On May 14th, 2020 the Alaska Division of Forestry (DOF), Fairbanks/Delta area forester hosted a meeting with the chief and assistant chief of the Rural-Deltana VFD. Also, in attendance were the Delta Area FMO and the Northern Regional Forester. Early in the meeting everyone established the desire to have a smoother working relationship. Having established this baseline commitment to work together, we discussed what occurred on May 8th during the birch valley fire. The VFD feels that they should have been notified earlier in the process of the fire. The responding DOF unit contends that the VFD was notified but no other resources were needed because the fire activity was minimal.
Corrective actions:
In the Cooperative Fire Protection Agreement, Annual Operating Plan there is a section on Fire Response and Notification Procedures in the FD Service Area. The DOF commits to following the notification procedures in the AOP.
The VFD and the DOF will engage in training activities such as sand table exercises in the future to talk through some of these issues at the beginning of fire season.
The DOF and the VFD will work to establish a more streamlined communication system so that the VFD is notified as early in the process as possible.
Both the VFD and DOF have made a commitment to a professional workplace and interactions while working together. |
