Fuel mitigation is crucial for combating the nation’s growing wildfire problem, but culture, politics, and geography can be significant barriers keeping communities from doing the work.
That’s one of the key findings in “Local Wildand/Urban Interface: Fire Department Wildfire Preparedness and Readiness Capabilities,” the new report of an ambitious NFPA project aimed at capturing, for the first time, how municipal fire departments nationwide are adjusting to their increased role in battling wildfire.
Over the course of several months, NFPA researchers interviewed 46 high-ranking fire officials from urban and rural departments on a variety of topics related to wildfire operations. The report relies heavily on the observations of participants, and interviewees were granted anonymity to encourage candor. The first phase of the project, published in November, includes 100-plus pages of insights from 25 interviewees on a range of wildfire preparedness topics, including wildland firefighter training, communication practices, interdepartmental cooperation, mitigation efforts, and more. The second part of the report will be published next summer.
“We attempted to present a clear picture of what departments are currently doing in regards to wildfire, and what the reasons were for the approaches they took,” said Hylton Haynes, the report’s lead author. “A lot of it is anecdotal, but it is important information that provides insight from the fire service that we can use to further understand the problems, shortcomings, and gaps, and how we should address them. This is unique research that hasn’t been done before.”