 Every year, catastrophic fires burn millions of wildland acres in the United States. Along with the land and natural resources, private properties too are at risk. Fires in the wildland-urban interface are unique. They challenge both structural and wildland firefighters who are trained and equipped differently. Wildland firefighting agencies are now faced with an increased number of homes built in the path of wildfires. And their municipal counterparts are grappling with multiple ignitions from fast-burning vegetative fires. Everyone though agrees that no single agency is adequately prepared to handle both types of firefighting. We can't each handle both kinds of fires effectively because we've got wildland agencies that specialize in wildland fires and of course the rural agencies specialize in structural firefighting. No one can afford the range of equipment it takes to be able to protect structures during wildland fire as well as be able to control the wildland fire. By being able to bring everybody together, then essentially it's like pieces of a puzzle. Those pieces come together and then you have the whole picture and that is fire protection in the wildland. Wildfires do not respect political boundaries of community, land management or fire district. Agencies responding to fires in wildland urban interface areas must develop combined, coordinated and effective efforts. As firefighting resources become increasingly scarce, it is more important than ever to strengthen cooperative relationships. We feel that ultimately the taxpayer is paid for all of this equipment and the taxpayer out there, when they need help they dial one number 9-1-1, they don't care what color the fire truck is, they don't care what color the uniform is of the firefighter, they need help and they want help. And we feel that these political boundaries that are placed upon us by government, we try to just dissolve those in our working relationship and we cross over those readily whether it's a red truck or a green truck, it doesn't matter. And we continuously cross over them, we go out, we deal with the issue, we get it attacked, we knock it down, we find out who's ownership is and then that protection agency takes over. So it's been really nice because we don't have to worry, is it yours, is it mine, do I cross the line, do I not cross the line? There is no line there. According to the National Wildfire Coordinating Group, fire protection means the actions taken to limit the adverse environmental, societal, political and economic effects of fire. Fire protection means much more than just firefighting. Those things that are included in fire protection include prevention and pre-suppression and in those areas we're dealing with training, dispatching, equipment needs, location of equipment, those kind of things and those are all things that need to be taken care of well in advance through a cooperative process before the incident begins. Firefighting agencies at all levels have a history of cooperation. Most often cooperation has occurred on a voluntary basis to help overcome a lack of fire suppression resources. In the future, wildfires will continue to threaten more structures and affect political and financial resources on a broader scale. Today, cooperation and planning and the resulting formal agreements are more important than ever. The bottom line for us is it's money. I think that it's unrealistic to consider that one agency would be able to equip and hire enough staffing to deal with the wildland-urban interface issues. Each agency, whether it's a federal agency like the U.S. Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management, state agency like ourselves, the Department of Forestry, where the city and rural fire districts have specific districts and specific responsibilities that they are charged with. In many cases, in Oregon and throughout the nation, these district boundaries and the responsibilities overlap. So it gives us an opportunity which makes interagency cooperation absolutely essential. Cooperation can benefit all fire protection agencies, but working toward agreement requires careful planning. It's important to realize that cooperation takes place between people, not organizations. So the first step is to identify potential cooperators or partners. Establish a dialogue among the agencies and organizations that can help you increase the level of fire protection. Concentrate on those agencies you know that may be asking the same questions, seeking similar solutions. First of all, become very, very familiar with your neighboring departments and your neighboring agencies. Start working at a very low level, you know, at just getting to know one another, invite one another over for coffee. Start having meetings together and start forming your area organization where you can meet as department heads and talk about what are some common issues. Probably one of the best spin-off benefits of this has been that we work together on a routine basis, and so even on the small incidents that really turn out to be nothing more than a very small fire, we exercise the system, we get the bugs out of the system, and we develop trust level amongst one another. Fire protection should be a shared responsibility among those who live and work in these areas. The responsibility for fire suppression centers on fire agencies, but the overall responsibility for fire protection resides in a network of private and public organizations, businesses, and of course the residents themselves. The fire service has to get the landowner to accept some responsibility and help us with the job of protecting their homes when the wildland fires burn, and that is to create that defensible space. The firefighters can work in to actually be able to save their homes from destruction. Just a few weeks before the fire, my husband was out working and cutting down the sagebrush that was close to the house in the back and on the side, and I think because of that it wasn't able to come right to the house. Identifying many potential partners and seeking their ideas and suggestions will increase their level of cooperation by at least agreeing to agree. We're beginning a pilot project in the south portion of the county to bring everybody to the table, homeowners associations, planners, folks involved in road departments as well as emergency management folks to be able to deal with the problems that the interface creates and to be able to jointly develop solutions that will provide a more safe environment for people who do choose to live out in rural areas. There are a lot of