There are a couple of teams being hosted by the Boise NF that seem to be lacking leadership. Specifically West Mountain complex and Middle Fork complex.
1. TFRs that do not correlate with the values assigned to the individual teams.
These actions described, happened on the days leading up to 9/8 and a few days after. Sept 8th saw extreme conditions across the region with multiple columns influencing the weather and fire activity on the incidents mentioned.
Planning areas were larger than the TFRs. ICs unwilling to work together with these overlapping boundaries or bring in forest supervision / regional oversight, amounted to an unacceptable transfer of risk to ground and air resources.
Attempts to slow approaching front from the goat fire as it threatened the ground resources and values assigned to the bulldog fire , were halted by ICs and AAs.
This has resulted in aircraft and personnel being pulled off the line while in the middle of suppression activity’s, while fire moved closer.
Expectations that limited ground resources try and defend the values littered in Silver creek drainage without air or ground support until the fire was on-top of those values, was unrealistic and had the potential to put that divisions personnel in an high risk situation.
There were no actions being taken by the Goat fire personnel, on the southern end of the fire impacting the Bulldog. Between 9/5 and 9/11 the Goat fire grew over 20,000 acres.
Air attacks, AOBDs, Field Ops, all talked and deemed it was safe for bulldog aircraft to fly missions (in Goat Fire boundaries) impacting bulldog values and resources. ICs would be briefed on these conversations and denied these actions both aerial and ground.
The ground resources and field overhead engaged with a common operating picture.
Understanding that wildland fire is a rapidly evolving and dynamic environment, the lack of actions by either teams IC to resolve this matter was unacceptable. Fire in the local area saw unprecedented rates of spread. During these events, Incident Management Teams need to be resolute when it comes to incident personnel safety and delegated objectives. |
