Learn from Friends, Neighbors

Chuck Bushey

This fire season, we again witnessed in Northern California and elsewhere in the United States an event that has become almost commonplace, both from necessity and a desire to learn and share wildland fire experience and knowledge. I am speaking of the implementation of international wildland fire cooperation agreements that facilitate the exchange of firefighting personnel, equipment and training. Mexico, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States have these agreements in place.

In July, federal and state fire organizations requested additional firefighting resources for California from these partnerships and from others that are developing. The National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, requested mid-level fireline managers from Australia and New Zealand, which were immediately sent over. Canada already was contributing air tankers and lead planes and Type-1 hand crews to relieve exhausted firefighters on the California firelines. Five firefighters from Greece received training and assisted the Little Tujunga Hot Shots for three weeks as part of a special two-year program to develop hand crews for Greece, which has had devastating wildland fires in recent years. During the last half of August and first part of September, a small group of firefighters from South Africa were guests of the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. Initially they shadowed an ICS team assigned to a fire on the Flathead Reservation; later they visited other ongoing wildland fires in Montana where they learned about ICS, fireline operations and interagency cooperation.

The International Association of Wildland Fire welcomes these international exchanges and the increased global cooperation in wildland-fire management. These efforts provide valuable cross-training for fire managers and aid communication among differing countries that experience similar fire problems. A country may need significant resource aid during a prolonged fire emergency, as seen in California or last season in Greece. No one country, state or community can afford to maintain and have at its immediate disposal the necessary resources to protect lives and natural resources during a major fire emergency. Collaboration is valuable for getting the job accomplished.

It can take years to establish these cooperative fire exchange and assistance programs before they actually work — they don't just happen overnight. These agreements aren't just between agencies but are between governments, and the various bureaucracies handle the intricacies of travel, salaries, liability and the like. In the United States, for example, these exchanges often are facilitated through the state department and coordinated through embassies. But the importance of these programs comes with the personal relationships developed between firefighters over years that allow one country's wildland fire organization to know and trust the wildland fire programs of another.

As always, wildland fire safety is paramount. While at the Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council/Bushfire CRC conference in Adelaide, Australia, I attended an early morning meeting that discussed the continuing improvement of these personal relationships between the United States and the participating AFAC partners. Over the next year, a representative from NIFC will be in Australia and one from AFAC in the United States to continue to improve the reciprocal program.

Building trust and relationships right up the fire chain of responsibility is an ongoing process.

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