peripheral organizations like the Red Cross, like the Ham radio operators and other groups who play a critical role in large evacuations, especially in more remote areas. That's a part of the puzzle. Once initial contracts have been made and the identified fire and emergency managers agree to participate, the next step is to define the fire management situation. This usually means gathering information, researching and analyzing the current fire management situation and fire resources in the targeted areas. Writing a description of existing fire protection districts, completing an inventory of all equipment and personnel, and mapping agency jurisdictions helps assess the range of assistance that can be available to you when you most need it. From here, the partners can begin to define the fire management situation in more detailed terms of hazards, current and potential risks and values to be protected. Fire protection mapping, for example, identifies the values at greatest risk and the location of available interagency resources needed to protect those values in the event of wildfire. The county planning function would use criteria that we developed, and in this case it's an office called the Office of the County Planner, and would classify wildfire hazards by high, medium and low and then actually delineate those areas on a map. The particular subdivision that burnt here would be in a high hazard area. Once that's done then, they develop requirements, usually in the form of ordinances, that all building within that high hazard area must follow. Once the fire management situation is described in these terms, partners can identify specific areas of improvement that can be gained through cooperation. We do have cooperative agreements with fire prevention type activities outside of major fires like this, and the Central Oregon area here is known very well for providing cooperative, they have a fire prevention group here, they have an arson task force that is multi-agency where they work together to decide how they're going to do arson investigations. They put on prevention programs for local school districts, prevention programs for the public. They join together to combine their resources both financially and manpower wise to do those kind of activities. We're using the co-op also as a post-fire resource here for education of people and dealing with structured loss and how to re-vegetate burned areas, things like this. So the fire prevention co-op is probably the most visible and most used resource as a part of this cooperative agreement because they are doing this year round. And they deal with the wildland issues and the structural issues. They put their resources together during fire prevention week. And so we have Forest Service and State Forestry people working right along with the municipal firefighters delivering the messages during fire prevention week. And at the same time, the Smokey the Bear team teaching in the spring, the municipal fire services are helping out the wildland agencies. And it's just a wonderful arrangement. The third step is for each partner to define their fire management roles and responsibilities. Missions and practices vary between fire protection agencies and organizations. It is important to distinguish between them in this process. I would hope the ultimate benefit from these co-op agreements will be that the authorities lie, the actions lie where the authority lies. And that we finally come to grips with who needs to be involved in a specific area. Who has responsibility for the wildland urban areas? Is it partly feds? Is it partly state? Is it partly local? Is it partly non-governmental? The players that are coming to the table now are the police services and the emergency management folks. Because they play a vital role too in evacuation of folks, in traffic control, in just all the things that police services can provide. And they're coming to the table now. We need to do more in that business. I think we've got our act together and we're doing a good job. Step three will begin to highlight strengths and weaknesses of current programs and focus on areas where cooperative efforts can be beneficial. Using the information gathered in step two on the current fire management situation and elaboration of roles and responsibilities from step three, the process in step four is to set goals and objectives for cooperative opportunities. Likely they will be designed to solve the most pressing problems first, the ones that cannot be ignored. Among the types of cooperative opportunities to consider are training, prevention, dispatch, weather services and equipment, and suppression resources such as equipment, stations and personnel. Examine alternative methods for reaching each objective and goal, rather than immediately selecting only one solution. Here, input from all partners is essential. Don't risk alienating those you've worked so hard to include by not seriously considering their suggestions or offers for help. I think that there are very skilled, very knowledgeable people that are managing smaller departments and they're very talented people within those smaller departments. So to neglect or recognize that there again, you're not providing the best service that you can for your community. Fire agencies may establish joint operating procedures or they may establish contractual arrangements. Often both are needed for cooperative opportunities. There are four basic types of protection assistance methods that can be employed between fire agencies. These are reciprocal, offset, reimbursable and fee basis or contracted protection assistance. You can either decide to use one or you can decide to use all four. It's really an enablement. Reciprocal protection establishes the exchange of fire protection services on a non-reimbursable basis when one of the organizations is in a position to furnish resources to another. This exchange is roughly an equal exchange of resources and usually limited to a 24-hour time period. Reciprocal is probably the most often used type of fire protection assistance. The second type of protection assistance is the offset agreement. Offset protection is arranged by an equal exchange of services typically determined by workload and not acres. There's generally no exchange of funds in offset protection assistance. Offset done locally works fine but offset on a statewide basis or on a really large, broad area doesn't work so well because you kind of lose the advantage of what's fair on a local basis. The third type of protection assistance provides personnel and equipment paid for at an