In the Mediterranean, wildfires are more frequent in the summer. High temperatures, heat waves and warm winds cause vegetation to dry out and burn easily, putting, in some cases, people and their properties in danger.
That is why it is necessary that the burn teams are prepared in case of a wildfire emergency. But how are they organized? Which actors are involved? We explain it below.
Incident command system
When an emergency arises, it is necessary to activate an incident command system, it means, a set of people, procedures and equipment that are organized in a common structure in order to respond to a wildfire.
This structure is organized flexibly, so that it can grow or shrink depending on the needs and complexity of the fire.
How is it activated and which actors are involved?
First, when a wildfire warning is received, the nearest available resources are quickly moved to the warning location to control the fire with an initial attack. Before activating initial attack manoeuvres, it’s necessary to do:
1. A recognition of the fire and the territory to determine the dimension of the fire, what the terrain and weather are like, and what is the current behavior and movement of the fire to be able to make future projections.
2. A recognition of threatened assets, assessing whether there are people and infrastructures in danger.
3. A recognition of the safety conditions, analyzing which are the possible safe areas and fire escape routes to protect the burn team.
Once this analysis of the situation is done, an action plan is developed with the aim of stopping the fire, and different types of possible attacks are defined and how to apply them.
However, we know that wildfire emergencies can change quickly, increasing their size and complexity, so below we explain how the line of command can change depending on the evolution of the fire.
Variation of the line of command according to the evolution of the wildfire
If the wildfire can be controlled at the beginning…
When a wildfire can be controlled with only a first attack, deployment of the command system is simple.
The structure to deal with the fire will be constituted by an incident commander who, apart from being the person with the highest responsibility, will assume the operational orders, which means that will direct all technical operations carried out by specialized teams. On the other hand, he or she will assume the functions of planning and evaluating information to foresee the evolution of the following stages and to ensure that the action plan is adapted to what may happen.
The person who has been designated as incident commander will be located at the incident command point.
If the wildfire cannot be controlled…
When the wildfire could not be controlled during the first attack, a prolongued attack will be necessary.
To do this, the incident commander will have to ask to mobilize resources from other areas as reinforcement, which will have to go to the resources reception center where they will register them while waiting for operations to be assigned to them.
The incorporation of reinforcements obliges to expand the line of command and delegate the functions of operations, planning and logistics to their managers, thus creating the corresponding sections. This last section is made up of medical, supply and rest units for operatives.
In this situation, it is necessary to prepare an action plan, but this time is necessary that it considers the forecast of possible future scenarios.
At the same time, when the fire grows and infrastructures, roads and people are at risk, it is necessary to activate incident support, such as civil protection, the Red Cross and the police to manage the emergency arising from the fire. These will ensure public safety, evacuation of the population, if necessary, management of road closures, etc. They will always be coordinated with the burn team in what is known as a unified command.
If the wildfire becomes an extreme wildfire…
These kinds of fires are particularly dangerous as they can affect thousands of hectares and put property and people at risk. In addition, the extinction mechanisms designed in a prolongued attack are not sufficient to control them, and to do it it is necessary to apply a specific attack.
In this case, it will be necessary to mobilize a large amount of resources, many of which will have to travel from distant locations and which will go to the various resources reception centers which will be distributed throughout the affected territory.
Thus, to attack an extreme wildfire a much broader organizational structure is required with numerous units activated for the operations, planning and logistics sections, and forming a unified command together with the incident support teams such as civil protection, security and red cross.
Finally, the incident commander and the section leaders must determine an action plan as complete as possible, taking into account the objectives, strategies and missions of all the resources linked to the fire.
