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SAFENET

Wildland Fire Safety & Health Reporting Network

SAFENET Event Information

Create Agency Response

SAFENET ID:

20191201-0001        [Corrective Actions]

Event Start Date:

11/28/2019 0300

Event Stop Date:

 

Incident Name:

Dry Hollow Fire

Fire Number:

P9MY1T 0921 

State:

West Virginia

Jurisdiction:

USFS

Local Unit:

Monongahela National Forest

Incident Type:

Wildland

Incident Activity:

Line, Support, Transport to/from

Stage of Incident:

Extended Attack

Position Title:

Type 3 Incident Commander 

Task:

Overall Incident Management 

Management Level:

3

Resources Involved:

All fire personnel and support personnel 

Contributing Factors

Contributing Factors:

Communications, Equipment, Other

Human Factors:

Decision Making  

Other Factors:

Ownership of building and equipment 

Narrative

Describe in detail what happened including the concern or potential issue, the environment (weather, terrain, fire behavior, etc), and the resulting health issue.

At 1600 Nov 29, 2019 a server in a USDA facility failed. This specific server is the main link to all internet and connectivity for the Supervisors Office. The particular server is also the main link for the communication system for the north zone communication repeater. Dispatch had no means of talking to any fire personnel on the Dry Hollow Fire. The Monongahela NF SO is a building operated by USDA since this location is the COOP location for when Washington DC is evacuated due to unforeseen reasons. In May of 2018, a COOP exercise occurred in which the communication link for the repeaters were unplugged until the COOP exercise was completed. It was at this time we as a fire program knew there was a problem. At this time we were still monitoring active prescribed fires since they were not called out, we were able to work around not having proper radio coverage through cell service and local front desk personnel. Due to budget reasons the issue could not be addressed in FY18. A ticket was initiated with CIO to move the communication server link to another Forest Service owned site in which the USDA is not located. This ticket was submitted Oct 28, 2018. Contact was made during December to discuss cost and what was needed. Late Dec the government furlough occurred which backed up the CIO system. June deadline passed to purchase equipment and had to wait until FY20 for work to be started. Work has started in Oct and Nov. However the work is not complete. When this link is not working there is no communication through an IP address which means dispatch cannot talk to field units. While on a active wildfire, firefighters are at risk and to minimize that risk we try to mitigate the dangerous situations. No communication with dispatch is a serious concern. Fortunately we were able to have a RADO with phone service provide the critical link with dispatch. My concern is the delay in a response if a medical would occur. The main reason this Safe Net is being filed.

Immediate Action Taken

Reporting Individual : please describe actions you took to correct or mitigate the unsafe/unhealthful event.

The Dry Hollow Fire has a Type 3 Incident Command Team. Included in the team is a Communications Unit which is the Forest Service's, Monongahela NF local radio technician. This individual manages the Forest Radio system and is very familiar with it's operation. The radio tech immediately started to trouble shoot the problem of the system. While trouble shooting was occurring, the ICP set up a RADO, started tracking and taking all radio communications to mitigate the no communication link with dispatch. Good cell service communication did exist with dispatch. In the diagnostic of the link problem, it was determined the issue was in the SO and with the USDA server on Nov 30, 2019. USDA was aware of a failure at 1600 the day before. The radio technician called the USDA technician and USDA did not find the need to fix the problem until the following work week due to this being Thanksgiving Holiday weekend. Putting fire fighters at risk. Discussion went into the need to fix the server and to do a reboot by USDA and finally the right folks were able to make the fix happen. It is imperative the communication link of the repeaters for the forest be relocated to a site which eliminates the jurisdictions/access issues that have occurred with USDA.

Agency Response

20191201-0001-CA001

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