REPORT OF
THE FIRE SAFETY REVIEW TEAM
MARCH 1967
A PLAN TO FURTHER REDUCE
THE CHANCES OF MEN BEING BURNED WHILE FIGHTING FIRES
PRE-ATTACK PLANNING AND CONSTRUCTION
The Loop Fire Analysis Group recommended that we “reexamine the full
array of presuppression activities in flash fuel areas and establish the
benefits plus or minus of accelerating the fuelbreak system in relation
to safety and its place in the balance of all presuppression activities.”
In many of the critical fire areas funds have been made available for
preattack projects. Good progress has been made especially in the flashy
fuel types. Standards have been developed and guidelines have been published
in a Pre-Attack Handbook.
Pre-Attack is a planned systematic procedure for the gathering, evaluating
and recording of intelligence, as well as the construction of certain
fire control facilities, to insure the rapid and efficient suppression
of fire on any given area.
To the present time, the most intensive pre-attack planning has been
done in Southern California forests where fire control is the primary
job. Timber, recreation, grazing, and other resources have functional
management plans. Pre-attack planning should be integrated with these
resource management plans. When the resource management plan is activated
the end result should enhance the pre-attack plan.
Grazing revegetation projects, wildlife habitat browseways, timber sale
block, etc., all can be coordinated with fire control needs.
Recommendation:
Continue and expand coordination of fire control and resource plans to
facilitate progress in pre-attack planning and construction.
WASHINGTON OFFICE COMMENTS:
Though the recommendation is not fully responsive to the problem, it
is approved. Both the following action guides and those on page 21
deal with this problem. For safety reasons, priority should be given
to areas where fast fuels are common but this program has strong potential
for more permanently reducing the threat from large wildfires on almost
all forest, brush and range lands. Since the pre-attack plan would serve
as the device for coordinating Fire Control needs with resource activities,
we should speed up preattack planning and expand its scope Service-wide.
ACTION GUIDES:
Task
|
Responsibility |
Target Date |
- Prepare and issue nationwide instructions for preattack planning
|
Director, Division of Fire Control |
6/30/67 |
- Review and as necessary strengthen multiple use coordination
instructions to join resource activities and fire control in a
common endeavor to break up dangerous bodies of fuel
|
Director, Division of Fire Control working with resource
divisions |
12/29/67 |
- On a nationwide basis, identify geographical areas where pre-attack
planning is needed most
|
Director, Division of Fire Control working with regions |
6/30/67 |
- In FY 1968 begin to expand preattack planning to new areas
|
Regional Foresters where high priority areas are located |
|
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