Oregon Represenetative Greg Walden highlights the need for Private fire industry as the federal agencies face cutbacks

As 2013 fire season approaches, and predictions are for a very active year, thefederal agencies are facing budget cuts and reduction in the number of firefighters.

But as Secretary Vilsack and Jewell stated earlier this week at the National Interagency Fire Center, they do have options in the event the need arises, and they must work closely with state, local and private entities to work together to protect life, property and resources.  One of the avenues they have for that is to utilize the contract private fire industry. 

One state that has historically seen some of the worst fires in history is Oregon, and
Representative Greg Walden recently stated in a letter he is presenting to the head of BLM and USFS in Oregon,

"With the current national focus regarding the federal b dget deficit, there is an important need to reduce federal spending, and private wild land firefighting businesses are providing impmtant best-value resources for wildfire suppression activities.  As I understand, private businesses are able to engage in suppression activities at a lower percentage of the cost as compared to other government resources when the total cost of those government resources are taken into account.  In addition, private businesses have increased their coverage areas, cut response times, and arrive as self-contained .emergency responders.  As we work to be as efficient as possible with taxpayer dollars, I hope that you are taking greater advantage of these private businesses' services both for initial and extended attack operations."

 

You can see his complete letter here.

The private fire industry across the United States has fielded up to 10,000 highly qualified, trained firefighters and over 1800 pieces of firefighting equipment including waterhandling, heavy equipment and other specialty types of resources.

You can see NWSA most recent Press Release here.

Visit NWSA website at http://www.nwsa.us or email us at info@nwsa.us

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National Wildfire Suppression Association Member have fire resources on the front line as fire season begins early in the West

National Wildfire Suppression members are on the front lines of wildfires as fire season makes an early arrival in the West.
Braving the smoke, heat and danger of wildland fires or the aftermath of disasters and emergency incidents is an “army” of federal/state and local agency responders battling to contain the crisis. When the magnitude of the event exceeds agency resources, these agencies can call in reinforcements from professional wildland fire contractors. These resources are call when needed and they provide a highly trained, cost effective workforce. The private industry can provide rapid response with over 195 20-person hand 710 pieces of water handling equipment, 73 faller modules and 921 pieces of specialized equipment

See the entire release here.



Visit NWSA website at http://www.nwsa.us or email us at info@nwsa.us

NWSA Member Ready to go as drought conditions persist

Drought Conditions Persist

As fire season begins across the US and the Forest Service faces budget cuts, the professional private fire services prepares to assist on a call when needed basis as a cost effective alternative.

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National Wildfire Suppression Association

"Our goal is to provide a professional cost effective resource on an as needed basis", Deborah Miley, NWSA Executive Director

Lyons, Oregon (PRWEB) March 29, 2013

With persistent drought conditions and agency budget cuts, NWSA member companies are preparing to assist with a threatening wildfire season.
The National Wildfire Suppression Association and its' member companies are busy training personnel in wildland fire, and ensuring that they are ready to meet all the requirements of their agreements and contracts with the agency for the upcoming fire seasons. During peak fire season the private fire services can provide over 12000 fully trained fire fighters and hundreds of pieces of firefighter equipment.
These agreements/contracts allow the agencies to utilize contracted resources on an as needed basis during the upcoming fire season. That allows the agencies to supplement their resources with professionally trained, fully equipped resources that can be ready with short notice. Some of the ground resources that we provide are hand crews, waterhandling equipment, heavy equipment, timber fallers, and other specialized resources.
Over the past 10 years private fire services has provided up to as much as 40% of the fire resources nationally and even higher in some of the fire prone areas of the United States.

Visit NWSA website at http://www.nwsa.us or email us at info@nwsa.us

Wildland Firefighters and Power Line Safety

The Wildland Fire Lessons Learned has explored the issue of  Power Lines and Firefighter Safety, as there have been many occasions when firefighters have come in close contact with downed power lines. 

They have created a video that can be utilized by trainers to discuss the issue of power line safety and firefighters.  See the information below.

Visit the Wildland Lessons Learned Center for some great information.

This 18-minute training video is available at or type "Electric Fire: Firefighter Safety Around Powerlines" into your computer search engine. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management employees can access the video on the internal Forest Service network at .

Visit NWSA website at http://www.nwsa.us or email us at info@nwsa.us

Sandy Created a Black Hole of Communication

Sandy Created a Black Hole of Communication

This article by Jim McKay talks about the role of Twitter, and social media now and in future and how it will be utilized by Emergency Manage to help people, dispel rumors during major events.

Visit NWSA website at http://www.nwsa.us or email us at info@nwsa.us