During late May and into June, most of the fires occurred in rural areas where the jurisdiction was shared between county fire departments and the Florida Division of Forestry. Following established procedures, the local fire departments would make the initial attack on fires they could reach, then turn the fires over to DOF units when they arrived. In the great majority of cases the local fire fighters were seldom involved with a fire beyond the first day.
During these early stages, strategic decisions related to individual fires were generally made at the local level, often through informal relationships between local fire officials and DOF Division Managers who had worked together for several years. The DOF geographic divisions usually encompass multiple counties and local jurisdictions, so each manager had these relationships with several different fire departments.
As more and more fires were ignited, the Division Managers had to coordinate operations on several fires and maintain multiple liaisons with several local fire departments at thesame time. The area commanders were very mobile, attempting to monitor conditions, allocate resources and direct operations on several fires at the same time. As the DOF resources were stretched, the local fire departments had to take on an increasing role in attacking fires and supplementing the wildland forces, often dealing with multiple fires on successive days.
After a state of emergency was declared by the Governor, in early June, National Guard resources became available to support the DOF operations, however, the number of fires was still increasing. When the Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee was activated to manage the overall situation, allocating resources based on the risk factors for each fire, it was initially operated by a unified team involving Florida DOF and US Fire Service personnel, as well as the Georgia Forestry Commission. The coordination and allocation of wildland resources was moved up to this level, while the FDF regional manager continued to direct operations on the individual fires in their assigned areas and coordinate activities with the local fire departments.
As the threat increased, several counties also activated their own emergency operation centers and implemented more structured incident management organizations for their own forces. In several counties, the county fire departments established formal unified commands with the local DOF managers - this varied significantly from county to county, depending on the local organizations and resources.
As the situation continued to grow, overhead teams with experienced command and staff personnel were dispatched to Florida. The first overhead teams came from the southeastern states. These teams were initially assigned to assist with overall coordination and resource allocation at the State EOC and to some of the major fires.
The overall organization changed radically in late June and early July, after the Presidential Disaster Declaration was signed. The Area Command was established in Tallahassee and additional Type 1 and Type 2 overhead teams from the nationwide system were deployed. Tremendous operations and support resources began to move into Florida from across the country.
The overhead teams established more sophisticated incident command structures, setting up the eight “complex” organizations to manage operations within designed regions. The incident management team (MT) assigned to each of these complexes assumed responsibility for all of the fires that were burning within a large geographic area. The previously assigned DOF commanders and staff personnel were absorbed into a unified command structure in each area and a large scale base of operations with hundreds of personnel was established in each region.
The new command structure brought the state and federal wildland fire fighting forces together, with shared command responsibilities over wildland operations, however, most of the local fire departments were not included in this structure. While each Incident Management Team was responsible for all of the wildland fires that were burning within a large geographic area, the local fire departments were still responsible for initial attack on new fires.
The structural fire departments were also directly concerned with defending their own geographic areas. The county and local fire departments worked within their county mutual aid systems and the Florida Fire Chiefs’ Mutual Aid network to obtain resources to fulfill this mission. They also worked closely with the local emergency managers to ensure that their areas were prepared for any potential encroachment of the fires into populated areas. The local agencies could request resources and logistical support from the regional wildland commands, as well as from the State EOC.
The area assigned to each “complex” command component encompassed all or parts of multiple counties. As a result, several different fire departments were involved in liaison relationships with none more than one command. Response areas were usually split consistent with geographic features, such as a river or highway, that did not necessarily coincide with county or fire department jurisdictional lines. Some of the fires burned across county and municipal boundary lines into different local jurisdictions.
This created a confusing situation, as some of the local fire departments were responsible for structural fire protection in areas that were split between two different wildland commands, with their command posts located 50 miles apart in different counties. The incident command teams that were assigned to the complexes were usual from distant states and federal agencies and were unfamiliar with the local individuals and fire service organizations.
With numerous fires and few command officers, it was very difficult for the county and municipal fire departments to assign full time liaisons to the wildland command posts, while continuing to manage their own operations and resources. In addition, the local fire departments had a key role to play in each of the county and municipal emergency operation centers that were operating.
The command staffs of these departments were extremely busy during this period.
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