agreed rate by the requesting agency. It's called reimbursable protection assistance. Reimbursable is generally just providing resources. We agree to pay this much for this engine or for that crew and it's just resources. The final type of protection assistance provides protection on a fee basis. That is the fire protection for one agency is assumed by another and payment is provided for the contracted services. A contract's a little different authority and a contract is just establishing a service that you want to have satisfied for a specific fee. Often, cooperating agencies agree to more than one form of protection assistance. Assistance can also be employed back to back such as reciprocal assistance followed by reimbursable assistance. Well, our agreement is primarily a reciprocal agreement. At least for an initial attack, for a 24-hour initial attack under an extended fire attack, then after the initial 24 hours then we have the option with a preset schedule and preset rates of an opportunity to contract with the state or federal agency for our apparatus and our personnel. Depending on the particular needs of a community or agency, the various protection assistance methods offer a variety of approaches to securing needed resources and providing coordinated responses. Besides direct protection and suppression, there are many other ways that fire agencies and organizations can cooperate. Regardless of type, developing cooperative fire agreements requires a systematic approach to planning. Coordinated efforts will result in improved fire protection capability and reduced losses. In the eastern United States, compact agreements are the principal type of cooperative fire agreement. Assistance under compact agreements generally must be requested. It's essentially state to state, but we are also cooperators with the federal government if needed. And vice versa, we can call on the federal government to assist when our state programs are being overloaded. The planning is really done on a state-by-state basis in our case, because our cooperative agreement of course is between the states in our northeast compact. Each state will plan for specific incidents, and each state has their fire plan. And the fire plan of the seven states in our case and the provinces of Canada that make up our compact become the plan for the compact. So yeah, there is pre-planning done, but it's done more on a local level state-by-state basis rather than the compact pre-planning everything. We take action only if action is necessary. In other words, when the fire happens, then we take some action. But prior to that time, we do a lot of work together in training, getting ready for a potential action. The next step is to document and implement the agreed-upon plan in a formal agreement that each cooperator signs. Most agencies have specific guidelines and processes for signing and developing cooperative relationships, sometimes including a formal legal review. Staff specialists can assist in writing and reviewing the documents. It's important to ensure that each cooperator understands the role and responsibility before them. Individual agency missions and capabilities must be honored and incorporated in the documentation. Whether your agency and the other partners have planned for reciprocal, offset, reimbursable, or a fee-based protection service, each should be fully prepared to follow through with agreed-upon methods. Protection agreements should require the development of annual operating plans. These are important because they provide procedural details to implement the agreement in time of need. Operating plans should be put together annually. And to me it's just when people sit down in the spring or right before fire season and talk about what's changed. Do you still have the same engines you had last year? Do you still have the same crew configurations? Are your communication channels the same? It's the specifics. When large fires spread across more than one jurisdiction, joint fire cost responsibilities are outlined in supplemental cost-share agreements. Also known as fire line agreements, they are often drawn up as the fire burns and may be updated daily as the situation changes. Whenever we start getting into multiple jurisdictional fires, we develop a unified command so that everybody is developing the same set of plans to work with and we're working toward the same objective. We're not duplicating effort on any one area, but instead assisting and making the best use of the resources we have available to us. And when we figure that out, then we'll write a supplemental agreement to ensure that the costs are borne by the various agencies involved. Cooperative fire agreements and operating plans must be reviewed annually. The purpose of the review is to evaluate the currency of the documents and the level of commitment in terms of resources and procedures that we're agreed upon. Annual reviews and subsequent revision help to ensure that the plan will meet your needs in the next fire season. Every operating plan will need some adjustment, particularly in the early stages. Often, joint training sessions and exercises help to test the plan before fire season. In this way, procedural problems can be worked out prior to an emergency. After the fire season and the fall or through the winter sometime, we'll review the agreement. And it's usually a real quicker review because we talk about things that went well during the year. We talked about things that maybe didn't go so well and maybe some ways that we could improve the agreement. When fire season arrives, your efforts will be realized. The meetings, the discussions, the training all will result in more effective and efficient operations working together rather than separately. Following each incident in which the plan was activated, hold debriefings with the other partners to make adjustments before the next incident. We're going to talk about things like logistical support, radios. We have frequencies that we share among each other. We had one of our relay systems that went down and had to get it fixed. But they're just all minor issues because we had this all planned out and set up ahead of time. Like other firefighting tools at your disposal, working cooperatively with others can also provide necessary tools to reduce the impact of wildfire by improving the effectiveness and efficiency of interagency fire protection. The need to come together is even greater than it ever has been. And where we've had successes in the past, now we need to even elevate our level of cooperation to the next higher level.