By Christina Lakish
Hello Baca-Crestone Neighbors. In response to recent community questions, we, the first responders serving our community, would like to briefly share information about the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) National Incident Management System (NIMS). This system was developed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to improve incident management interoperability and it provides a national standardized approach for managing single resource and multijurisdictional incidents, which are also referred to as “mutual aid” response.
Emergency response incidents, such as structure and wildland fires, are managed per operational systems defined by NIMS, such as the Incident Command System (ICS) and the Multiagency Coordination System (MCS). These systems are designed to expand and contract per the scale and changing demands of each incident. The operational structures range from single resource and initial action incidents to expanding and large-scale incidents.
The ICS system is designed to adapt with each incident and the resources responding to the respective incident. For example, on any given incident, if there’s an expansion of responding resources and situational needs, the current Incident Commander may choose to proactively release command to an arriving firefighter with more experience, or they may choose to establish unified command, for which both firefighters will work together to manage the incident smoothly and cooperatively. The primary goal is to effectively utilize the resources available for the best possible outcome. Locally, this means on any given incident, depending on the scenario and responding agencies, a member of The Baca Grande Fire Department may serve as Incident Commander, or it may be a member of the Crestone Fire Department, or a member of another responding agency.
The fire departments in the San Luis Valley, especially in the Saguache County area, work together with long-standing mutual aid agreements. In short, these agreements establish a mutual support system for emergency response. When needed, The Baca Grande calls on these departments to help support large-scale incidents or to help prevent potential large-scale incidents from occurring, and these agencies request the same support from The Baca Grande emergency services.
The fire departments in Saguache County are small relative to the geographic area covered and the levels of risk within our area. So we cooperate and work together to increase the impact of emergency response efforts. This rapid mutual aid response has helped prevent numerous incidents within our region from spreading into large-scale events. The Baca Grande’s operating protocol is to proactively request mutual aid response for any live fire or other large incident. All of the participating fire departments agree that it is best to collectively support emergency calls with prompt strong resource response.
The nature of our region makes these mutual aid agreements vital to emergency response. For example, one of the most important resources in suppressing a structure fire is water volume. The materials and contents of structure fires typically burn at higher temperatures than wildland fuels and can be much more volatile. Therefore the volume of water required to fully extinguish fires in buildings also tends to be more demanding than a wildland fire of the same relative proportion. The more water pumping apparatus and personnel available directing that water, the better. It is essential to keep a steady supply of water, which in remote areas requires a steady supply of apparatus with contained water, such as “tenders,” to keep hoses actively pumping. To be effective, this demands multiple tenders rotating onsite from the nearest water source with constant water supply throughout the incident until the fire is completely extinguished.
On wildland incidents, due to the dynamic and often unpredictable nature of wildfire, the number of personnel becomes crucial for standard safe firefighting tactics. During these incidents, the demand for water may be relatively less than a structure fire; however, the demand for personnel with groundwork hand tools and other means of controlling land-based fire become a more significant priority.
We, and our responding partners, call on each other for support with equipment and personnel specific to each respective incident. Management of the responding teams, the numerous resources, and the timely effective deployment of those resources, would be complex without a standardized operating system. ICS provides the required framework to successfully operate as a team during emergency events and it is the system we followed during several recent fires within the Baca Grande and Crestone that were suppressed with mutual aid. During the wildland fire last August, the Baca Grande Fire Department was first to respond, assumed Incident Command and maintained Command throughout the incident as other agencies arrived to provide vital support, such as the Crestone Fire Department and the Baca Grande Ambulance Service.
During the recent structure fire, the Baca Grande Fire Department was first on scene, assumed initial Incident Command, and proactively and appropriately deferred Command based on the live situation and responding resources to successfully suppress the fire and prevent its spread to land and other structures. We are deeply grateful for the mutual aid resources that were deployed to help us support and serve our neighbors.
The Baca Grande emergency services team (fire and ambulance), and our responding partners such as the Crestone Fire Department, maintain a 24/7/365 schedule of designated personnel on-call for emergency response. We are members of the community, we are your neighbors, and we are here to help serve and protect you to the best of our combined abilities at all times. We hope this helps provide a basic understanding of how mutual aid response is managed and, as always, we’re happy to provide further information or any answer any additional questions. Please feel free to reach out to us at info@bacapoa.org or through our website “contact” buttons at bacagrande.org.
Thank you for your continued support. We are grateful for you, we wouldn’t be able to serve our neighbors without you, and we are dedicated to gratefully supporting our unique way of life in the Baca-Crestone neighborhood. Safe wishes to all.