Trailblazers

Containing fast-spreading wildfires requires a coordinated plan of action and a responsive supply chain.

For much of October, Northern California suffered from a series of forest fires that scorched hundreds of thousands of acres of wilderness across the region. After spreading at an alarming pace for over three weeks, it became the deadliest wildfire in the state’s history.

Despite the state’s efforts to contain the flames, the Northern California wildfires presented considerable logistical challenges. The sheer size of the fires exacerbated the usual difficulties that fire departments encounter when battling forest fires, and it greatly complicated efforts to rescue local residents and provide aid to survivors.

In this article, we’ll walk you through some of the specific challenges faced by firefighters as they beat back this large-scale blaze.

Effective Communication

When a wildfire breaks out in California, fire departments across the state are called into action. However, the responding departments may never have worked together before, which makes it necessary to quickly establish an effective system of communication to better coordinate their efforts. They also need to coordinate the language of communication itself, as the terminology used to describe developing emergency situations can vary across fire departments. In most cases, firefighters will establish a set of common terms to describe their activities and deliver orders before recalibrating their radio systems to a common frequency.

By Land and Air

A wildfire can’t be contained without some manpower on the ground and in the air: the Northern California wildfire alone required 880 fire engines, 134 bulldozers, 224 hand crews, 138 water tenders, and 14 helicopters dropping water on the flames. Air tankers drop a fire retardant known as slurry, a mixture of water and fertilizer that protects trees and vegetation from flames and aids in regrowth. Although aerial firefighting is effective, it’s also highly expensive. It can cost over $350,000 to use a single helicopter for one week and in 2006, it cost $26,500 per hour for a tanker dropping retardant.

In addition to these expensive aerial measures, a special group of firefighters does crucial work to battle large-scale blazes on the ground. Much like the military’s Special Forces, hotshot crews are groups of firefighters associated with the US Forest Service who are trained to battle blazes in treacherous conditions. Hotshot crews are trained to use only the tools they can carry on their backs — like chainsaws to clear brush or shovels to put out small fires — since they are often air-dropped into rough terrain with little to no logistical support. Hotshot crew members are a crucial part of the disaster response supply chain, and no amount of specialized firefighting equipment can replicate their essential on-the-ground work.