority of wildfire radio channels are in the VHF highband.
The initial response to a emergency can range from just 1 person in a car to 20 pumpers, 6 helos, multi airtankers, multi handcrews, and several commanders. Type 5 and Type 4 incident are handled by the initial units. The incident duration can range up to approx 2 hours. Wildland Fire: Incident Command System Levels (U.S. National Park Service) The initial dispatch may use the normal day to day radio channels. Or it may use specifically assigned command, tac, a/g, and air/air channels.
A Type 3 incident might require over 12 to 24 hours to mitigate. IMT Tac Channels A Type 3 incident will receive a dedicated air to ground channel; a dedicated air to air channel, and a dedicated tac channel.
(Possibly it is typical for a Type 3 IMT (incident management team) to take over command of a TY3 fire on the morning following the first overnight burning period. At this point transportable repeaters are brought to the scene. All radios at the scene might be reprogrammed to use radio frequencies taken from a reserve pool. This does not always happen. Major fire departments like Los Angeles City, Los Angeles County, New York City, San Diego, etc do not reprogram their radios when at a fire)
The transportable / temporary repeaters are prepositioned throughout the area of responsibility. In addition, the federal government has a huge cache of radio gear at Boise Idaho. This radio gear is shipped to Type 2 and Type 1 fires via truck or air from Boise.
Typical radio channel usage at a Type 2 or Type 1 incident is -
command channel - repeaters installed on mountains - used to connect division chiefs to the incident commander
base camp channel - 1 UHF or VHF repeater used for comms at base camp
1 tactical / simplex / short range channel per division that serves up to approx 20 fire units (commonly use NIFC tac channels or state forestry tac channels or VTAC channels)
1 air to ground (a/g) channel - FM
1 'air to ground command' channel - FM - (only for TY1 fires perhaps)
1 or more AM air to air (a/a) channels - typically used by helicopters
1 air to air FM channel - FM in California
1 take off and landing channel - used for ATC at the helibase
1 deck channel - 163.10 usually - used to move helos around helibase or something
NIFC radio channels are listed here - National Interagency Fire Center Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference
Bottom line - wildfires can be handled on 1 radio channel or on multi radio channels - "all wildfires start as a 1 channel fire"
(concise informative replys are welcomed)
Wildfires in the USA are tackled by federal, state, local, and private agencies. They primarily use pumper trucks, hand crews, helicopters, and airtankers. The local government units are typically in service 365 days per year. The state and private units are typically staffed only in the summer - (except in the eastern USA the state forestry agencies often have 1 person yearround in each county). The federal wildfire agencies are typically staffed only in daytimes during the summer - except when a major fire is in progress. At the peak of wildfire season approx 20,000 firefighters are in use. Federal agencies have approx 2,000 wildfire pumpers, 200 helos, and 100 airtankers. There are approx 30,000 local ("structural") fire departments in the USA. (99.99% of them also have wildfire vehicles)
Response to wildfires is coordinated by private, local, state, and federal dispatch centers. 911 calls reporting wildfires are received by local 911 centers. The 911 centers will pass the report to state or federal dispatch centers if the fire is located on federal or "state" lands. Typically - just the local fire agencies have structural firefighting equipment. Federal, state, and private fire agencies usually have just wildland fire equipment. A prime exception to this is CalFire which operates 350 combines structural / wildfire pumpers.
Wildfire pumpers are required to have a minimum of 1 programmable mobile radio and 1 programmable handheld radio. Wildland Fire Engines (U.S. National Park Service)
Typically each fire agency has 1 primary radio channel and 1 onscene radio channel. Local units operate primarily on local channels. State units operate primarily on state channels. Federal units operate on federal radio channels. Private units operate on business radio channels. Repeater stations and trunked systems are used across the USA. In addition, there are approx 100 radio channels used for interagency comms. They are spread across multiple radio bands. The vast majority of wildfire radio channels are in the VHF highband.
The initial response to a emergency can range from just 1 person in a car to 20 pumpers, 6 helos, multi airtankers, multi handcrews, and several commanders. Type 5 and Type 4 incident are handled by the initial units. The incident duration can range up to approx 2 hours. Wildland Fire: Incident Command System Levels (U.S. National Park Service) The initial dispatch may use the normal day to day radio channels. Or it may use specifically assigned command, tac, a/g, and air/air channels.
A Type 3 incident might require over 12 to 24 hours to mitigate. IMT Tac Channels A Type 3 incident will receive a dedicated air to ground channel; a dedicated air to air channel, and a dedicated tac channel.
(Possibly it is typical for a Type 3 IMT (incident management team) to take over command of a TY3 fire on the morning following the first overnight burning period. At this point transportable repeaters are brought to the scene. All radios at the scene might be reprogrammed to use radio frequencies taken from a reserve pool. This does not always happen. Major fire departments like Los Angeles City, Los Angeles County, New York City, San Diego, etc do not reprogram their radios when at a fire)
The transportable / temporary repeaters are prepositioned throughout the area of responsibility. In addition, the federal government has a huge cache of radio gear at Boise Idaho. This radio gear is shipped to Type 2 and Type 1 fires via truck or air from Boise.
Typical radio channel usage at a Type 2 or Type 1 incident is -
command channel - repeaters installed on mountains - used to connect division chiefs to the incident commander
base camp channel - 1 UHF or VHF repeater used for comms at base camp
1 tactical / simplex / short range channel per division that serves up to approx 20 fire units (commonly use NIFC tac channels or state forestry tac channels or VTAC channels)
1 air to ground (a/g) channel - FM
1 'air to ground command' channel - FM - (only for TY1 fires perhaps)
1 or more AM air to air (a/a) channels - typically used by helicopters
1 air to air FM channel - FM in California
1 take off and landing channel - used for ATC at the helibase
1 deck channel - 163.10 usually - used to move helos around helibase or something
NIFC radio channels are listed here - National Interagency Fire Center Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference
Bottom line - wildfires can be handled on 1 radio channel or on multi radio channels - "all wildfires start as a 1 channel fire"
(concise informative replys are welcomed)
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