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Fire Occurrence, NFDRS

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Fire occurrence data are required to conduct NFDRS2016 fire business analyses using FireFamilyPlus.

Fire occurrence is compared against calculated same-day fire danger values to find statistical relationships between fire activity and fire danger. This allows NFDRS2016 fire danger metrics to be used to help predict fire activity and related fire management business.

Fire occurrence data for federal agencies, and most states within the U.S., are available from multiple resources in a variety of file formats. There is no authoritative standard. There are also known data quality issues, which vary across the available corporate datasets. It can take an extensive amount of work to develop a fire occurrence dataset suitable for analysis.

For these reasons, it’s recommended that the Fire Program Analysis – Fire Occurrence Dataset (FPA FOD) be use for most historical fire business analyses. The FPA FOD is a national scale, quality controlled, consolidated dataset that draws from most of the available reporting systems. It is managed by Karen Short of the Rocky Mountain Research Station (RMRS), and is updated annually with an average of two years lag time. The current dataset contains data from 1996 through 2015, and has all the fields needed for a FireFamilyPlus fire business analysis.

The general process for using the FPA FOD in a FireFamilyPlus analysis is as follows:

  1. Obtain a FPA FOD dataset for 1992 thru 2015 for the entire United States.
  2. Use a spatial analysis tool or system (ArcGIS, AGOL, etc.) to import the QA/QC’d consolidated dataset and clip the data to the planning area or Fire Danger Rating Areas (FDRAs).
  3. In FireFamilyPlus, create custom agencies, units and sub-units as necessary to represent the planning area and/or any FDRAs.
  4. Organize the data by column identified by FireFamilyPlus in the data import function using Excel Spreadsheet, save as a .csv file.
  5. Import the final fire occurrence dataset into FireFamilyPlus, and associate the fires with one or more stations or SIGs.
Tech Tips for each of these steps AND for integrating more recent fire occurrence into an analysis will be posted here as they are updated, so please check back often for updates.

NWCG Latest Announcements

ETC Bulletin 25-001: Retrofitted Hot/Cold Beverage Kits - 2025 Field Season

Date: April 16, 2025
Questions?  Please contact:
Equipment Technology Committee

Due to spout failures and the associated risk of burn injuries, manufacturers have retrofitted the Hot/Cold Beverage Kits using a heat-shrinking band to secure the black spout at the insertion site. The updated kits feature a fluorescent label on each full kit assembly for easy identification. Catering units are encouraged to confirm the clear heat-shrinking bands are intact around each spout before filling.

ETC Bulletin 24-001 regarding Hot/Cold Beverage Kits has been archived and replaced by ETC Bulletin 25-001 for the 2025 season.

References:

NWCG Alerts

ETC-EB-25-001 Retrofitted Hot/Cold Beverage Kits

NWCG Standards for Wildland Fire Chainsaw Operations, PMS 212, and Next Generation Position Task Book for Basic Faller Are Now Available

Date: April 14, 2025
Questions?  Please contact:
Hazard Tree and Tree Felling Subcommittee

The updated NWCG Standards for Wildland Fire Chainsaw Operations, PMS 212, and NWCG Position Task Book for Basic Faller (FAL3), PMS 311-19 are now available.

The NWCG Standards for Wildland Fire Chainsaw Operations, PMS 212 includes position standards designed to be used in conjunction with the Next Generation Position Task Book (Next Gen PTB). The Next Gen PTB for Basic Faller (FAL3) includes an evaluation guide with suggested rating elements to consider when assessing trainees.

References:

NWCG Standards For Wildland Fire Chainsaw Operations, PMS 212

NWCG Position Task Book for Basic Faller (FAL3), PMS 311-119

NWCG Basic Faller (FAL3)

RMC Memo 25-01: Summary of Updates to Safety Officer Positions

Date: April 9, 2025
Questions?  Please contact:
RMC Member Eric Fransted

The Risk Management Committee (RMC) serves as the position steward for all Safety Officer incident positions and continues to improve position standards, training, and naming conventions. The implementation of Complex Incident Management (CIM) required changes to position titles. RMC collaborated with the NWCG Incident Position Standards Committee (IPSC) to propose and implement these updates. 

References:

RMC Memo 25-01: Summary of Updates to Safety Officer Positions 

NWCG Position Catalog

Updated, NWCG Guide to Wildland Fire Origin and Cause Determination, PMS 412

Date: April 8, 2025
Questions?  Please contact:
Wildland Fire Investigation Subcommittee

PMS 412 provides guidance for wildland fire investigations. This guide outlines recommended procedures, practices, techniques, and methods to promote a systematic approach. The last update to this publication was in 2016.

References:

NWCG Guide to Wildland Fire Origin and Cause Determination PMS 412