The pace of wildfire fighting

[Sleuth]

I'm new to the fire service, but I did spend some time on the Rodeo fire, and I have a question. The pace seemed really slow, in that we would leave the briefing, wait, go to a staging area, wait, move to the fire area, wait, get an assignment, complete it, wait, get another assignment, etc. This has caused a lot of controversy around here, particularly with the folks who lost their homes. Is this the normal pace for a wildland fire?
My career in Law Enforcment was make a plan, move to the scene, and exicute it. Our leaders made quick decisions, and things moved along. The calls I have been on with the FD work about the same way. I was not impressed that the assigned leaders were decisive, but I am not critical until I learn more. How about some imput from you more experienced guys. Thanks.

[Celt]

No, not all fires are this way. Consider the Rodeo Fire, very dynamic, lots of structures involved, and the fire was probably changing faster than crew assignments could be made, risk assessed, and tasks completed. We do use lots of staging when structures are threatened, because the fire is dynamic and changing we have to assure ourselves of a safe assignment before commiting folks. Rodeo was and still is very political and all the issues the team dealt with will not be visible to you. I know one of the Ops. Chiefs and value him as an effective leader. The other point is, these large complex fires cannot be dealt with easily because they change so rapidly, it's difficult to gather the necessary information to make assignments very quickly. There is also a standard of hurry up and wait, just as a measure of dealing with hundreds of people, equipment, routes in and out, where's the fire, what's it doing, can I trust the next five levels of leadership, can I make this decision with the information I have right now, where did everybody go?

[cbplante3]

Sleuth, you can't look at a wildland fire the same way you look at a structure fire. The Rodeo is an exceptional example of the reasons why.
What is the largest structural call your dept has respinded to? Maybe a block of buildings, five, seven alarms? Certainly a highly involved, intricate operation. At the time, the officers in charge spent considerable time ensuring the safety of the men, and the efficiency of the plan, right? It probably became even more difficult doing this since there were as many as a couple of hundred firefighters, some of them fighting the fire as much as a quarter mile away, and understanding what was happening in the division they were in was difficult.
Now consider the Rodeo...if I remember correctly, it was over 500,000 acres. That's nearly 900 square miles of fireground. You were often 40 to 80 miles away from the division your men were expected to fight fire in. Oh, and you are in charge of 2 to 3 thousand firefighters, not to mention the hundreds of logistical support involved. Beginning to sound challenging?
The difficulties involved in supervising these kinds of resources over these distances in a safe manner mandate that you take your time, and be absolutely sure you are not putting your people in harm's way any further than necessary.
Just as an example, I just returned from the Apple fire in Or. A 10,000 ac. fire, it took me over an hour and a half to get from camp to my division. These kinds of scale require a careful, methodical approach to firefighting.
Better than burning someone's butt up, don't you think?
Stay safe, and I'll look forward to seeing you on one of my divisions soon.

[smketer]

Sleuth,
Dont forget the weather and yes what Celt said, its very very political.
On the shift reports you saw that teams of shots were going to burn, well in some of the cases they started the burn and then the wind kicked up and it got away on a spot so they had to slow down and then catch it and start again.

Also its called you were on a Forest Service run fire?
The plans for the day could all be layed out then by the time you leave the breafing area, plans could and will change.

If you thought that was bad wait until your on a CDF/USFS run fire. its GREAT!!

Stay Safe,