Are you prepared for fire season?
The Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC) provides wildland fire service leadership to the State of Montana, and protects the natural resources by preventing and suppressing wildland fires.
The DNRC Fire and Aviation Program staffs 65 engine companies and 7 helicopters to provide direct protection on 5.2 million acres. The program also provides over 350 engines and water tenders to local fire agencies, primarily in the eastern part of the state to provide protection for 45.3 million acres through the State/County Cooperative Fire Program.
Lightning is the single leading cause of wildfires on DNRC protection accounting for 52% of ignitions over the past 20 years. The next leading cause of wildfires is escaped debris burns, which account for 13% of fires over the same period. The majority of these debris fires occur outside the core fire season during the spring and fall months. Escaped campfires account for 10% of the annual fire load in DNRC protection.
In FY07, DNRC's initial attack crews contained an average of 94 percent of the direct protection fires at fewer than 10 acres in size. This resulted in a substantial cost-savings to the taxpayers and the agency.
Fire preparedness links:
Evacuation Readiness (pdf): Here are some things you can do to greatly help your home’s survivability during a wildfire threat. You can do these in stages, as illustrated below. These tasks are all simple enough that they can be done in a relatively short period of time…
DNRC's Fire Prevention: Prevention goals are to have zero lossed in life, injury, property, and resources; prevent human-caused fires; reduce suppression costs and to increase awareness…
Inciweb: InciWeb is an interagency wildland fire incident information management system. The system was developed with two primary missions: The first was to provide a standardized reporting tool for the Public Affairs community during the course of wildland fire incidents. The second was to provide the public a single source of information related to active wildland fire information…
Helena Interagency Dispatch Center: Te Helena Interagency Dispatch Center is located at the Helena Regional Airport in Helena, Montana. The Helena Interagency Dispatch Center provides incident support to the following interagency partners…
Keep Montana Green: Each year Keep Montana Green (KMG) provides information concerning fire prevention across Montana (and often across the United States). KMG promotes an aggressive educational campaign targeting both adults and children about fire prevention…
Northern Rockies Coordinating Group: The Northern Rockies Coordination Group (NRCG) is established to provide an interagency approach to wildland fire management and all-risk support on all land ownerships within the States of Montana, North Dakota, northern Idaho, and a small portion of South Dakota and Wyoming. NRCG is made up of representatives from the Montana Firewarden's Association, Montana Disaster and Emergency Services Division, Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, Idaho Department of Lands, North Dakota Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Fish and Wildlife Service, Forest Service, Montana Fire Chief's Association, and Montana Sheriff's and Peace Officer's Association. The purpose of NRCG is to further interagency cooperation, communications, coordination, and to provide interagency fire management direction and all-risk support for the Northern Rockies Geographic Area.
NRCG Closures & Restrictions: Check here when fire restrictions and closures are in effect.
FireWise Communities: The national Firewise Communities program is a multi-agency effort designed to reach beyond the fire service by involving homeowners, community leaders, planners, developers, and others in the effort to protect people, property, and natural resources from the risk of wildland fire - before a fire starts.
National Fire Plan: Though wildland fires play an integral role in many forest and rangeland ecosystems, decades of efforts directed at extinguishing every fire that burned on public lands have disrupted the natural fire regimes that once existed. Moreover, as more and more communities develop and grow in areas that are adjacent to fire-prone lands in what is known as the wildland/urban interface , wildland fires pose increasing threats to people and their property.
