In recent years, there has been a major increase in the number and complexity of all-hazard incidents resulting in unprecedented demands on agency employees, Incident Management Teams, and our partners in emergency response. Our contributions have been recognized as critical in responding to all types of emergencies and disasters, and wildland fire personnel have proven their resilience and expertise during trying circumstances.

All-hazard response presents some of the most difficult and complex management challenges. Potential incidents include hurricanes, floods, animal disease outbreaks, terrorist attacks, and search and rescue operations. Examples of assigned tasks for our personnel may include management of logistical distribution centers, staging areas, base camps for emergency responders, clearing roadways, law enforcement, and security duties and support for wildfire or structural fire suppression.

Policy and procedures are being developed at the national level to guide decision making and our overall role and responsibility as a partner in support of the National Response Plan.

Risk management evaluation principles should be constantly applied during an all-hazard incident response. In many cases, wildland fire personnel may be assigned a mission which could involve exposures that are unknown or unrecognized prior to arrival on site. These hazards are typically not found during a wildland fire response and must be evaluated and mitigated in order to protect personnel.

Hazards that could be encountered may include sewage, chemicals, biological wastes, downed power lines, poor or no communications, poisonous plants, animals and insects, mold, fungus, human and animal remains, exposure to infectious diseases, lack of traffic control, additional storms, and exposure to disaster victims often in desperate situations. This is, by no means, a complete list of potential hazards.

We have already learned a lot that we need to remember and distribute. Many effective practices have been captured. This All-Hazard Assignment Toolkit for WFSTAR includes a collection of some of them.

All-Hazard Assignment Toolkit

The US Forest Service, Southern Region (Region 8) has developed a web based "All-Hazard Response Guide." The Safety section of this guide provides excellent information for personnel who may be assigned to an all-hazard incident. Topics include After the Flood, Carbon Monoxide, Infectious Diseases, and much more. http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/allhazardresponse/ The Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center Newsletter Scratchline, Issue 14, focuses on lessons learned from the 2005 hurricane response. http://www.wildfirelessons.net/documents/Scratchline_14_1205.pdf Managing the Unexpected on Hurricane Assignments contains sections of information about: setting expectations, discipline, perspective, and identity. Incident Management Team Activities on Hurricanes contains sections of information for teams, and people assigned to teams, about: people management, staging and ordering, IMT organization, unified command, plans and logistics, information, fatigue, FEMA, and ICS. Violent Personal Encounters Safety Message (pdf) Fork lifts can be very useful, especially when managing receiving and distribution stations. Fork lifts can also be very dangerous. This Job Hazard Analysis (JHA) identifies some of the common hazards and mitigation measures for fork lift operations. 2006 Annual Fireline Safety Refresher Video contains a module (Module 5) on all-hazard incident assignments. Click here for information on ordering.